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The Evolution of Social Media
4 Plays1 year ago
Summary
In this episode, Ashley Monk discusses the evolving landscape of social media, emphasizing the shift from social interaction to interest-driven content. She explores how different generations engage with platforms like Instagram, highlighting the unique preferences of Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. The conversation provides insights into effective marketing strategies tailored to each demographic, focusing on the importance of content quality and engagement metrics.
Takeaways
- Social media is transitioning from social interaction to interest-driven content.
- Understanding generational differences is crucial for effective marketing.
- Boomers and Gen X prefer educational and interactive content.
- Millennials value aesthetics but are shifting towards quality content.
- Gen Z seeks authenticity and relatability in brand interactions.
- Content quality and storytelling are essential for engagement.
- Short-form videos are a powerful tool for reaching new audiences.
- Engagement metrics are evolving; DMs and saves are becoming more important.
- Brands should tailor their strategies to specific generations.
- Reintroducing your brand consistently is key to attracting new followers.
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Transcript
Introduction & Host Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Anya Mike podcast, a podcast where we discuss the ins and outs of marketing, running a business and tips and tricks the industry may just not be telling you, but we will.
00:00:14
Speaker
If you're looking for inspiration on exactly how to grow your business with ambition, innovation and confidence while creating maximum impact to influence your clients like never before, you're in the right place.
00:00:26
Speaker
Grab your AirPods, pen, paper, or laptop, and let's get on your mic.
00:00:31
Speaker
Get set and grow.
00:00:33
Speaker
And now, here's your host on the mic, CEO Ashley Monk.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hey, and welcome back to the Anya Mike podcast.
00:00:45
Speaker
I am so excited that you're here and I'm so excited to be back.
00:00:48
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It has been a little
Personal Updates from Ashley
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bit of a hiatus.
00:00:50
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And since I've seen you, I have had yet another girl in the family and it is just so hard to believe.
00:00:56
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So I am now a girl mom times two.
00:00:59
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The businesses continue to grow and I am just so thrilled to be back here with you and share all about marketing today.
00:01:06
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So more on me later.
00:01:08
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I want to talk to you today about how I see social media changing.
Social Media Evolution: Interest over Social
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It's still early 2025 at the time of recording and releasing this first episode.
00:01:16
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And I can't think of a better topic to really focus on today because I've heard a few people say this social media is
00:01:24
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is changing.
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And I know that we've all thought that for years.
00:01:26
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And oftentimes we chalk that up to the algorithm changing.
00:01:30
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We chalk that up to tactics changing.
00:01:32
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But when I say social media is changing, I genuinely don't think social media is going to be as social as it's been in the past.
00:01:39
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I think it's more of an interest media.
00:01:41
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It's a way to grab attention.
00:01:42
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It's a way that you will go online to be entertained.
00:01:45
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Because when you think about the inception of social media, we think about all the times that we were connecting with friends online, that we were sharing what we were doing, that I don't know if anyone has cringy millennial Facebook statuses like I do that was sharing every restaurant that I was going to and everything, every minute of the day.
00:02:03
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But we are kind of exiting that era where social media is less social and it's more one-to-one to where maybe we'll send something to a friend so that they can see what we're into and have a one-to-one conversation.
00:02:14
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It's no longer as much of a watering hole or gathering place for people to come and share things or even engage.
00:02:21
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And that changes the metrics that we use, that changes the strategies and the tactics of what we're going to produce.
Instagram Across Generations
00:02:27
Speaker
And so I think understanding, as we're going to talk about today, the way different generations use social media is going to be critical for you refining and finessing your social media strategy moving forward.
00:02:39
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we are going to talk specifically about how to do that with Instagram because Instagram is a really powerful platform.
00:02:47
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But again, it has changed so much.
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I remember the original filters back in the day.
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I was a sucker to use all of them.
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I was posting five times a day, which it's kind of funny.
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We've gone through this entire trajectory where the pendulum has swung back.
00:03:01
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I remember before ads were a thing, before
00:03:04
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where this company was known for doing paid media, there was a season where organic traffic back in the early days, the 2010s, if you're a Gen Z or Gen Alpha that happens to be listening to this, you used to be able to post all the time, all day, without having to pay for traffic.
