Mastering social media content creation can definitely be overwhelming, especially when it comes to meeting your specific audience's needs. Content creation can be time-consuming and frustrating, and knowing where to start and how to achieve the maximum return on your content ideas may be tough.
The good news is that the more you know about your audience and where and how to reach them, the easier it will be to raise brand awareness and target audiences and consumers that will respond well to the engaging content you create.
10PM Curfew has your look at the best ways to reach youth consumers and optimize social platforms with engaging, high-quality content that helps your business grow.
How To Create Content for Younger Audiences
In the early days of marketing, it was said that customers had to see a brand or a logo seven times before they made a purchase. With digital marketing and online content growing faster than ever before, consumers have to see your brand a lot more than that in order to feel comfortable and inspired enough to buy.
That’s why it can be so useful to have a content marketing strategy to make your content work for you. Here are a few of the steps you’ll want to take to engage with younger consumers as effectively as possible.
Make it Shareable
While there’s no perfect equation or content plan for going viral, the more shareable your content is, the more likely you are to see your numbers rise. There are many different ways to optimize the shareability and engagement on your posts, like calling for responses on Instagram stories and offering prizes or incentives for that type of engagement.
The way that content is shared in today’s modern digital world also varies a lot depending on which platform you’re utilizing, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the pieces of content that share best across social channels.
Make it Accessible
Every generation will say that the generation to follow them is just a little strange. They have humor, language, and references that might not make sense to someone outside the bubble, and a lot of Millennial and Gen-Z humor is derived from internet discourse, memes, and other types of digital content.
Knowing your audience and the types of content and media that they consume can help you to tailor that content to meet their needs. That means using the kind of language they connect to and hopping on the trends that are working for those audiences.
Even if you have a more serious brand or small business, you can still tap into the universal lived experiences of potential consumers to bring them into your brand and introduce them to products and programs they might find helpful.
Make it Relevant
Gen-Z and Millennials are very involved in social issues and with political and social changes and news. Especially with the rise of social networks and real-time tweets, and TikTok videos, it’s easier than ever for them to find their communities and fight for a better future for themselves and the generations to follow.
Tapping into some of the issues these youth generations care about can be an effective way to meet them where they are and make it obvious that you’re the kind of brand they can count on. The important thing is to make the commitment genuine.
These generations have also grown up in the time of rainbow capitalism and opportunism, and they know how to recognize disingenuous gestures of goodwill. If your gesture is genuine, however, and if you’re really willing to walk the walk, you’ll likely find yourself with some brand fans for life.
Make it Trendy
While it can be difficult to manufacture virality with your content, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel. When you’re making content, it’s super useful to look at the kind of content that is already trending. This will give you a great launch point for how to develop your marketing strategy and will make it easier to reach a wide range of audiences without spending a whole lot of money.
Different platforms have different algorithms, and you’ll see that the process of going viral can really differ depending on where you’re posting your social media content. Look into the trending sounds, challenges, memes, and games to try to find something trendy that works for your brand and social media strategy.
Make It Useful
You want to avoid using the hard sell all the time, as that can turn potential customers off. Instead, you want to balance your content ideas between the product or services you sell and useful information, resources, and ideas.
This will vary a lot, depending on the kind of product you provide, but even something as simple as developing a summer date night outfit can really draw your potential customers in and boost your brand awareness. It may even lead to those all-important conversions!
One of the best ways to create useful social media posts that are also shareable is through infographics. Infographics have a lot of potential to go viral, and they typically include the type of great content that will have potential customers coming back again and again.
Make it Authentic
You want to be very careful about authenticity, especially if you’re the type of social media content creator connecting through social or relevant issues. It’s typically very clear when a brand is taking up a cause just to sell more products or when they’re disingenuous in the way they engage with trending themes and digital marketing concepts.
Authenticity can be hard to come by in online spaces, but potential customers crave it, and you’ll likely see a pretty big response to your brand if your posts are genuine and accessible.
Make It Platform Appropriate
It’s really important to understand how the different platforms utilize types of content and how you can create content with those different social channels in mind. Some social media platforms are designed more for visual content, and others for video content, GIFs, or even text.
That’s not to say that you can’t repurpose different media, and certain graphic design software like Canva makes it really easy. But you do want to plan how you will use that content on the different social networks before you get started because what works for one might not work for another. Each platform provides a new opportunity for growth and development.
Make it Connected
One of the best ways to engage with younger audiences online is by collaborating with influencers and building brand partnerships. This will help you to reach a wider demographic, but it will also boost your authenticity and make it easier for your brand to come across as genuine.
That’s because influencers work hard to become a trusted source for information and reviews, and if they’re willing to promote your content, there’s a higher chance that they really stand behind it.
Working with influencers will also help you to learn about what kind of content is working to attract potential customers and what isn’t. They’ll help you to find and expand your audience in an organic and genuine way and to perfect the type of high-quality content you create, maybe even before you share it with your followers.
Conclusion
When it comes to a social media content strategy, there’s a lot of information out there. Developing digital marketing campaigns, especially those geared to more specific audiences, can feel a little overall, and it may be difficult to know where to start. After all, creating content for so many different social platforms takes time and money, and you want to be sure that there’s a payoff for this type of promotion.
The good news is that there are simple and effective steps you can take to make the most of social media content when reaching younger audiences. Consider creating content that is easy to share and accessible to the lives and styles of your audience. In fact, you always want to keep your demographic in mind when developing ad campaigns, so you can create things that will appeal to them specifically.
You want to provide benefits and usefulness by sharing more long-form content, and you want to ensure that you’re always keeping the platform type in mind when making your next video or image.
You can learn all about the social media marketing journey, like how to create social media content for Millennials and Gen-Z, right here at 10PM Curfew. Find out how you can become part of our team today.
Sources:
How to Use Social Media in Your Career and Business | New York Times
The Five Stages of Small Business Growth | Harvard Business Review
A Complete Guide to Marketing Platforms: Definition, Types | Indeed.com