Whether it’s a client requirement or your preferred demographic, connecting with a millennial-dominated audience on various social media platforms can be a tough challenge. Good thing, you can create a solid social media strategy that can make it easier for you to attract the millennial audience. Take a look at these slick tips that will help your social media engagement with millennials.
Table of Contents
- Why choose millennials as your target audience?
- 1. Optimize your content for mobile platform
- 2. Offer them a deal they can’t refuse
- 3. Use high-quality videos
- 4. Maximize user-generated content
- 5. Get creative with your images
- 6. Create easy-to-digest content
- 7. Engage with them
- 8. Give them a voice
- 9. Support a cause
- 10. Avoid being annoying
Why choose millennials as your target audience?
Don’t know how to find your target audience? Here’s a quick breakdown of demographics that you need to know. There are four different generations of people currently using social media: Generation Z (ages 13 to 17), Millennials (ages 18 to 34), Generation X (ages 35 to 54), and Baby Boomers (ages 55 and up).
So why pay attention to millennials?
According to the New York Times, there are around 80 million millennials in the U.S., alone. That’s more than the combined total of Generation X’ers and Baby Boomers. These millennials have an expected disposable income of USD1.4-trillion by 2020. In addition, they tend to spend 5.4 hours a day on various social media platforms, making them a lucrative target for social media marketing strategies of businesses.
With huge profit and the following potential, it would be a shame if you can’t cash in from this generation. These tips and tricks will help you easily connect with millennials.
10. Avoid being annoying
There are plenty of ways to get the attention of a millennial. But brands need to be careful not to annoy them because they could unfollow you. According to a study by Sprout Social, millennials will most likely unfollow you after a bad experience or for being annoying.
So how can you avoid being annoying on social media? Adobe’s study found that 39 percent of U.S. consumers would be annoyed with your content if it was poorly written or too wordy. Keep your captions concise and direct to the point as much as possible without sacrificing creativity.
9. Support a cause
Millennials have a soft spot for charitable or environmental causes, so much so that almost 50 percent of the U.S. millennial population will pay for a product or buy from a company that supports a cause. Meanwhile, 37 percent say that they will purchase a service or product, even if it costs more, just to support a cause they believe in.
With this, it could be a good time for your business to check out charitable institutions that you believe in. Have a chat with them and come up with a strategy that will not only benefit your own agenda but also support the needs and increase the awareness of the institution you’ve chosen.
8. Give them a voice
One way to increase media engagement from millennials is to give them a voice. Post polls, surveys, or feedback forms. This will give them an avenue to air out things that they don’t like or want from your business or service. Entice them to participate by giving freebies or discounts for your products.
7. Engage with them
Millennials don’t like to be ignored nor do they want to interact with a bot. This generation wants to talk to a real person or a brand with a great media presence. Make sure that their comments, messages, shares get some sort of engagement from your social media page.
Engaging them through comments (or by commenting on their shares) or replying to their messages will give your brand a genuine human touch. It will let your audience/customers know that someone is listening to them. Just make sure that you reply in a casual conversational tone and avoid shoving your product up their noses.
6. Create easy-to-digest content
Millennials tend to spend their time on multiple social media platforms using multiple devices per day. Sadly, this gives them less time to read everything you give them. That’s why your content should be shorter, concise, and entertaining.
You can appeal to this social media target audience by using shorter sentences and paragraphs, bullet points, and header tags. You can also use more images to make it easier for millennials to get the gist of your content.
5. Get creative with your images
Speaking of images, it remains the most popular type of content. In fact, 77 percent of millennials prefer to post photos over other forms of posts such as videos, quotes, opinions, and updates on social media. Among the social media demographics, millennials are tied with Gen Z’s when it comes to this preference; Gen X’ers come in at 72 percent, while Baby Boomers come in last at 52 percent.
Social media managers must team up with graphic designers and photographers to produce authentic images as effective content. You can also check out which dimensions you need to use and how much text you can put on your images on Facebook’s Ad Images; so it gets the maximum traction possible.
4. Maximize user-generated content
Want millennials to trust your brand? User-generated content is one trick you can use to do just that. Enable reviews and ratings for your products and services on your social media pages. If you receive customer testimonials, post it on your social media accounts for all to see. This will help millennials develop brand loyalty and trust in your business.
3. Use high-quality videos
Did you know that 53 percent of customers engage with a brand’s social media after watching a video? The percentage of this social media audience analysis increases when it comes to millennials at 66 percent. If the numbers are to be believed, then it is imperative for digital marketers to include videos in their marketing strategy.
Sadly, hiring professional video teams can be costly. Good thing, mobile phones– especially the high-end models–can produce high-quality video. All you need is a good editing app such as Kinemaster or FilmoraGo, to get your creative juices to flow.
2. Offer them a deal they can’t refuse
As mentioned, millennials have the biggest buying power at around USD1-trillion worldwide, across the different types of generations. They also take up 50 percent of the world’s workforce. One way for businesses to get millennials to notice their brand is to hand out promos, discounts, and/or freebies, especially for first-time customers.
Discounts don’t need to be massive. They can be worth a few dollars. Or, you can give away an e-book. This is a great way to build customer loyalty.
1. Optimize your content for mobile platform
According to the Pew Research Center, 92 percent of millennials have a smartphone. Moreover, they spend at least 5.7 hours per day on their gadgets on social media, making up the bulk of their screen time. While social media platforms, per se, are optimized for mobile platforms, you could be missing out because of your content.
Optimize your content for mobile platforms. Look at the major social media platforms. They have guidelines for marketers and other creatives to follow; so that whatever content they produce will fit any mobile platform well.
It shouldn’t be hard to attract millennials as your social media audience. In case you’re struggling to get it right, may these tips help you create a solid social media strategy for them.
There are many more interesting ways to keep millennials glued to your content, but these are the top attraction marketing strategies for young generations.