00:03:21
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I remember forever 21 strategy so well, they would post 10 to 20 items a day of clothes that you could buy because it was free.
00:03:29
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There wasn't a pay-per-play option like there is now, but I think so many of the platforms have caught on and I love paid.
00:03:36
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We do paid.
00:03:37
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It's incredibly important.
00:03:38
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There is also opportunity organically again, and that kind of went away on meta platforms specifically, I would say 2022 and early 2023.
00:03:48
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And that opportunity is there again with Reels.
00:03:51
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That opportunity on LinkedIn is there, but we're going to talk about Instagram specifically and why there is land grab there as well.
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And so Instagram is such a powerful tool.
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But the thing that we have to remember too is number one, the game and the tactics have changed.
00:04:06
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But number two, generations engage on social media differently.
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You can't assume that me a millennial is going to respond the way that a Gen Z-er, I don't know what we're calling Gen Z these days, or Gen Alpha is going to respond, or a boomer.
00:04:22
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There are distinctive differences between each.
00:04:25
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And so we want to make sure that there's encouraging and meaningful interactions.
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What we're going to do today that's a little bit different is we will go through generation by generation and talk about what they crave and what resonates well with them on Instagram.
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Here we go.
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Boomers and Gen X, they are really going to crave content that encourages interaction.
00:04:46
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Okay.
00:04:47
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So this is the piece that so many of us
00:04:50
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quantify and if we're selling to older millennials well and i would even say younger gen x honestly as i'm thinking of this out loud um this is kind of the origin story of social media we talked about like sharing things for social they want to foster conversation that is the um these older generations haven't grown up as much with the platforms as much as millennials and even more so gen z and gen alpha had and so they want to see credibility they want to have a conversation
00:05:17
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They're the ones on Facebook that are tagging and sharing about a new restaurant or they're going to the comment section.
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There's a reason that I love all the Karens in my life, but there is a reason that there is a nickname for Karen that's commenting and a keyboard warrior on your Facebook post.
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They want to interact with the brands and so they want to acknowledge
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their engagement.
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And that is important to them, that two-way conversation on the content, kind of like how it used to be.
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And so you'll want to tailor your Instagram.
00:05:45
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And this would, I'm saying Instagram, this is really true for any platform.
00:05:49
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You're going to want to tailor that strategy based on the generation you're
Engaging Boomers & Gen X on Instagram
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going after.
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So if you are selling to older Gen X and boomers, you're going to want to use educational posts, maybe carousels and longer captions to show detailed insights.
00:06:02
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how-to's and industry news.
00:06:03
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You're also really going to want to focus on community content.
00:06:07
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This is great for Facebook, but you can see it on Instagram too.
00:06:10
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Testimonials, that's going to be key.
00:06:12
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Highlighting your most loyal customers or creating posts that are going to spark actual discussions because they want to be a part of the conversation.
00:06:19
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They want to be involved here.
00:06:21
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And so you want to encourage interaction.
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You want to encourage questions.
00:06:25
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You want to bring this generation into the conversation because that is how they are going to engage.
00:06:30
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They're going to be visible in some ways,
00:06:32
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And this will change.
00:06:33
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That's why I say maybe Boomer and older Gen X, I think younger Gen X is starting to kind of feel we've got that pressure of no one wanting to be tracked and no one wanting to be followed.
00:06:43
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But I think it's still true.
00:06:44
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Those comments that are going to create shares and engagement, replying to them, that's going to be very, very important.
00:06:51
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I think another piece is DMing promptly and even using video content.
00:06:55
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So those are some best practices that I would say if you were going after Gen X and baby boomers online.
Millennials' Aesthetic Engagement
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Now let's talk about millennials, people after my own heart.
00:07:06
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So millennial, if you're born between 81 and 96,
00:07:11
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These millennials, I'm saying it like I'm talking about me, but we're navigating between public and private spaces.
00:07:17
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And so we're kind of this in-between generation that's very aesthetic.
00:07:21
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So I remember the theme for millennials used to be all about the Instagram grid, the aesthetic.
00:07:27
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Do you have the same filter or then if you're a photographer, the same preset that's matching?
00:07:31
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Is it interactive visually?
00:07:32
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Are there elements on there?
00:07:34
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You used to see
00:07:35
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Way back when people do same colors or like a similar photo, like of nine different squares in the grids that it would be visually appealing.
