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Kendall Murphy's picture

Kendall Murphy

Account Supervisor
When Kendall isn't hard at work for her social impact clients, she turns to campaign blogs to get her daily political fill. As a former communications staffer at the Democratic National Committee and on several congressional campaigns, Kendall has quite an interest in the political process. She uses her political experience to develop and execute integrated public affairs campaigns for clients such as the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Best Buy's @15 program, a teen-led social change platform. Kendall is fortunate to be doing what she loves at Weber Shandwick, contributing to a variety of programs that are truly making a difference in the lives of others. A Midwesterner at heart, Kendall grew up outside of Chicago, playing tennis every chance she had. Kendall was a two-time state champion, a nationally ranked junior tennis player and played for Columbia University, where she graduated with a degree in political science.

History

Member for
46 weeks 3 days
Jul 15

Relationships that Matter to America’s Teens

Kendall Murphy

Only 19 percent of 15-year-olds in the United States say they have positive, sustained and meaningful relationships with adults, according to a new study released by our client, Best Buy, and the Minneapolis-based Search Institute.

The findings of the Teen Voice 2010 report indicate there is significant room for improvement when it comes to building relationships that put teens on a path to success.

It’s our job as caring adults to develop positive relationships with teens. But teens often feel that they’re not being listened to or taken seriously. The part of the study I found most resonant was the advice teens had for adults when trying to build relationships:

 
10 Tips from Teens to Adults:

1.    Look at us. Make eye contact.
2.    Spend time talking with us. Ask open-ended questions. Build the conversation
3.    Listen. Pay attention. Don’t multi-task or get distracted when you’re with us. Respond to our messages and texts.
4.    Be dependable. Do what you say you’re going to do.
5.    Show appreciation for what we do. Give compliments. Show that you’re glad to see us or hear from us. Send us personalized cards.
6.    Relax. Don’t feel like you have to be on guard.
7.    Show that you’re interested. Attend our concerts, games and other events. Ask us to show you what we can do.
8.    Laugh with us (and at yourself). Laugh at our jokes. Show us your humor.
9.    Ask us to help you. Ask us for our ideas. Share your own, too.
10. Challenge us. Teach us what you know. Push us to do our best.

 

These are such simple points of advice, but somehow adults have difficulty following them. We get so wrapped up in our own worlds, sometimes we forget to be present in theirs.

To further hit this point home, we helped Best Buy develop a video to summarize the Teen Voice 2010 report and serve as a call to action for adults to build meaningful and sustained relationships with teens. Take a look:

 

 Also, we’ve posted a presentation with key findings on SlideShare:

Teen Voice 2010 Report - Best Buy @15 and Search Institute

View more presentations from Best Buy @15.

 

 

 

Nov 19

Making sense of the blurred line between offline and online

Kendall Murphy

We’ve all seen groups of teens walking down the street listening to music, text messaging or talking on their cell phones. Or maybe doing all three at once.
 
What truly amazes me is that teens continue to carry on live conversations as they are interacting with other media. When it comes to social interaction, the line between actual lives and digital lives has become increasingly blurred.

Earlier this week, Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, introduced a new report, “Teens in the Digital Age,” at the 2009 NCTI Technology Innovators Conference. The report found that teen use of digital media is highly interactive.

•    97 percent of teens play video or computer games.
•    93 percent of teens use the Internet.
•    75 percent of teens have cell phones.
•    75 percent of teens view videos on video-sharing sites.
•    73 percent of teens use social networks.
•    68 percent of teens use instant messaging.

As you can see, the report finds that teenagers use the Internet and mobile devices in a social capacity — they go online to express themselves and share their thoughts and opinions.

These findings validate what we have seen with a client project we helped develop for Best Buy called @15, a platform to connect with teens by listening to what they have to say, give voice to their perspectives, and support their efforts to lead social change. In order to reach young people, you must meet them where they are – online.

Download the Social Impact Brochure