Thursday, March 30th, 2017

How do different generations interact with brands through social networks?

Jonathan Blum

Before sharing brand content throughout social media channels, it is imperative to learn what type of segment is being addressed and how social media is being used. A communication will not have the same potential impact on the youth as on the senior segment. What may hook some people, may be offensive to others or just not of their interest.

A detailed report by Sprout Social clarifies relationships between consumers 2.0 and brands on social media, analyzing the interaction of various demographic segments on Facebook.

When are brands followed?

One of the findings shown in this report is that seeing generations following brands on their socials before purchasing a product is quite common; both millennials (58.9%) and generation X members (50.4%); followed by baby boomers[1] (55%). On the other hand, if it is about following brands at any time –not before a purchase– the trend is lower. Generation X and millennials exceed by tenths the 48% mean, while only 24.5% of baby boomers follow brands when not interested in purchasing.

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What are users looking for?

According to this report, millennials follow brands on their social media for entertainment (38%), while generation X and baby boomers mostly follow brands to find promotions and offers (58% and 60%, respectively).

Who is generating more interaction with brands?

Generation X is more likely to interact with brands on social media (32%). This percentage falls to 30% when talking about millennials, and 14% if baby boomers –who’d rather act as observers.

Finally, the fact that users unfollow brands on social media is interesting. For Gen X seeing something offensive shared by brands becomes reason enough to unfollow them. This is also why over 160% are more likely to unfollow brands than the other generations.

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That said, we are already aware of the importance of an in-depth knowledge of our audience if we want to have empathy with them and not lose such contents shared by us through the various social media channels. For example, it is essential to consider that baby boomers are less familiar with social medial and its use; they are going through the digitization process, and opt for reading news instead of interacting. On the other hand, generation X is characterized by the massive use of new technologies and by their interest in promotion and discount contents. Millennials –with almost all of them purchasing on the Internet– use their Smartphones as their main device and spend their spare time on the Internet. Finding the accurate content for each generation is important if brands want to hook their audiences. “Every social message should be adapted to their community, have a purpose and be measured against objectives”, said Andrew Caravella, VP for Strategy and Brand Engagement at Sprout Social. “The result is more holistic and authentic social presence that connects with customers at a human level”.

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[1] Baby boomer is the term used to describe people born during the baby boom –which happened in certain Anglo-Saxon countries during the post-World War II period, between the years 1946 and 1965.