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That's kind of going away.
00:07:45
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I know I was part of the white gram generation where every photo that you posted had to have white sides.
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That is gone now.
00:07:52
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But you have to remember it's.
00:07:55
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Instagram is interesting because it was private and now you see millennials and even Gen Z becoming influencers and that becoming more public.
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And so millennials are kind of caught in the cusp of what social media was and what it's becoming.
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This in-between generation that wants private but also personalized brand interactions.
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They are expecting a little bit of aesthetic, a little bit of pleasing content to the eye.
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But all of it to say, I think some millennials hopefully are coming along to realize that, hey, it's not always about the aesthetic.
00:08:23
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It's about the quality of what you're putting out there.
00:08:25
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So how do we engage with this generation knowing kind of the context of where millennials have come from and where they're going?
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Speaker
Number one is interactive stories.
00:08:33
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So polls, quizzes, things that you can get them to engage.
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Millennials typically are going to be more prone to live in the stories on Instagram.
00:08:42
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They will post on the feed somewhat on occasion.
00:08:45
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And I think that's really important too.
00:08:48
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And we'll talk about Gen Z and Gen Alpha and how they engage different.
00:08:51
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But they're not going to be, I would say, the younger the generation, typically the less frequent that they'll be posting unless they consider themselves a creator, which we're going to talk about.
00:09:01
Speaker
But when it comes to millennials, they're going to be more engaged in stories.
00:09:05
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They're going to be still more prone to have one-to-one conversations with a creator or with a brand, but that's going to happen in the story.
00:09:11
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So polls, quizzes, and Q&A.
00:09:13
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Also short form video content.
00:09:15
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Great for millennials.
00:09:16
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Um, the aesthetic and some of those day in the life videos and vlog style content, they grew up with that.
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Remember they were some of the first generation to really be active on YouTube.
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Speaker
So it's no wonder that vlogs resonate with millennials since they've seen it and been marketed to that way for a long time.
00:09:32
Speaker
And then videos that capture attention quickly.
00:09:34
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Millennials' attention spans growing up in the information age are a bit shorter than Gen X and boomers, and so getting their attention that way.
00:09:43
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Also personalized engagement.
00:09:45
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Millennials are savvy.
00:09:46
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They can sniff out bots, and they want it to be a little bit more tailored, a little bit more nurtured.
00:09:51
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And then Instagram shopping for millennials.
00:09:54
Speaker
That one is huge.
00:09:55
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I would say TikTok shop.
00:09:56
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You're going to capture more of them over there.
00:09:58
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There's still some opportunity.
00:09:59
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And finally, behind the scenes, again, feeds into this idea of vlogs.
00:10:04
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So finally, Gen Z. How do we market the Gen Z?
00:10:09
Speaker
So 97 to 2012.
00:10:10
Speaker
My kids are Gen
Gen Z's Authenticity & Privacy Preferences
00:10:11
Speaker
Alpha.
00:10:11
Speaker
How crazy is that?
00:10:13
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which they're not even really on this list as much because they're not really prevalent in controlling purchasing decisions yet.
00:10:19
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So we'll talk about them, but probably at some point.
00:10:21
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So Gen Z, they are really on the cusp of how do we prioritize both private and authentic interactions?
00:10:28
Speaker
You're gonna notice that Gen Z, if you go on one, so interestingly enough, I think 60% of Gen Z defines themselves as some type of a content creator.
00:10:37
Speaker
So creators in the whole hierarchy of marketing,
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You've got influencers that have massive followings, anywhere from like a million to like tens of millions of followers, celebrities, influencers.
00:10:49
Speaker
And you've got micro influencers that are going to have small macro and micro.
00:10:54
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So macro probably be like 100K to a million.
00:10:58
Speaker
Micro would be within a local community.
00:11:00
Speaker
And then you've got user generated content.
00:11:02
Speaker
So some people aren't familiar with UGC, user generated content.
00:11:06
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User generated content is when someone's really good at creating content and filming videos, but they're not necessarily leveraging the credibility of their following to put them out.
00:11:16
Speaker
And so you've got a lot of Gen Z that's really good at creating content.
00:11:18
Speaker
They might be selling it to someone.
