Using Your Millennial Target Audience as the Face for Your Company
Oh millennials. We hear about them all the time. We hear about their low work ethic, question their motives and laugh when we see them take 100 pictures of their “soy low-fat Carmel macchiato, please”. However, if that is the case, then why are so many of these businesses craving their approval through social media? As a millennial myself, part of my answer is because that macchiato is about to get 2,000+ likes on Instagram.
But what is the most effective way for your business to gain the likes, follows and shares that these young adults hold?
About 97% of online adults (age 16-64) have either visited or used a social media platform in the last month. Going even further, 8 out of 10 internet users use social media on their mobile devices. This is no surprise to most of us. However, it is important to understand that millennials see the most advertisements in a week simply because they are the generation using most screen time through a variety of devices. Because of this, it is easy for millennials to quickly sort this media into two categories:
- Business we trust
- Business we don’t trust
Knowing this should definitely put some sort of stress on the importance of the content you are putting out there. It needs to be relatable, available, tell your story as a business – but at the same time, brief enough that a viewer does not feel annoyed/overwhelmed. If that is the case, then why not simply look to your audience for the influence? You know… the audience getting the 2,000 likes on a picture of a three-dollar coffee.
Now more than ever, consumers are looking to read reviews rather than ignore them. They want reviews that they feel they can trust and are not paid for. Google recently published a study showing that social media is practically always the first channel consumers face before purchasing a product. Opening the door to the idea of brand ambassadors could seriously benefit your business in a big way. For example, millennials are spending about 11 hours of their week streaming video content. Of those users, 60% of 18-24 year olds trust popular YouTube endorsements. A lot of this is because this these popular accounts, whether it be on YouTube, Instagram or other social platforms, have successfully branded themselves into a figure that their followers trust.
This person does not necessarily need to be a major figure. Many times they are simply millennials themselves. Compensation can be something as transparent as a discount, resume builder, or simply a shout out displaying their blog or social media handles. This connection should be thought of as a relationship rather than a task. As a college student myself, I have had multiple opportunities to be a brand ambassador and gained some solid resume experience.
So what is the bottom line here?
If the audience is able to see a connection they have with the individual behind the scenes of a brand; whether that be a sense of humor, adventure or drive they are more likely to go through with a follow or purchase. And what is a better way of doing that then supporting those who have supported you from the beginning?
