Hello, my name is Graham, and I’m a Millennial. I’m very unique, and your company is struggling to reach my peers. We’ve never known life without an overabundance of technology, and it shows. We are extremely good at multitasking and are too busy texting one another, tweeting about that new celebrity, watching that awesome cat video on Youtube, posting our new favorite band on our Facebook, and browsing Pinterest for the latest styles to hear what you have to say.
So how do you get our attention?
Show us that you WANT to engage with us
Make the move to social media. Since we are already there, it’s a good place to engage with us. Traditional advertising doesn’t work as effectively with my generation because we don’t engage with it. Showing a willingness to talk with us makes us more trusting of your brand.
Keep in mind that we are very needy…
We have the attention spans of two year olds (on a good day) — so content needs to be concise, relevant and engaging. Promises, sales gimmicks, and jingles will no longer get the sale.
Heed our distrust of corporate America
There is a distrust of big corporations among my generation. Companies can overcome this by supporting a cause that is a concern to us. Cause-based initiatives give companies a human quality, which we appreciate.
Make us laugh
We love that funny clip, and we love sharing it with all our friends. Making a funny video or other content can be a great way to get our attention. It is important to note, however, that there is a very fine line between funny and irrelevant (I told you, we are needy!).
This is not everything on how to reach my friends and I, but it is a solid start. We want to feel like individuals not targets, and we will take notice of the little things companies do to make us feel like we count. Engage with us, and we will support you.
Graham has spent his summer as an EIM intern, supporting our business development and web marketing teams in social media strategy and content development, market research, and proposal writing. His millennial perspective has gotten us all in touch with our youth. What a summer!
(Above image sourced from: projectglobalgeneration.com/)
