A recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce report suggests that Millennials are “masters of self-expression” and personal branding. This begs the question: Are content marketers their equals?
This generation of tech-geeking, app-flirting consumers now constitutes nearly 25 percent of the American population and has issued a challenge for brands to create content that piques their proficiencies and interests.
Don’t accommodate them, and you risk becoming a tweet’s lament. Today, lesser critiques have been costly for brands. Furthermore, 60 percent of this demographic is uploading its own content across the web — forcing marketers to compete for attention.
The key to crafting content for the YAYA (youth and young adult) market of 18-to 24-year-olds is understanding this group’s location and psyche. While the apex of their purchasing power is decades away, forming a relationship with YAYAs now is an investment in your business’s future.
So Where Are They?
Locating YAYA web traffic is essential to crafting a content campaign that speaks to them. This means your content cannot solely exist in native spaces.
Large, trendy corporations provide excellent samples of how content gets diffused throughout the YAYA community. Take Apple, for example. You’ll rarely hear about its company blog, but you’ll rarely miss an Apple development.
Cutting-edge companies — like Apple — don’t solely distribute their work through conventional channels. They’re masters at identifying where YAYAs are on the web.
Consumers travel to websites like YouTube and Instagram to inhale information — YouTube alone is reaching a staggering 50 percent of the Millennial population. So what’s their competitive advantage?
These sites provide users the opportunity to craft original content within their frameworks. Don’t tell me what your business’s culture is like; show me! Take, for example, this video posted by Apple after the 2015 Pride Parade:
The video helps identify what Apple does for its employees, what it stands for, and what drives its innovative tech offerings. This is YAYA gold.
If your brand takes chances like this, you’re mobilizing a platform that 62 percent of YAYAs use to inform purchase decisions — and they’ll talk about it, too. In fact, 75 percent of YAYAs have social media profiles on networks that are far more influential in YAYA decision-making than traditional media.
Think major publishers aren’t aware of YAYAs’ social presence? Think again. BuzzFeed, as well as many other major publishers, has begun to publish on social networks like Facebook and Snapchat. Not only should your company be posting across the social media spectrum, but it should also be identifying publishers that share relationships with these social media giants.
Inside the YAYA Psyche
Seventy percent of YAYAs crave peer approval of their postings. We all know the Millennial generation is highly connected, but why the need to share so much private information?
YAYAs are opinionated. They want you to know it, and they want their brands to be opinionated, too.
In a recent poll, Nielsen reported that Millennials chose being “Liberal/Tolerant” as the third greatest defining characteristic of their generation. This ideology suggests a lack of trust in institutions and an impulse to forge their own path in life. This market is as likely to embrace Donald Trump as it is to succumb to polio.
Brands that take similar chances are attractive to this demographic. Coors Light, in a similar vein to Apple, crafted this Facebook post after the historic Supreme Court ruling on LGBT marriage:
At first glance, this seems like a typical promotional Facebook ad. But, unlike most ads, the amount of engagement it received was enormous — and much of it from YAYAs.
After reviewing the commentary this ad generated, I found that many YAYAs responded like this:
Those outside the demographic responded like this:
I show these contrasting perspectives to make an important point about catering to the YAYA market. Sometimes you risk angering your traditional consumer base.
For the most part, this can be avoided by marketing through proper channels. Plus, the risk is worth it! Just like content marketing can be a long game, forming relationships with this demographic can be, too.
They may be young, but don’t underestimate YAYAs’ ability to poke holes in your brand’s message, mindset, and content strategy. In fact, they may be doing that already. Now that we know where they are and how they think, we can employ these six strategies to produce content YAYAs will consume and share:
Find this market. Begin your search with YouTube and Instagram. Why? You can craft original content within those frameworks.
Reconsider where you’re publishing content. Traditional channels are not as valuable as social media channels — or the publishers contracting with them.
Up the ante. YAYAs are already content pros and experienced self-publishers. Your content has to be inviting and useful to garner their attention.
Make opinionated yet authentic statements. Always do your research first, but remember that the YAYA group is more progressive than other demographics.
Be honest. Don’t sell to YAYAs. Speak with them. This generation is incredibly connected and can sniff out insincerity like a bomb dog.
Optimize your content for mobile. Nothing’s more frustrating than pinching and zooming your screen to read some text. If your content isn’t optimized for the devices Millennials use to consume content, they won’t give it the time of day.
Fifty-eight percent of Millennials believe they’re worse off than their parents. But this doesn’t have to be true of their content. What is your brand doing to convince them otherwise?
When it comes to ideation, I love my 4th, 5th, and 6th thoughts. The first three are often contrived. Improvisational comedy is my art, Nelson Mandela is my hero, and Zooey Deschanel is my love.
