Social marketing is the real deal. Inarguably, it is a powerful tool that many businesses want to exploit and for good reasons, at the very least. However, all these labels about millennials, generation X and baby boomers have become too passé. It is important to note that while society has its highs and lows, each generation has one basic component—people – and they’re living, breathing, and thriving with the capacity to choose as they deem fit.
When it comes to social marketing, however, taking each generation in a collective manner, but still as people, is essential to the success of a planned undertaking. When dissecting each generation, it is essential to understand their collective skills set, mindset, and temperament. Here, let’s scrutinize important aspects of each generation to strategize effective social marketing.
Gen Z. The post-millennial or iGeneration is a rising breed in the country. Think about fast and furious—and make it 10 times over. They want real time and they want it fast. They are into bargains, multi-tasking, entrepreneurial, and obviously, tech geeks. They are on the heavy side of individuality and as expected have higher expectations than millennials. Targeted marketing is the concept behind social marketing of this generation. It’s a hit and miss approach as they also tend to change like quicksand. One thing is sure though—they want everything to be authentic.
Millennials. More than half of the US population is composed of millennials—and that’s quite a lot to target. Further studies also reveal that at least two-thirds of this generation is more into a job and life built upon a purpose. Majority of them do not just conform into the usual fun-and-exciting or too focused on building wealth or money. Millennial living is a life of meaning thus, making robot-like social marketing as well as SEO concepts to sound passé. This generation looks for authenticity. They are deep thinkers. Pragmatism is their battle cry. To be truly effective, social marketing concepts must be focused on what real people needs sans the usual sugar-coating.
Gen X. The rebel generation is the epitome of generation X. They love strategizing and quite proudly, are so into consuming online content. Propaganda, though a stronghold by most media in the 90’s, is heavily scorned by this generation where pragmatism is building up. While millennials may have perfected pragmatic thinking, it all started with the rebellious Gen X. Social marketing concept here still delve on all things practical, verifiable, and authentic—something that offers radical change.
Baby Boomers. Do you know that more than 60 percent of adults within the age range of 50 to 64 are frequent visitors to online sites particularly social media like Facebook and Twitter? Yes, check Facebook and most likely, you will find your parents there. This is quite exciting as the spending value of this generation is pegged at around $3 to $4—TRILLION—annually! Definitely, nobody wants to “put baby on a corner”. There really is not much difference on how to pursue your social marketing campaign. This generation is still into authenticity, but only heavier on loyalty. They also prefer personal interactions rather than digital.
The next time you plot out a social marketing campaign, build it upon the concept of “people-ism”. This means putting more sense of authenticity into the meat of the campaign. If there’s one thing all these generations abhor, it’s fakery. No one wants to be taken for a fool. So, if you want to win this highly volatile marketing campaign—treat people as genuinely as you can by delivering solutions to their needs.