Researchers from Pew also point out that millennials outnumber Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Z, making them the largest generation in America right now. More than 80%<\/a> of millennials are active on social media, which adds to a staggering number of potential customers.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not just sheer numbers that make millennials such a valuable market; they have outstanding purchasing power and tend to be impressively savvy shoppers. <\/p>\n In other words, if your target customers include millennials, you should be using social media to market now \u2013 so let\u2019s get to it.<\/p>\n Whether or not social media marketing is effective isn\u2019t the question. Instead, the question is what are the best social media marketing strategies for reaching and influencing millennials?<\/p>\n There are many ways to leverage social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook for marketing, and it\u2019s likely that your options will only continue to expand as the medium evolves. For now, here are seven solid strategies to market to millennials on social media.<\/p>\n Somehow, millennials ended up with a reputation as a generation obsessed with online \u201clikes,\u201d new technology, and selfie-centric culture.<\/p>\n This stereotypical image misses the mark in so many different ways, but its biggest failure is just how much it oversimplifies an incredibly interesting, involved, and passionate generation of Americans.<\/p>\n Because many millennials have literally grown up in the age of modern tech, marketers have been able to glean an outstanding amount of information about what this generation values most. And when it comes to the conversations that millennials are having online, there are a handful of core values that come up time and time again:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These values also play an important role in how millennials shop: about half of millennials<\/a> say they would rather purchase from a brand that puts their dollars towards a cause.<\/p>\n For brands, this translates to a need to demonstrate authentic \u2013 not just performative \u2013 support for the causes and movements that millennials consider important to our world. The brands that are able to do this in a truly genuine and effective manner are better-positioned to connect with millennials, both on social media and in general.<\/p>\n Above all, this tactic can\u2019t be something you attempt solely for appearances’ sake. Millennials aren\u2019t a group that can be easily duped, and half-heartedly supporting a cause can easily harm your brand\u2019s reputation and business.<\/p>\n Instead, find a cause that you believe aligns with your brand values, then take actionable steps to do your part. Share your efforts on social media, providing users with the opportunity to join you in showing their support by making a purchase, sharing a post, or completing another action.<\/p>\n One of the biggest benefits of social media marketing is the volume of useful insights and analytics you can use to optimize your campaigns. In fact, this data isn\u2019t just an advantage; it\u2019s a necessity for brands that want to stay one step ahead of their competition.<\/p>\n Your social media insights give you a clear view of your target millennial audience and exactly the defining characteristics of your niche users. However, there is one caveat to using data for marketing on social media \u2013 there\u2019s a lot of data, and it can get complicated pretty quickly. This makes manual analysis incredibly time-consuming, if not impossible.<\/p>\n But with a well-engineered social media monitoring tool (or better yet, a social media marketing expert on your side), you can boil the data down to the details that are directly connected to your goals.<\/p>\n Then, you\u2019ll be better equipped to flesh out your audience\u2019s interests, opinions, online shopping experiences, behaviors, and more. With these insights, you can zoom in on the niche segment of millennials that wants and needs what your brand can offer\u2026 and even better, you can get to know them very well and develop a targeted marketing plan accordingly.<\/p>\n There\u2019s not necessarily a single \u201cbest\u201d targeting option for millennial marketing, but there are a few that tend to be used regularly by a broad range of brands:<\/p>\n Whereas previous generations placed value on the in-person interactions at a brick-and-mortar business, millennials expect quality service in an online setting.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not enough to set up a social media page and then forget about it because you could be missing countless opportunities to serve both potential and existing customers.<\/p>\n From comments and shares to questions and complaints, millennials interact with brands and businesses in a myriad of ways on social media. But if you fail to acknowledge and\/or respond in a timely manner, they lose interest \u2013 and your brand\u2019s reputation is marked.<\/p>\n Millennials are far less likely to contact customer service with questions or concerns and instead head to social media. According to a recent Microsoft study<\/a>, nearly half of millennials utilize social media for lodging complaints about the services provided by a brand.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a huge chunk of your target market going online to get in touch with your business. And to further complicate things, they could be signing on to any one of several different social media sites: Facebook, Yelp, Instagram, Twitter, and others.<\/p>\n This is why it\u2019s important to be proactive and maintain a consistent presence on various sites, specifically those your audience frequents most.<\/p>\n Regardless of how you choose to manage your social media interactions, staying on-brand, professional, and positive is vital. Of course, professional doesn\u2019t have to mean bland and boring.<\/p>\n Many famous brands have crafted a unique personality on their social media sites while still maintaining a high level of service quality. Oftentimes, it can be productive to set up brand guidelines for your social media activities so that you know exactly what type of presence you want to work towards \u2013 and what it will look like when you succeed.<\/p>\n Balancing your ad spend and ROI on social media can be tricky, especially with many platforms raising paid advertising costs.