How Millennials are Engaging with Brands Online

As a millennial, I know that brands are continually scratching their head over marketing to my age group. We’re now the most lucrative market, and have overtaken boomers as the largest generation. Almost every marketer is now making millennials a priority, or at least trying to understand how they can better connect with us.

4imprint has recently released an excellent video about how millennials are engaging with brands online. Since millennials are always online, the most successful companies and brands are working hard to keep them engaged.

Personally, I follow many different brands on social media these days. On Instagram, I’m a fan of Anastasia Beverley Hills, Urban Decay, and Too Faced. Not only do they post about new products, but they release makeup tutorials and gorgeous pics of their products being used by vloggers and makeup artists.

I also follow a number of travel blogs just to see the photos of the destinations they’re visiting on Instagram.

If you’ve never Tweeted your displeasure at a company, you haven’t lived. A while ago I was having issues with a claim from World Nomads, and named and shamed on Twitter. The company eventually resolved the issue, and I made sure to let the Twitterverse know. These are the types of interactions that my mother would never dream of having with brands, and yet they build up a level of trust with consumers when they know that they can get immediate answers to their questions, complaints, and concerns on social media.

I’ve also been known to like a restaurant on Facebook simply because they give you an appetiser or desert in exchange. Is this bribery? Sure. But it’s the kind of bribery I can get behind.

Millennials are living in an age of information overload. We’re continually being barraged by brands, all wanting our hard-earned money. The brands that stand out are the ones that are providing interesting, helpful, or funny content. There’s a reason why some brands are doing so well with Facebook videos, and others have failed miserably. My generation grew up with technology, and we can also see right through thinly veiled advertising.

We’re all looking for authenticity. If a friend tells us they’ve shopped at a new store, we’re much more likely to go check it out than if that store sends out a flyer in the mail. And if a beauty vlogger begins raving about a recently launched product, we’ll take their word over the makeup company’s.

We also want brands to speak to us in our own language. This is something that Taco Bell does well with its “Millennial Word of the Week”. The company uses words that have been curated by employees in their 20s, and then sends out emails on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Since Taco Bell is known for having a large slice of the younger generations as customers, they use the way they talk to understand what they want.