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6 Ways To Reach a Younger Audience on Social Media

Are you trying to reach a younger audience on social media?

Perhaps your brand has a thriving Facebook account, but it’s not bringing in the audience you actually want. Maybe plenty of people in their 40s and 50s are sharing your posts, but they aren’t buying (because they’re not your target audience), and the 20-somethings you’d love to connect with just don’t seem to be around at all.

So what can you do to reach a Generation Z, or young millennial, audience through social media?

 

1.  Get Really Clear About Your Target Audience

First, you need to clearly define what your audience is. Simply aiming for “20s and 30s” isn’t enough. There’s a huge difference between someone who’s 21 and someone who’s 38, in terms of everything from disposable income to what social networks they use.

Just defining a narrow age range isn’t enough, either. Take two people aged 21. One is a vegan entering their third year of college in California; the other is a BBQ-loving person who’s been working ever since they finished high school. Those individuals are likely to have quite different outlooks, political views, family backgrounds, aspirations, and more.

You might want to come up with customer avatars—imaginary “ideal” customers that help you target your messaging to bring in more customers instead of wasting your time trying to reach people who’d never buy from you anyway.

 

 

2.  Figure Out What Networks Your Target Audience Uses

It’s easy to imagine that “all” young people are on certain networks, such as Snapchat. But this isn’t necessarily the case.

Perhaps you’re targeting an audience of go-getting young professionals—in which case, you’re probably much more likely to find them on LinkedIn than some other sites. Or perhaps you sell lots of fan merchandise—and you’re likely to find your audience on Tumblr.

Before committing lots of time and resources to any specific network, check that it’s one that your target audience truly uses and engages with.

 

3.  Make It Easy for Your Website Visitors To Share Your Products and Pages

One way to figure out what network to use is to see where your products (or website content in general) are getting talked about. You might be surprised where these get shared. For instance, you might offer online classes for teens. Perhaps you’re secretly hoping your classes will be the subject of the latest viral videos, but in fact, your website traffic shows that you’re getting much more interest from WhatsApp groups, where teens are privately recommending the classes to small groups of friends.

To get even more social and messaging shares, make sure it’s as easy as possible for your website visitors to share your content. You could add a button to let your users instantly share on WhatsApp, for instance.

 

4.  Create Fun, Shareable Content on Social Media

On social media itself, you want the content you publish to be fun and shareable. That could mean repurposing some popular memes on your social network of choice, creating a funny dance, offering wry and relatable cartoons, or whatever you think will resonate with your audience of young people.

As much as possible, make your content visual. You don’t need a lot of words to make an impact. Images and short videos can be hugely effective on social media.

 

5.  Focus On Values Your Audience Cares About

While older audiences may complain about brands “preaching” or “bringing politics into” the conversation, younger audiences positively want brands to emphasize their values.

Some potential core values you could tie into include:

• Animal welfare
• Environmental friendliness
• Anti-racism

Of course, you shouldn’t simply jump on a bandwagon if you and your brand don’t really hold to those values. But if there’s a particular value that’s important to your company, such as your commitment to only using eco-friendly and fairly traded products in your office, then don’t be afraid to talk about it on social media.

 

6.  Use Live Streaming

In general, younger people are more likely to watch live-streamed content than older social media users. Experiment with live streaming as a way to connect with your audience, whether that’s through YouTube, Facebook, or Twitch.

While live streaming can be a little nerve-wracking, it’s a great way to create a sense of “event” online. Plus, it lets your brand offer a more open, genuine sense of connection with your audience.

 

It might take time to reach a younger audience on social media. Be prepared to experiment with a few different social media platforms to find out where your ideal audience hangs out. You’ll also likely need to try out some different types of content before you hit on something that your target customers love to share.

Investing time in reaching a younger audience, though, could pay off hugely for your business. By building up a following of younger people, you could win loyal customers for years or even decades to come.