Powerful Gen Z Marketing Tips?

Social media is one of the most effective marketing channels for companies of any size..

In fact, it works so well that more than half of U.S. small businesses are planning to increase their social media marketing budget this year..

Related Article: YOUR Social Media 2.5 Billion User Reach?

Generation Z is at the forefront of social media -- they are extremely active on social networks, with half of Gen Z connected online via their smartphones for approximately 10 hours per day. This generation loves personalized apps, and a poll from SCG notes that 88% of Gen Zers are primarily using Instagram and Snapchat. Because of the new ways in which Gen Z is using social media, they’re changing the outlets associated with these platforms as well, with music at the forefront.

Fabrizio Moreira, founder of recording company VIP Music Records, understands the marketing punch social media can deliver, when executed correctly. The company is expanding rapidly, and recently inked a long-term contract with The Orchard, a division of Sony Music.

However, their primary focus has been Latin America, where they now hold the top spot for music distribution in the youth market. As a global study by Nielsen notes, listening to music is a primary source of Generation Z’s entertainment, with 37% of respondents stating it was top choice. This suggests Moreira is on his way to making his label a household name across the globe.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Sales Strategy?

The fast growth of Moreira’s recording company and the success of its artists is a result of several factors, with a solid social media marketing strategy leading the way. I recently spoke with Moreira, and asked him for his top social media marketing tips for Gen Zers.

1. Test Multiple Social Platforms

According to Moreira, you aren’t going to know which social networks will provide value unless you test them. He says, “You have to think like your target customer, and determine what networks they are more than likely to be active on. Then you need to become active and put out a serious effort. It’s not something you can just play with for a day or two and expect to have a concrete answer.

It’s important to experiment with as many social networks as possible and think beyond just dollars when evaluating their value. “You might find that Twitter posts aren’t converting into immediate sales, but it’s a great source for driving new followers to your Instagram page, which does convert at a high rate,” Moreira notes.

Related Article: Master Marketer Social Media Stratagies?

2. Measure Everything With Scaling In Mind

Moreira suggests that all social media efforts should be designed and executed with scaling in mind.

“Social media gives you the opportunity to connect with the world, and when you identify a winning strategy, it can easily be scaled as high as your budget will allow. This is why you read so many stories of startups quickly scaling to millions of dollars in revenue in a short period of time. Social media gives you that unlimited reach ability.”

As the youths’ behavior is changing on these platforms, advertisers need to integrate themselves into their lifestyle. Moreira says, “Consumers are becoming very savvy when it comes to social media, and they are becoming immune to ads and promotional posts that lack creativity. You have to offer something of value if you expect to capture even a second of someone’s time on social media.”

Related Article: The Exponential Growth Of Social Media?

3. Recognize Who Your Target Market Is

“Not knowing precisely who your target market is will lead to an epic fail,” according to Moreira. He suggests that you take the time to properly identify your target market and then utilize all of the targeting options available, with a focus on Facebook to start.

“Facebook has the most targeting options, allowing you to laser-focus your efforts. I see a lot of campaigns make the mistake of focusing on the reach rather than the target. Placing your offer in front of 1,000 highly targeted prospects is going to perform much better than showing it to 500,000 untargeted prospects.” Moreira notes that the smaller targeted audience will not only convert higher, but the overall ad spend will be lower since you are targeting a much smaller pool.

Though Facebook can be a great first test run for targeting, be wary of using it as your primary channel. According to the survey from SCG above, Generation Z’s usage is down, with only 66% using it daily.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Listening Power?

4. Realize That You Have To Spend Money To Make Money

This is the point that Moreira really focused on. “Far too many brands think that they can post organically and that the business should roll in. Social media has become a pay-to-play platform and anyone complaining about that needs to re-evaluate the situation. These social networks are no different than the companies using them -- everyone is in it to turn a profit.”

Moreira suggests starting with a small budget and then increasing it once you find ad copy and ad formats that perform well. “You also need to realize that it’s going to require a testing budget before you should realistically expect results. You can’t load up $20 and then become discouraged when you don’t find immediate success.”

Guest Authored By Deep Patel. Deep is the Founder of Owl Metrics, a serial entrepreneur, marketer and bestselling author of A Paperboy’s Fable: The 11 Principles of Success. The book was dubbed the #1 best business book in 2016 by Success Magazine and named the best book for entrepreneurs in 2016 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Also recognized as a top 25 marketing influencer by Forbes, He has worked with VC-backed startups to Fortune 500 companies. He's am also a contributor at Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post and Success Magazine. Follow Deep on Twitter.

Related Article: Social Media Marketing Best Practices?

When marketing to Gen Z on social media, it can be tough to find the quantitative levels of success you’re after.

