As new generations continue to make up a greater proportion of the consumer base for brands, it\u2019s more important than ever to understand how they consume social media content in a different way than those who came before them. Let\u2019s look at how Millennials’ and Gen Z\u2019s digital consumption is changing, the implications for brands, and how some innovative brands have adapted to meet consumers on their own terms.<\/p>\n
Marketing is becoming less predictable all the time, and social isn\u2019t exempt – Ogilvy\u2019s Social Media Trends<\/u><\/a> highlights that \u201cwhat worked for social media’s previous era no longer applies today<\/em>.\u201d The piece also presents the risks of not adapting, which include being outmaneuvered by agile digital- and social-first brands. So what\u2019s driving this change? And what should brands do to adapt?<\/p>\n Millennials and Gen Zers are digital and social natives, and because they account for a combined 54% of the world\u2019s population, they deserve your attention. These two groups\u2019 (plus the fast-emerging Gen Alpha) digital consumption behaviors are evolving fast, causing a number of challenges for businesses. GWI<\/u><\/a> tells us that when visiting social platforms, these two audiences are driving a decline in the social platforms\u2019 founding appeal \u2013 namely, keeping up with friends and family \u2013 in favor of discovery, inspiration, entertainment, and following influencers or creators.<\/p>\n The same audiences are responsible for the surge in \u201csocial search,\u201d where the default search journey starts not in a search engine, but in social. According to research from Hubspot<\/u><\/a>, 34% of consumers are actively searching in social, and a staggering 53% find their questions are answered effectively when they do. Tiktok is capitalizing and placing contextual ads within search results. Social media is the No. 1 product discovery channel, and buying products via social media is up year on year.<\/p>\n What this tells us is these audiences are eager for social platforms to cater to a wider array of their day-to-day digital needs. In order to maintain appeal and fuel discovery, brands need to replicate the familiarity of social platforms in their own digital estate (think website, product pages, customer emails, etc.) as deeply as possible, replicating the experience around social media content.<\/p>\n Currently, most brand website journeys are hampered by often hard-to-navigate, inconsistent experiences, bland product images, and a ton of text. All on their terms. Conversely, what the social platforms offer is an environment that\u2019s familiar (so familiar that they\u2019re like a home away from home), easy to navigate, packed to the roof with authentic, engaging, visually appealing human content. And that\u2019s precisely why, every day, billions of users start, fill, and end their days on the platforms.<\/p>\n Another important area where brands need to adapt is their social marketing content \u2013\u00a0 they often make the mistake of publishing high volumes of branded content; often promoted, that simply misses the mark. Our research indicates that, since the beginning of 2021, median monthly ad spend in Instagram has risen by 173%, while engagement has fallen by 60%. EConsultancy\u2019s research<\/u><\/a> corroborates this by telling us that 47% of consumers are frustrated by irrelevant social media content and offers.<\/p>\n So how can brands consistently deliver meaningful, customer-centric social media content? And, equally importantly, for their own properties? The content should not only be meaningful and relevant, but it should reduce content creation costs and increase performance expressed in terms of high-value engagement, including click-through rate (CTR), conversions, average order value (AOV), repeat visits,\u00a0 and dwell time.\u00a0 The answer is simple: user-generated content (UGC).<\/p>\n Many iconic brands with high NPS scores seek that all-important engagement. For example, to capture attention and drive intent, Airbnb use beautiful customer-created content like this post<\/u><\/a> in their Instagram feed to capture attention and derive intent. Nike asks customers to tag them on Instagram, or upload their photos of themselves wearing Nike apparel (e.g.,\u00a0 Air Force 1 sneakers) to its product page<\/u><\/a>. The products are then tagged within the UGC image to allow the shopper to investigate further and purchase.<\/p>\nYoung people view social media content differently<\/h2>\n
Your social media content needs to hit the mark<\/h2>\n