Martin Chuck — June 26, 2019 — June 26, 2019
Charlie Brooker is right, people can’t get their faces off of social media.
Click, click, click, tap everywhere. Almost everyone in the world has smartphones. It’s the most accessible, most available platform to go on the internet. And it’s become another part of our body. As if something we can’t live without. Along with this smartphone trend, comes in social media.
Can you imagine the world today without social media?
Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat—all of it. Social media has become part of our lives that it’s hard to imagine the future without it. With so much going on, social media allows us to stay updated with everyone’s business. It’s where we get our news (which kind of backfired), where we talk, where we post and find jobs. Only a handful of nomads can consider not living with them
Social media has seeped into our daily lives, even with marketing. It has become it’s own platform that it’s also an emerging trend of digital marketing.
Millennials Use Social Media Marketing More Often than Baby Boomers
The truth about social media use is—it mostly used by the younger generation. And this generation is growing up. Millennials, Generation Y, the most sensitive generation to exist, whatever you call them is becoming the new age for workforce. Basically, this generation is starting to make money, are taking over occupations, and is generating income in one way or another.
Gabriel Schoolian, CEO of DesignRush.com, stated that at least 30% of millennials buy products off of Facebook. With Facebook Marketplace being another platform for ecommerce. He also said that bigger social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest) convert the most due to personalized content and high number of users. The younger generation finds products they want easily on this platform. They also find engagement with companies from Facebook. And are allowed to like, heart, get angry, or sad fact a post. And this built the trust they are looking for from brands that weren’t there before.
Schooloian compared them to baby boomers and concluded that the younger generation is more often on social media. That they are more likely to buy products or services they say with social media than the older generation. This could be possibly due to techno naivety of older people. Or that baby boomers don’t find millennial marketing at all effective. But at least an estimated 30% baby boomers still prefer social media marketing.
The survey’s key findings show that social media marketing has a direct effect on brand visibility, awareness and conversion rates. These results also reinforce the idea that the best platforms are those that are robust, ever-evolving and user-centric — such as Facebook.
Facebook, Youtube, or Instagram? Which One?
Having a lot of platforms available, it is difficult to conclude which one is best for social media marketing. Marketing experts Albinsoon and Bitner from Appalachian State University conducted a research on this. They concluded that gender doesn’t affect social media marketing effectiveness. Both males and females use social media and has bought products due to social media influence. But their efforts are admittedly limited because social media trends differ each year. They used all platforms available back then: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vine. But by 2016, Vine was shut down and is no longer a usable platform for social media.
Whether to use Facebook or Instagram for social media marketing depends on trends and their business goals. However, Facebook maintains its robust status for social media marketing due to it being one of the biggest networks. However, it is good to note that Generation Z and some Millennials don’t engage on ads Facebook due to its recent scandals (Cambridge Analytica, namely). The fact that Facebook uses personal data puts off certain customers. So, this further fortifies the idea that the trends for social media marketing determine its effectiveness.
In addition, millennial marketing highly depends on animation. The younger generation prefers videos and animation for social media marketing (No wonder TED Talk is trendy on Facebook). Millennials find it more engaging and more personal compared to traditional marketing strategies.
The research concluded by saying that social media marketing is becoming the most efficient way to conduct millennial marketing. And that it could take over traditional ads and marketing strategies in the future.
How Social Media Marketing Can Help Your Business
Millennial marketing also highly depends on engagement. The new generation of clients and customers use social media in order to know your business’ presence. 31% of people have stated that social media has influenced their purchase one way or another. The rise of prominent Instagram influencers also indicate the effectiveness of social media marketing.
Though not considered a sole market, big companies use social media marketing for added revenue.
Other reasons to consider social media marketing include:
- It personalizes your brand. Customers think that they had a personal experience when you engage with them through social media
- It gives your customers an avenue. Those comments have a purpose one way or another. Trolls aside, they can be a valuable empirical data to collect. It gives you an idea what your customers want.
- It is a platform for conversion. Aside from landing pages, home pages, print ads etc. Social media can be a platform for more subscribers and paying customers. Though influencers can convince people to buy your products, most customers buy using a different platform (either physical stores or ecommerce)
Either way, those likes, comments, and hashtags serve a purpose. They fulfill the engagement your customers are looking for. It allows them to express everything they felt about you, your business, and your product. And you can use these information to your advantage.
Testimonials vs Influencers vs Celebrities—It’s Important to Stay Human
While it is easy to conclude that influencers hold the bigger straw in social media marketing, data says that’s not always the case. Between testimonials from friends, influencers, and celebrities, the highest conversion comes from testimonials. People often follow influencers and other people that relate to them. That’s why most Youtube content are seemingly spontaneous and fun. Celebrities and influencers do convert, but testimonials remain supreme compared to the other two. So, when considering social media marketing, it’s important to stay human. That way, you can simulate the friendly approach those testimonials give to your customers.
Millennial marketing is quite different from the traditional style. I guess it’s safe to say that marketing itself is evolving. And like most marketers, you should be adaptive enough in order for your market revenue to stay. Social media trends change every now and then. So while the trend is still in formation, marketers should get in the know and take advantage of it. The millennial generation is growing up fast.
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