Social Media Marketing for Millennials

Millennials are people classified between the age of 18 – 34 years. However, this range could be way younger. Apparently, people between the age of 26-42 years are also perceived as millennials.

A majority of millennials are now working adults and constitute a larger percent of the population. Statistics conducted in the US in 2010 and 2016 show the population of millennials to surpass that of baby boomers. Exact figures registered were a staggering 70 million persons.

As a business owner, you want to optimize your social media strategies to tap into this whale of a market. That’s easier said than done as millennials appear to have certain uncommon trends not associated with other internet generations.

Let’s have a quick glance at what trends the millennial generation tends to exhibit online. These statistics, as outlined by the IDG Research company targeted millennials in the tech industry. Interestingly, the pattern appears replicated in other businesses as well.

Fascinating Statistics About Millennials

Millennials find topics on news, travel and food interesting. 75% of them were found to enjoy news topics followed by 62% who enjoyed food information. Lastly, 59% of the group enjoyed topics on travel.

When it comes to tech preferences, websites that share videos take the lead. 50% of millennials were found to rely on this kind of websites more for information. This is in contrast to folks above 35 years as only 29% of them rely on video sharing websites.

52% of millennials rely on retailer websites compared to xennials and the generation beyond. Also, 59% of millennials were found to use social media to seek information compared to 29% folks above 35 years.

When it comes to website traffic, the research also offered some valuable statistics. Here is a recap:

• 76% of millennials enjoy website content that is easy to understand
• 59% of millennials favored websites with graphics
• 58% of millennials preferred websites with fans
• 57% of millennials preferred websites with brief content

Some key factors that influence website visited were also highlighted. You are likely to have more visitors on your website if your site has:

• Reliable content (88%)
• Content that is straightforward and unbiased (80%)
• Content that is easy to understand (76%)
• Multiple viewpoints (63%)
• Great images and graphics (59%)
• Good user reviews (58%)
• Concise content (57%)
• Information on your website is career relevant (56%)
• Content can be consumed on phone (54%)
• Respected brand (54%)

How are you supposed to play your ball game as a millennial entrepreneur?

With all these insightful statistics thrown at your face, you could be lost on where to begin. That should not be rocket science, however, if you know what you want. To start you up:

1. Focus on social customer service

Social networking sites are a sky high. This means a huge shift in the way your business should engage its potential buyers and customers.

You want to prepare your team to tap into this new way of interacting with your customers. As a business, it is important that you be where your customers are.

Your customers are looking for an instant connection with you. The moment you start to show that you trust and care about them would be the beginning of retaining your customer base. Two important things to focus on is

• Working on an internal buy-in.

This helps you to get your business management team on the same page. Working as a team gives you the added benefit of engaging with your customers more vigorously. Today, good customer service extends up to social media sites.

• Focus on maintaining your customer base instead of looking for new customers.

2. Embrace social video marketing

Video marketing is now the real diamond in the world of social media marketing. In fact, video consumption online is now peak high as compared to TV watching. According to a survey report of 2000 people by Adroit Digital, 68% of the participants were found to watch YouTube more than TV.

To get you started, consider using the popular video social networks. You don’t have to start from scratch with new content. Simply use your existing content to create videos on YouTube. Alternatively, you could use Vine or Periscope.

A quick and easy strategy to use would be to re-purpose your own blog into a 30 minute to 1-hour question and answer session. With social video marketing, you are sure to appeal more to your audience more than content marketing.  

3. Increase the use of ads and influencer marketing

The mainstream media is getting weaker by the day thanks to a generation of millennials and Gen Z.’s. These generations will sacrifice anything to get the next new Smartphone in the market.

For business owners, getting the attention of these generations is easy if you opt for social media ads. Create more inventive ads and make them show up in their social media feeds.

More to this, get a social media influencer to help sell your brand or product to your targeted audience. Given their cult following you get the benefit of having thousands of their followers know your brand or product. Influencers are not like Hollywood celebrities that millennials will find it hard connecting to.

The trick lies in getting their attention by using the products they use. Most millennials are obsessed with technology. This could be a good starting point for you. Rather than make your advert appear like a typical advertisement, make it show up as a sneak peeks to your followers.

Some social media sites such as Instagram could build your brand image. For instance, you could buy 50 Instagram followers daily to grow organically. Millennials tend to gravitate to brands and businesses with thousands of followers.

The bottom line

Social media is becoming more relevant by the day thanks to millennials. As an online entrepreneur, you want to align yourself with new trends in the social media sphere. Millennials form one of the largest group of social media users.

For your business to move into the next dimension, it’s important that you observe their trends and behaviors on social media so as to fully tap into their traffic.

You may also like to read:

• What Millennials are Doing to Alter the Workplace