Your Mom (Is On Social Media) Posted on December 10, 2015July 6, 2016 by Jessica Lunk What You Need to Know About Social Media Demographics Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers… all these generations to consider when creating your buyer personas. And what are they doing online? We can safely say, pretty much everyone is on social media. And that’s just between Facebook and Twitter. You’ve also got your Snapchats, Tumblrs, Pinterests, Reddits, Instagrams… We are a social-hungry culture. We put together some quick facts on the generations and how they are engaging with social media so you can decide which platforms you should be on to reach your ideal customer. The Millennials Love Visual Media Born in the early 1980’s to the early 2000’s Now in their mid 20’s to early 30’s Getting established into their careers Still have decent credit ratings Otherwise known as Generation Y, this generation has grown up with touch screen technology, and are very hip to the tech world that changes very quickly around them. Facebook is very important to them so the audience you will get through pages on that site are valuable to explore with your marketing. The Millennials are also very good with visual media such as Snapchat, and Instagram. They are more likely to share photos of things they like, and themselves then write long word heavy posts on all their social media interactions. Videos are very popular with this group who is happy to watch endless YouTube vlogs, and are even hip to the new web streaming video site, Periscope. Generation X Is Savvy To All Media Born in the late 1960’s to 1980’s Now in their late 30’s to almost 40 years old Getting ready to send their children off to college Money is invested in their homes and raising children This demographic is the one that comes after the Baby Boomer generation. They are pretty technology proficient, but some remember what it was like when they were young without all the distractions of social media. They aren’t as easily blown away by guerrilla marketing techniques through social media and share less of what they see on those various sites. The Baby Boomers Born between 1946 through 1964 Now in their early 50’s to almost 70 years old Some have hit retirement age with most of their children out of the house Enjoying pensions and rip 401k’s from successful careers The good ol’ children of the Post-War baby boom. Many are invested in social media as a way to keep tabs on their grown children or much adored grandchildren. This group still is targeted mostly through traditional methods of advertising through television commercial, and even some print media; however, you don’t want to count out marketing on social media to this older generation. Far From Digitally Illiterate While you may have the impression that the older generation is disconnected from digital technology, the statistics tell a different story. They certainly aren’t as connected as Millenials, but they are far from digitally illiterate. Research shows that smartphones are now owned by 64% of Americans. Demographically, 27% of Americans 65 years of age or older now own smartphones. Of those 50-64 years old, over half (54%) own smartphones. Keep in mind, these aren’t just cellphones but smartphones. It is also worth knowing that number is growing. While mom or dad may need more help learning new technology, don’t misconstrue that to mean they are disconnected. Pew Research took a look at the most popular social media platforms and who was using them. There may be some older demographics your business is missing out on: Facebook now claims 48% of all internet users who are 65 and older. For those who are between 50 and 64 years old, 64% are Facebook users. Of all internet users between ages of 50 and 64 years old, 24% are Pinterest users. For those 65 and older, 16% are on Pinterest. Remember that Pinterest is dominated by women. Linked also has solid numbers for the older generation although they are reaching retirement age. Pew found that 26% of all internet users made use of LinkedIn, while 12% of those 65 and over used the platform. While the numbers of older users drops with social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, they are not insignificant. Of internet users 50-64 years of age, 11% use Instagram and 13% use Twitter. It’s worth noting that even of those internet users who are 65 and older, 6% use Twitter and 4% use Instagram. Keep exploring these generations on social media in relation to your business and expertise. Tapping into these pockets of consumers will help you drive brand awareness, engagement, and ultimately more sales. Stand out among these groups by being in the right place with the right type of message on social media.
Marketing to Millennials Posted on September 12, 2014June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk This past weekend, a few of us from Hatchbuck attended a local music festival, Loufest, filled with great music, local beer, delectable food, perfect weather, and a swarm of millennials. Festivals are sensory overload and an experience that lives on with the attendee. I’ll never forget the colors and friendly warmth of Coachella, the torrential down pour that always occurs during Lollapalooza, or 3 days on the beach. However, when you really get down to it, how is one festival any different than the next on the business end? If anyone tells you that the music industry is dead, they aren’t paying attention to these festivals popping up all over the country. Here are a few things that I believe small business can learn from these millennial playgrounds: Great Visual Content Millennials love pretty pictures. Instagram and Tumblr are for millennials which are both the social channels designed for visual content. Check out the full Millennials and Social Media infographic from Marketing Strategies. Instagram is an excellent channel to start with because users aren’t as guarded as they are on Facebook and it’s easier to create a successful strategy. Your visual content strategy will lead to your success on this social channel. Use Instagram to showcase and tell the story of your brand. Here are a couple examples of a few brands I follow on Instagram: Coca-Cola Coca-Cola is a great example because they are clever and creative while making it looks so easy. Not much else needs to be said since Coca-Cola is one of the most loved brands worldwide. Coolfire Studios Instagram is also great for B2B! Coolfire is a design agency in the St. Louis area so naturally they’re bursting at the seams with creativity. They use Instagram to highlight their company culture beautifully. Madewell This one is used for a lifestyle branding technique. Madewell uses their buyer personas to drill down to figure out how those girls live their daily lives from what the’re eating, reading, or doing; they have it figured out. If you’re feeling really up to the challenge, I would suggest checking out Vine. This channel is, in my opinion, where the pulse of millennial trends spur from. However, they don’t typically make it to Facebook unless in a Buzzfeed article. User Generated Content (UGC) You might as well call us millennial smart-phone-hands… and instead of griping about it, capitalize on it! Loufest did a great job encouraging attendees to submit their images to their hashtag which they then pull onto their website. They also used an Instagram campaign to build excitement in the days leading up to the festival. With the rise of easy photo editing and Instagram, anyone can become a photographer with professional looking images. By setting up a UGC component to your visual content strategy, you can increase your volume and share of voice without paying an arm and a leg with a professional photographer. Running social contests is your best bet for collecting UGC. Set up a relevant hashtag for your brand that can live on past the contest. If you have a brick and mortar, post that baby all over the place and encourage your customers to use it! There are so many social tools to track social hashtags and even plug-ins for your website to pull those images directly to your page. I’m a huge advocate for UGC because it takes much of the burden of creating visual content off of your shoulders. Plus, you create a legion of advocates without much work to maintain it and it’s an easy way to boost employee engagement and morale. Go Straight to the Source… If it’s appropriate for your small business, becoming a vendor at a local festival could be an awesome opportunity. Millennials get a lot of criticism but one thing they do surprisingly well is supporting small business. Corporate sponsors are very clearly there but on the grounds of a festival, local business and restaurants have so many opportunities to connecting with the festival audience. At Loufest alone, 19 restaurants made up the “Noshpit” and 15 small business “from the St. Louis creative community and beyond” in the Market Square. Festivals aren’t a new idea; every generation has had their fair share of outdoor music festivals. Shout outs to the Boomers… there’s a great visual content strategy there by putting a modern spin to your nostalgia; you guys knew what was up!