So, you’re targeting your content marketing at the generation that now outnumbers the baby boomers? Here’s what you need to know.
We live in a brave new world of screens everywhere, and those screens are 1080p to better display text. Twitter created Vine and Facebook bought Instagram because millennials love creating and sharing visual content.
Lesson: Spend as much time and money on the visual side of your content as the written side. A good post with a bad image isn’t going to get a click.
Why are millennials always checking up on social media and compulsively reading news? Fear of missing out (FOMO). Millennials don’t want to be the last one to know something.
Lesson: Want millennials to tune in? Appeal to their FOMO.
Gone are the days when companies could open a Facebook business page and call it a day. Millennials are still big users of Facebook, in fact they are among its heaviest users. But they are also using SnapChat and Instagram and Kik and Telegram. If they’re on campus, they’re using Yik Yak. Your average millennial is going to be on two or three of the dozen or so social media platforms out there.
Lesson: Social media means more than Facebook, and if you want to cast the widest possible net, you need to use multiple platforms.
Can you picture an average millennial in your head? Maybe not. Millennials have greater racial diversity than previous generations. They have wider income levels. Their families don’t follow a common stereotype, and many choose to remain single. They’re more likely to describe themselves as politically independent and are more likely to create their own networks than rely on traditional ones.
Lesson: Targeting millennials? Maybe narrow it down a bit when you write that content brief.
Millennials don’t stop looking for content when they turn away from their laptop. It’s a guarantee that the average millennial will use a smartphone on any given day, and for longer than that laptop. And it doesn’t stop there. You can probably bet that millennials will try and engage with your content via tablet, game console, or wearable.
Lesson: Make your content look good on every type of screen. If you’re not prepared to make your online presence mobile friendly, don’t be surprised if Millennials shun it.