What Makes People Buy from a Brand They Follow on Social Media? US millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers respond differently..
Seven in 10 US internet users will use social media regularly in 2017, according to eMarketer's latest forecast. However, the ways in which social media users connect with friends, family members - and, of course, brands - vary greatly depending on the user's age.
Related Article: B2B Brand Boosting Social Media?
A January 2017 survey from Sprout Social, which polled 1,000 US millennial, Gen Xer and baby boomer internet users, compared how the three generations use social to follow brands.
The survey found millennials and Gen Xers are twice as likely as baby boomers to follow a brand on social media. About half of respondents in each group reported doing so, compared with 24.5% of baby boomers.
The three generations also follow brands for different reasons. Sprout found that millennials tend to follow for entertainment and information, while Xers do so for contests and deals. Meanwhile, boomers seek out brands for deals and information.
Related Article: YOUR Social Media Brand Screenplay?
Luckily for marketers, there's a good chance that if someone is following a brand on social media, they'll be making a purchase - no matter what their age. Around 70% of Gen Xers, 60% of millennials and 51% of baby boomers said they'd be likely to purchase something from a brand they follow on a social media platform.
That percentage grows even larger when a consumer has a positive interaction with a brand on social media. According to Sprout, when this happens, "willingness to purchase increased by 14% across all age groups."
While many consumers are happy to follow brands on social media, they're often just as quick to unfollow.
Guest Authored By Alison McCarthy. Allison is a Demographics Analyst at EMarketer. Her interests include Feminism, Culture and Media. Follow Alison on Twitter.
Related Article: Food and Drink Social Media Marketing?
“Sprout found that millennials, Xers and boomers had different reasons for doing so.
Millennials were most likely to unfollow a brand based on a bad experience or annoying marketing, while Gen Xers were much more likely than their older and younger counterparts to unfollow if a brand offended them.
Baby boomers had little patience for spam.."
Authored by:Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends. My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
Follow Me Yonder.. 