However, by sticking with a plan that is telling a genuine, relatable story, you can reach not just fans, but followers for years to come.

And if anyone knows how to do this, it’s the man who will probably have a bust of himself in Cleveland someday soon..

• 

  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.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 ;)

Social Media Trends To Watch For?

10 Social media trends to watch..

Users are increasingly leery of the information on social media.

Related Article: Harness YOUR Social Media And Win Clients?

As social media platforms have evolved into full-blown communication channels, more brands are relying on these platforms to reach their target audiences.

Consumer attention is scattered across various social platforms, not to mention apps and other online diversions. Brands that hope to capture consumers' attention and dollars need to keep in touch with how their audiences utilize these platforms. The bottom line is that, as trends evolve on social media, so must the corresponding marketing.

With the start of a new year, it's time to look into the crystal ball of emerging trends on social media. What is going to influence social media users? What does this mean for brand marketing? And what do we need to be aware of to stay current and relevant in 2019?

Here are the top 10 social media trends to keep an eye on in the new year.

Related Article: YOUR AI-Driven Social Media Marketing?

1. Rebuilding Trust in Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms continue to grow annually -- in fact, Facebook has more than 2 billion active users each month. However, the picture isn't entirely rosy. Consumer confidence in social media is on shaky ground.

Users are growing increasingly leery of the information they find on social media. And marketers may be contributing to the situation when they fail to properly label paid advertising posts or they bombard a platform with targeted ads that overwhelm users. All of this can leave users feeling distrustful of both the brand and the platform.

Younger generations have little tolerance for marketing that comes off as disingenuous. Brands will need to look for ways to build consumer trust. That means focusing on ways to authentically connect with audiences, and ways to highlight their humanity. Brands need to connect with their audiences on a meaningful level. No one likes being constantly swamped with ads. Even worse is when you're being marketed to and don't even realize it.

Related Article: YOUR New Social Media Platform Tools?

2. Social Media Is About Storytelling

Social media's popularity is rooted in the fact that it allows us to share our life experiences with friends and families. We get to tell our stories through our posts, and we get to see a snapshot of everyone else's lives through our news feeds. At first, that was through written posts and photos, but video content is increasingly popular.

Social media is adapting, embracing new ways to allow people to tell their stories and share their narrative with the world. Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook are embracing this trend, and it's changing the way we consume social media content.

This opens the door for brands to share more human stories of their own, which will inspire audiences to try out their product. Storytelling feels real, immediate and personal, but it also demands a mix of more time-intensive video, images and graphics, and requires brands to be more creative and thoughtful in the intent.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Brand Stories?

3. Build A Brand Narrative

Along with honing their human stories, businesses are going to need to build a strategic narrative behind their brand. Narratives capture moments and experiences shared between a user and a product; they're the conversations that are occurring, and they're often about trying to create a broader, more positive change.

These narratives can be distributed through social media and digital media, and they reflect what a brand's community is saying about them. If a brand can build a larger story, it will have a better chance of success.

Brand narratives need to be compelling and lead audiences to an action. Evaluate your brand story, and ensure it is inspiring and stands out against the messiness of other social media content.

Related Article: Branding And Social Media Marketing Weapons?

4. Quality And Creativity Over Quality

Marketers often have a knee-jerk reaction to trends by flooding platforms with mediocre and uninspired content in hopes of riding the trend wave.

Would-be customers react by tuning out and quickly dismissing subpar messaging. The threshold for gaining customer attention and trust has grown exponentially. Marketers who hope to gain consumer consideration must be willing to go the extra mile in creating engaging content.

The bottom line is, to have an impact, brands must be purposeful and creative. Less content, if it's created thoughtfully and is well-positioned, will have greater impact than an abundance of content that is uninspired, heavy-handed or seen as shallow or dull.

Related Article: Everything YOU Need To Know About IGTV?

5. Put A Human Face To Your Brand

Personal branding is a must on social media. Putting a real, human face to a brand is key in building trust and loyalty, especially for small, relatively unknown businesses.

Personal branding gives a business a human element that will naturally connect customers and make the brand seem more relatable. Businesses that learn to foster their human element will have a real advantage over those who hide behind a logo.

One popular trend in humanizing a business is to promote the personal brand of the business owner or a high-level leader. This can be done through guest blogging, podcasts and webinars. Giving the public an up-close view of the company's leader can strengthen its brand reputation.

Related Article: 5 Digital Advertising Social Media Trends?

6. Influencers Continue To Grow Their Communities

Influencer marketing continues to develop and grow on social media platforms. Influencers are social media figures who have gathered a defined community around themselves.

