November 2016

Why is engaging with millennial’s different?

Millennials are always under the watchful eye of brands these days. Set to become the most influential spending power in the coming years, their opinion, and interest, is very important for brands looking to establish relationships with this huge demographic.

aaaaaaaaa They are socially aware when compared to generations before them, which can be somewhat credited to the advancement in technology and the increased accessibility of information. Social media in particular has brought about a new way for consumers to interact with brands; they are now more involved than ever with the decisions and actions that they make!

Millennials are used to being able to interact and have their say in what a brand is doing, if they don’t like what is going on, they have no problem letting the brand know about it. Followers can easily post a message on social media that everyone can see. Many young people won’t want to engage with brands who don’t share the same beliefs as they do or those that are not being honest with them. To create a loyal following (what every business wants!), it is important to be transparent in your actions and promote an ethical image. Consumers have a lot more power over a brands reputation these days!

A major difference today is that people are able to have active conversations with brands and form online communities. Millennials are more comfortable and used to this form of engagement than previous generations. The brands with the best followings actually have some of their customers as brand ambassadors, creating sharable content, and advocating their message! Take the brand Go-pro for example, their marketing involves videos made by their fans, providing a testimonial to how good the product is.

Millennials may give more to brands, but they will also expect more from them too. They will want to be entertained regularly; this can come in many forms.
Here are a few tips to make sure you’re a hit with the millennial market:

• Humanise your brand and personalise your approach
Make interactions with consumers as natural, and real, as possible and engage with them regularly across the channels they are using. No one likes a robotic, one-size-fits-all approach, so be sure to respond to your fans on an individual basis and make them feel valued.

• Promote your values
Project the feelings and assume the tone you want your business to represent in your brand ethos and everything you do. This way consumers will know what you’re all about and want to buy in to your brand if it’s something they feel strongly about.

• Join in on conversations that millennials are having
Don’t be afraid to voice your opinion on what people are talking about, this can help your brand to connect with a wider audience. A great way to do this is on Twitter during key times of the year e.g. results day.

• Give them some advice
Who doesn’t need a helping hand now and then? Give your fans some useful life-hacks or informative how-tos about your product that they’ll find handy and they’re more likely to come back for more.

• Speak their language
Millennials are a diverse group that you can’t generalise too much, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try and tailor you approach to talk to them in the ways that they prefer. Definitely think digital, see our blog on why this is so important in the student market.

If you need any more advice or guidance on how to reach your millennial market don’t hesitate to get in touch here

8 habits brand should avoid on social media

Getting your social media activity right can sometimes be a little tricky; the landscape is always changing with updates and new features brought out daily, but there are a few things that can generally be frowned upon. Students are the most in touch with social media, they are also very savvy when it comes to interacting with brands and can often be very unforgiving if they see something they don’t like. Here are 8 tips to ensure your brand doesn’t get caught out on social media:

1 Using auto messages to welcome people to your social media pages
This can often come across as feeling fake and impersonal. Even more so if there is a link to your web page or sales offers. This can also be deemed as annoying and is likely to get you unfollowed. You need to get to know your audience before shoving a sales pitch in their faces

2 Setting your profile to private
If you are a business and you have your account settings set to private, it just doesn’t make sense. If you’re not willing to share your posts with people who don’t follow you, how will they know they want to follow you? You should be showing people content that makes them take an interest in your business, not hiding behind privacy settings

3 Tag people or other businesses that aren’t relevant to try and get more reach
Doing this when it’s relevant is obviously okay, but just doing it to try and boost a post where it doesn’t make sense will make you seem like you don’t know what you’re doing, and people will probably not want to read your posts. It’s also likely to anger the other brand/person that you’re tagging because it’s seen as spammy

4 Posting links to your website or trying to promote your product on someone else’s page
This is just disrespectful. Unless you’ve been given permission or are in some form of partnership with another business, you should never post on their page in this manner. Doing this to try and attract your target market away from other brands may actually damage your brand image and integrity

5 Randomly adding people to Facebook groups or events
This is just plain annoying, and likely to get you unfollowed quickly. Adding people to a group or event that you think they might be interested in is just not a good way to approach them, you should get people interested and make them want to join themselves. For example, on Facebook you could set up an event and invite people to attend – as long as it’s relevant. Alternatively you could use targeted advertising to promote the event to people who are likely to respond and appreciate the heads up

6 Using someone else’s content as your own or copying their content
If you want to share someone else’s content then that’s great as long as you give them the credit they deserve for it. Often businesses steal or try to rip off content from their competitors on social media because it is easy to do. This can devalue your brand and you shouldn’t do it. It’s okay to take some inspiration from your competitors, but try and be original – This is what will make your brand stand out

7 Spammy posts
Posts that don’t really have a point and aren’t entertaining will quickly become annoying to your followers. Messages like ‘buy! buy! buy!’ all the time should be avoided. Also promising fans one thing and sending them to another thing (i.e. using click-bait) will definitely open your brand up to abuse. So always share content that is authentic, engaging and does what it says on the tin

8 Sharing posts that are not credible
Sharing something from a source that is not credible can be damaging to your brand image, especially if the claim is something completely outlandish. You should always check your sources before posting on social media, whether it’s about your business or something completely random