<\/p>\n But what if we told you that there were ways to build your online credibility, expand brand awareness, and earn higher impressions while cutting your spending?<\/p>\n With user-generated content (UGC), savvy brands can absolutely turn this pipe dream into a marketing reality. So, what is user-generated content? It can take on a variety of forms, including:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This content typically comes at no cost to you but can go extremely far in terms of social proof. Depending on the form of content, you can credit the original user using an active tag or another method. In many cases, posting user-generated content can inspire other people to create their own content about your brand because they also want to be featured on your page(s).<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say a user finds your brand while browsing Facebook and decides they want to buy something on your e-commerce site \u2013 how many hoops do they have to jump through to complete their purchase?<\/p>\n In many cases, the process requires several clicks and a series of processes. And as a result, bounce rate and cart abandonment numbers end up being higher than you\u2019d like. Each social platform has taken its own approach to social commerce, and it may require a certain amount of time and effort to get your brand set up and ready for shoppers. However, there\u2019s no doubt that social commerce is slated to change the way we buy online\u2026 and we\u2019re betting you don\u2019t want to miss out.<\/p>\n Online influencers have the kind of reach that many brands can only dream about, with the ability to communicate a message to hundreds of thousands of people at a time. Even \u201cmicro-influencers\u201d (those with significantly smaller followings) can be an ideal conduit between your brand and a diverse audience.<\/p>\n Not all influencer-brand partnerships are created equally, and selecting one that fits your brand and campaign goals is key. For example, if your business sells organic baby food, working with a fashion influencer with no children isn\u2019t a good match. You won\u2019t just be disappointed by the non-existent results of a campaign with the wrong influencer; you could even see your brand\u2019s reputation negatively impacted in the long run.<\/p>\n As we\u2019ve mentioned before, millennials are a highly intelligent group. They can see inauthenticity coming from a mile away and have no problem ending their relationship with a brand they perceive as dishonest. You\u2019ll need to do your research to ensure that the influencer you\u2019re considering partnering with has an online image you\u2019re ready to align your brand with.<\/p>\n You\u2019d be hard-pressed to find anyone that doesn\u2019t enjoy discovering a hilarious new meme, goofy TikTok video, or a clever tweet gone viral. Humor is one of the great uniting forces in the online world, and it can also be a hugely valuable tool for marketers.<\/p>\n When used effectively, humorous content can bring lightness to your marketing message and a relatable element to your brand\u2019s online personality.<\/p>\n With a marketing strategy that incorporates humor, your brand can capitalize on trending topics, react to current events, and drive positive engagement \u2013 all while setting your business apart from competitors.<\/p>\n Few brands can\u2019t benefit from an effective strategy for social media marketing, whether or not millennials are a part of their target audience. And yet, for many businesses, getting active on social media can be intimidating.<\/p>\n After all, no brand wants to be the next one going viral for a social media misstep. But with the right strategies and an experienced team behind you, you can leverage Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms to achieve a marketing win.<\/p>\n V Digital Services is your source for all things digital marketing, as well as your go-to experts for developing, implementing, and optimizing a well-rounded strategy for online advertising. We\u2019ll help you map out the best way to connect with your social media following and how to dovetail those efforts with other marketing campaigns for the greatest possible payoff.<\/p>\n Contact the social media strategists at V Digital Services now<\/a><\/strong> if you\u2019re ready to reach, influence, and solidify a loyal brand following on social media and beyond.<\/p>\n Image Source: InnaPoka<\/a> \/ DisobeyArt<\/a> \/ Look Studio<\/a> \/ FunnyVectorForYou<\/a> \/ Vane Nunes<\/a> \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many millennials, social media is a \u201cone-stop-shop\u201d of sorts for news, entertainment, social interaction, education, and just about anything and everything else. With social media firmly established as a staple of millennial life, it\u2019s quickly become a dedicated channel for sales and marketing for all types of brands and businesses. If one of your […] KEEP READING<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vdigitalservices.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSo, if you\u2019re wondering if social media marketing is worth it when it comes to millennials, let\u2019s review:<\/p>\n\n
How to Reach Millennials with Social Media Marketing: 7 Practical Strategies<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n1. Understand what millennials care about and why it matters.<\/h3>\n
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2. Put demographic and behavioral data to good use.<\/h3>\n
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3. Take a proactive approach to your social media presence.<\/h3>\n
4. Turn user-generated content into a marketing asset.<\/h3>\n
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\nWhen you find UGC for your brand, make sure you get permission to re-share it on your platforms.<\/p>\n5. Step into the future of shopping with social commerce.<\/h3>\n
\nBut with social commerce now in full swing, you can easily put users on the fast track to purchase. They won\u2019t even have to navigate away from the platform, streamlining the user experience and helping you achieve higher conversion and engagement rates.<\/p>\n6. Consider influencer marketing.<\/h3>\n
7. Have fun with humor.<\/h3>\n
Conquer Social Media Marketing for Any Audience with V Digital Services<\/h2>\n
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