Their large followings (which can range from the thousands to over a million viewers) give them influence over others. They can be incredibly effective as salespeople because we inherently trust the people we follow on social media.

Much like personal branding, when done well influencer marketing gives a human voice to brands. Influencer marketing is less direct than traditional forms of advertising, but it can effectively create authentic ways of connecting with customers.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Influence Strategy?

7. Selfie Videos And Branding

The selfie culture continues to flourish on social media, with the popularity of selfie photo evolving into the self-recorded video. These "selfie videos" are drawing high user interest on social media. Like the selfie photo, the selfie video allows users to capture a moment in time, but the video format allows users to communicate in a deeper and more personal way than a photo ever could. Selfie videos tend to be short and feel more immediate than a written post with a photo.

Businesses need to take note: viewers spend hours watching friends' videos on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Brands would be wise to look for ways to incorporate first-person "selfie video" content as part of their marketing strategy.

Traditional advertising can be off-putting to younger audiences, who are more cautious about their purchases and want a more authentic experience with their brands. The selfie video can help a brand seem more relatable and trustworthy.

Related Article: YOUR Video Content Is King?

8. Segment Your Social Audiences

While brands talk about their customers and audiences, the reality is that most businesses will have multiple audiences. Segmentation is the process of organizing your audience into manageable groups (or segments) so you can tailor your messaging and communications to the preferences of each group.

Social media is most effective when you segment your audiences so you can be relevant to the right groups of people at the right time.

Making assumptions about your audience and lumping them all together could limit your ability to reach more people. So the more you know about your audience and the various groups that make up your audience, the better you can adjust your messaging and narratives to fit each segment.

Related Article: How YOU Blow Up On Social Media?

9. Hyper-Targeted Personalization

Customers have come to expect brands to tailor special offers and discounts to their wants and needs. To keep up with expectations, businesses need to step up their game when it comes to targeted advertising. Nearly every social media platform offers some level of audience filtering when you opt to pay for advertising. These options range from simple geographic targeting to advanced filters that refine audiences into highly specific segments.

In the coming year, brands will increasingly turn to hyper-targeted personalization to reach their audiences. This is often achieved through retargeting or remarketing ads. Ever wonder why you're seeing an ad on your social media site for something you were shopping for earlier? That's hyper-targeted personalization at work.

Using "cookies" while you browse online, marketers collect data on users, such as online habits, the area they live in and any other pertinent information. But marketers will need to find a balance between being too pushy and being able to offer personalized advertising that will genuinely interest customers.

Related Article: YOUR Improved 2019 Social Media Presence?

10. Know Your Platforms

Businesses should carefully consider which social media platforms to focus on, as each platform tends to be used by different groups. For example, over 80 percent of Pinterest users are female, and more than 50 percent of users are from the US. So, if a brand is targeting American women, posting on Pinterest could help isolate that group.

Meanwhile, Snapchat users tend to be younger than those who use Facebook. And career-focused professionals spend more of their time on LinkedIn. Brands that use multiple platforms should use these distinguishing characteristics to decide where to post content and on which platforms to focus the majority of their marketing efforts.

Guest Authored By Deep Patel. Deep is the author of A Paperboy's Fable: The 11 Principles of Success. The book was dubbed the #1 best business book in 2016 by Success Magazine and named the best book for entrepreneurs in 2016 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Follow Deep on Twitter.

Related Article: YOUR 2020 And Beyond Social Media Marketing?

"As social media platforms have evolved into full-blown communication channels, more brands are relying on these platforms to reach their target audiences.." -DeepPatel

• 

  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where 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 ;)

Powerful Ways To Boost YOUR Social Media Strategy?

Despite recent criticism among business and political commentators, social media networks remain some of the most important and unifying internet platforms..

Related Article: YOUR Image Building Social Media Skills?

More than 2.5 billion people use social media networks, and that number is expected to grow in the coming years.

Marketers must rely on more than just hashtags and emojis to make the most of channels like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

The world's most successful social media marketers rely on a variety of sophisticated strategies designed to articulate a particular worldview that boosts brand awareness, drives new business and delights followers.

Let's look at seven creative ways in which you can dramatically improve your social media performance by following the strategies used by elite social media marketers.

Related Article: The Exponential Growth Of Social Media?

1. Develop A Multi-Channel Approach

Just a few years ago, Twitter was the go-to platform for social media marketers. After that, Facebook assumed the mantle as the best social network for marketers. Today, it seems that most marketers prefer Instagram to reach users.

In the future, there is no telling which social media network will be the darling of social media marketers. Marketers should recognize that it is dangerous to focus only on one social network. Instead, marketers should develop an understanding of the target audience. Many people use a variety of networks for different purposes.

