Whether you’re in your 20s or 50s, crafting social media posts and other marketing messages for a Generation Z audience can be pretty complicated. As the first generation born and raised during the height of the Internet’s popularity (whereas many Millennials didn’t start regularly using the Internet until middle or high school), Gen Z is truly a puzzle for many marketers.
If you want to boost authentic engagement with younger audiences on your brand’s social pages, then you can’t afford to ignore these four innovative ways for connecting with the tweens, teens and young adults of Gen Z:
Learn the Lingo
Are you living your best life? Yeet! Are your social captions on fleek? Does your product model look like a snack?
To help you stay woke (aware, informed), learning the latest meme-ified phrases concocted by Gen Z’s Internet sensations is an absolute must for any brand that wants to stay relevant. Of course, you’ll want to actually talk to Gen Z’ers to know what these words/phrases mean to ensure you use them correctly in any branded communications with your audience. Why? Because nothing is more sus (shady or questionable) to teens and young adults than brands trying too hard to market to them without actually understanding what the lingo means.
Teen-Fluencers
If learning the Gen Z lingo is too complicated or just does not make sense, no matter how many times you consult Urban Dictionary, then you could always hire a teenage influencer to speak to your audience in a language they’ll understand. Teen-fluencers, as they’re informally called, are teenagers between the ages of 12-17 who get paid $5 to $20 per post (on average) by brands that want to reach younger demographics without the usual advertising approach (paid ads or contracts with influencers).
Teen-fluencers aren’t old enough to get “real” jobs yet, so they’re eager to find opportunities to partner with brands and hawk their products to their 1,000 to 6,000+ followers in exchange for per-post payments via PayPal or Venmo.
Voting on Insta Stories
Even if you’re regularly posting new content to your brand’s Instagram account, this might not be enough to engage your Gen Z audience. This younger generation represents one of the biggest demographics of short story users on social media (Instagram and SnapChat mostly – Facebook isn’t too popular among Gen Z). This means that you must be posting content to your Insta Story on a near-daily basis to keep followers engaged beyond their overcrowded Instagram feeds.
But you can’t just post random photos or marketing messages to your Story — one popular way to get Gen Z’ers actively clicking on your content is through voting. All you need to do is post a photo with a question (you get 2 options for answers) and let your followers vote away! It’s a great way to not only get your followers to interact with your brand but also a way to gain valuable insight into their consumer habits, likes/dislikes, and more.
Meme Creation Contests
Many brands try — and fail — to cater to Millennials and Gen Z’ers by incorporating viral Internet memes into their social media marketing campaigns. Rather than running the risk of using a meme incorrectly, you can host a user-generated content contest emphasizing memes instead. This allows your audience members to signal what memes are popular among their age demographics and encourage them to interact with your brand on social media by incentivizing them with a contest. It’s a win-win for everyone!