As of 2016, 22% of the world’s entire population is on Facebook while an astounding 81% of all millennials check their Twitter feeds at least once over the course of a day.
There are close to 9,000 photos being shared on Snapchat every second of every day.
As with all channels (and all content frankly), the success of your marketing efforts on social media comes down to getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time.
Many have directed the majority of their efforts towards millennials, but this leaves out another important group of people who are about to the most powerful voice online.
Defined as those born in the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, marketing to Gen Z requires you to keep the following key things in mind:
Follow Your Audience
If you want to guarantee the success of your Gen Z marketing campaigns, you’ll have to go where Gen Z lives digitally.
The people who fall into this demographic spend the majority of their online time on Instagram and Twitter rather than Facebook.
The key thing that these two networks have in common is brevity. People who use Twitter don’t want to read a dissertation, they want short bursts of useful information and they want it now.
Because of this, your content will need to take the same form while getting to the point as quickly as possible.
Consider a Gen Z-er’s time as valuable as your own. Don’t talk down to your audience and try to create content that can be best experienced in under a minute.
Don’t Take Privacy For Granted
Generation Z seems to be more concerned with privacy online than other generations including millennials.
As a result, they’re very likely to tighten up on things like geo-location settings, browser cookies, and other resources marketers depend on.
They’re also far more likely to use ad blockers, another issue for online advertisers at large. To combat this, you’ll need to get comfortable running campaigns on incognito apps like Whisper.
More than 30 million people use Whisper every month and major brands are already staking a claim to its marketing real estate.
This also means your marketing will have to dive deeper than your products or services to truly communicate the core values of your brand.
Speak the Language of Your Audience
Finally, to craft campaigns that connect with Gen Z, you’ll need to focus on creating content that can be understood instantly.
It’s not only that attention spans have dropped, it’s that the Gen Z crowd has higher expectations for content than ever before.
Consider the fact that on an average day, Snapchat reaches roughly 41% of 18-year-olds in the United States.
A single video snap gives you 10 seconds maximum to get your message out, so don’t waste any time and cut right to the heart of the matter.
As marketers, we’re always attempting to predict the next trend, audience, and more. While many are focused solely on their current audiences, the truly successful marketers are those thinking at least a year ahead to Gen Z.
Stephen L is a talented WriterAccess freelancer. See his writing samples and extensive experience summary when you sign up for a free account within our platform.