Similarly, social media marketers must take a multi-channel approach in reaching prospects and customers. Ensure that each platform is used in unique ways to encourage users to follow your brand across services.

Related Article: Crucial Social Media Strategy For YOUR Brand?

2. Invest In Influencer Marketing

According to one recent study, roughly 95 percent of marketers who invest in influencer marketing believe it is effective. Some of the world's leading brands, including Nike, KitchenAid and Rolex, rely on influencer marketing to reach social media users.

Increasingly, internet users have become wary of traditional advertisements. So much so that users have developed "ad blindness," in which they simply ignore display ads placed prominently on social networks.

To combat this, some brands rely on sponsored content created by social media influencers to build connections with target audiences.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Influencer Advertising?

3. Engage Commentators As Quickly As Possible

Most social media platforms rely on algorithms to determine what content is displayed prominently and what content is buried. Facebook and Instagram use engagement as a primary factor in determining what content should or should not be displayed.

One major form of engagement is comments. Posts that receive more comments are often displayed more prominently within social media feeds and within discovery pages like Instagram's Explore page.

To encourage members of your target audience to engage with your content in meaningful ways, have a social media monitor who is ready to react to user comments at a moment's notice. The faster you react to the comments, the more likely it is that other users will engage with your content as well. If you are able to comment in a way that feels on-brand and unique, you may even be able to improve brand sentiment in your target audience.

Take the work of one social media manager at Wendy's, for example. Her work earned national media attention as a result of witty and on-brand retorts that confronted internet trolls.

Related Article: YOUR Engaging Social Media Content?

4. Amplify Reach Through Look-Alike Audiences

Great social media marketing doesn't just rely on organic content to increase reach. It should also include some paid elements to amplify reach, especially once you've established a clear strategy.

Look-alike audiences rely on the algorithms developed by social networks to help you connect with users who are similar to your ideal customer profile. Simply upload a list of email addresses associated with your best customers to a platform like Facebook, and Facebook will identify other users with a similar demographic and psychographic makeup.

Then you can run ads to drive viewers to your website or business page. In time, this strategy will help you to quickly grow a healthier social media following.

Related Article: Why Social Media Influencers Prefer Instagram?

5. Measure Strategy Success Through On-Platform And On-Site Measurement

Analytics are the best way to understand if your social strategy is working. Of course, it is best to measure on-platform metrics like follower growth, engagement and distribution. But it is also worth measuring on-site performance.

For example, are you able to drive users who engage with your brand on social networks to your website? If so, how do those website visitors behave? Do they immediately leave the page (bounce), or do they explore content thoroughly?

Depending on what you find using a tool like Google Analytics, you'll know if your existing strategy will lead to meaningful business outcomes.

Related Article: Applying YOUR 2018 Marketing Data Science?

6. Create A Clear And Unique Brand Identity

Social networks are crowded places in which users are constantly reevaluating what they do and do not want within their social media feeds. Because of this, it's vital that your organization develops a clear and compelling brand identity. Otherwise, your social media presence will simply be some derivation of another brand.

Develop a strategy that articulates a clear and unique brand identity in novel ways using a mix of multimedia content to tell a cohesive story.

7. Find Creative Ways To Delight People

The average person shares a positive customer service experience with 9 other people. Finding creative ways to delight social media users is a great way to build an organic following through amplification and word of mouth.

Related Article: What Other Peoples Advertising Can Teach YOU?

Develop an editorial calendar and be sure to include delightful moments that make followers feel good about themselves and about your organization. The most obvious opportunity to do this is during major world events and holidays, but simply developing a fun midweek video that is entertaining and on-brand can be a great way to bring joy to social media users in an unexpected way.

The social media landscape is constantly changing, and the marketing tactics are changing as well. However, while tactics will change, the strategies outlined in this article will remain the same.

Guest Authored By Deep Patel. Deep is the Founder of Owl Metrics, a serial entrepreneur, marketer and bestselling author of A Paperboy’s Fable: The 11 Principles of Success. The book was dubbed the #1 best business book in 2016 by Success Magazine and named the best book for entrepreneurs in 2016 by Entrepreneur Magazine. Also recognized as a top 25 marketing influencer by Forbes, He has worked with VC-backed startups to Fortune 500 companies. He's am also a contributor at Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post and Success Magazine. Follow Deep on Twitter.

Related Article: Marketing Strategies To Transcend YOUR Industry?

"Develop a multi-channel social media strategy that clearly articulates your brand voice, uses a mix of paid and organic means, and brings delight to followers.

In time, you develop a meaningful social media following capable of driving big business to your organization.." -DeepPatel

• 

  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.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 ;)