The Easiest Way to Reach Millennials on Social Media
The Easiest Way to Reach Millennials on Social Media
Millennials are the rulers of the internet. They grew up watching it evolve and learned to dominate internet culture. As a result, they are able to smell a company trying to sell them something a mile away and tend to be inherently suspicious of any social media marketing attempts. So how does one get through to the millennials, if they have a seemingly impenetrable marketing barrier?
Embrace Internet Culture.
The problem with most social media marketing is that companies are trying to fit traditional marketing strategies into social media platforms; it's like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The internet exists independently with its own culture, and trying to utilize language you would put in a commercial or a print magazine ad is white noise in the background of the colorful and ever-changing world of social media. Be open to using different language, creating and referencing popular memes, and even making posts with a purpose other than selling a product or service, in order to gain attention.
Learning what is trending on the internet and what is hot at the moment will be your greatest asset in connecting with millennials online. Strategy is great, but with a mistress as fickle as the internet, whatever strategy you create will be obsolete within weeks. Consider the internet ADHD incarnate; its attention span is short and it's always moving on to the next thing. Being open to adapting and changing approaches and strategies at the drop of a new meme will save you from slowly fading into oblivion.
But how does one do this? For starters, try looking to social media sites other than Facebook. Facebook continues to dominate the social media game, but once people born before 1970 joined, millennials bounced and made their way to Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, all of which their Great Aunt Patricia have yet to discover. Millennials thrive on having their own creative and interactive space and finding that space is just a matter of looking beyond the numbers. Facebook may have more users, but Twitter trends spread like wildfire and are guaranteed to spark in-person conversations. A prime example of this is the Wendy's twitter account, which took to "roasting" or "dragging" Twitter users to create humor and draw attention.
That said, take the opportunity to be creative with your social media presence. Establish a voice, an interaction with the audience and always be open to changing things up to keep it fresh. And while it may sound cheesy, have fun. Millennials are like bloodhounds, and if your content comes off dry and unenthusiastic, that's exactly how they are going to feel about your product or service. Passion is contagious, and millennials are nothing if not passionate.
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