00:11:19
Speaker
They might be doing it for fun, but that identifies as a creator.
00:11:23
Speaker
So you almost have two sects of people that are essentially one is, um,
00:11:28
Speaker
Creating for fun and the other is private and so the ones that are more private and not necessarily identifying as a creator They might not even have a post on their profile, but that doesn't mean that they're not active on Instagram They're just gonna be more keen for sharing information that's relevant to them at the time And so they're looking for brands that are creating shareable content and to making it feel relatable so
00:11:47
Speaker
content strategies that you'd create.
00:11:49
Speaker
Visually appealing and aesthetic isn't as important to the millennials here.
00:11:53
Speaker
They crave raw.
00:11:54
Speaker
They want real.
00:11:55
Speaker
They've seen it all.
00:11:55
Speaker
They're growing up with AI too as they come into adulthood and into the workforce of seeing so much artificial things.
00:12:02
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And so they want it to be real.
00:12:04
Speaker
They want it to be tangible.
00:12:05
Speaker
They want it to be relatable.
00:12:07
Speaker
So this is where influencer collaborations can be really helpful for credibility, especially when you're able to humanize a brand and make it feel creatable.
00:12:15
Speaker
Creatable.
00:12:16
Speaker
When you're able to humanize a brand and make it feel relatable, that's so important.
00:12:21
Speaker
They also want to see things for their close friends list.
00:12:24
Speaker
They're going to be more inclined to market behind the scenes or to have that.
00:12:29
Speaker
I would say they live in the DMs too, so they're going to be sharing.
00:12:32
Speaker
So this is really important because the way that social media is going, I no longer think for every generation that engagement is the most important metric.
00:12:42
Speaker
Actually think that sending DMs or saves is a more important metric because if someone's bookmarking it and coming it back to later or a DM and better yet, a view, that probably is the most important thing because you're I know I'm this way to I'm more prevalent with what I like and what I engage with because I know how the algorithm works that I know more and more of it will come back to me.
00:13:01
Speaker
And so there are a lot of generations that feel that way that are going to be more selective with what they do and don't like.
00:13:07
Speaker
And Gen Z is one of them.
00:13:08
Speaker
They're not necessarily going to engage, but they might save it or share it if it really resonates with them.
00:13:13
Speaker
And so they're expecting your content to be personal, immersive, experimental and interactive in addition to gamified content.
00:13:21
Speaker
And so across the board, here are some ways.
Universal Social Media Strategies
00:13:25
Speaker
Gen Z, millennials, Gen X, they're all going to have different flavors and different styles, but there are some ways that we can engage all of them that are tried and true.
00:13:34
Speaker
And so I would say off the top, what matters for engaging every demo on social media, number one, content is king.
00:13:41
Speaker
So I know that that's not, we've, people have been saying content is king for years.
00:13:44
Speaker
I don't know where that came from.
00:13:46
Speaker
I'm inclined to credit HubSpot.
00:13:47
Speaker
Who knows if that's right or wrong, but really content is king, right?
00:13:51
Speaker
The quality of your content and what you put out there and how good it is.
00:13:54
Speaker
I love it because we are back in this age to where influencers and creators can really grow from zero to a hundred very quickly if they have great content.
00:14:02
Speaker
And so
00:14:03
Speaker
And I say great content.
00:14:04
Speaker
I mean, content that's created for a niche content that doesn't feel baby or forcing engagement content that has a clear message and is consistent time and time again, content that is telling a story, but in a way that's authentic and real, these are things that, and then content that tell that brings transparency.
00:14:21
Speaker
So that's going to be prevalent to any generation that is going on social media.
00:14:26
Speaker
And then I would say the next one is again, going to be creating views and really trying to get in front of more people.
00:14:32
Speaker
That is a trend because it used to be in years past up until really the last 18 months online, that most of your content was going toward existing followers.
00:14:40
Speaker
Now we've got this beautiful opportunity with short form videos specifically to almost have a top of funnel approach to reach new accounts and new followers that you didn't have the opportunity to reach before.
00:14:50
Speaker
And that's amazing.
00:14:52
Speaker
And so with that, there's almost a requirement to reeducate your audience on who you are
00:14:56
Speaker
what you do, who you serve, how you serve them.
00:14:58
Speaker
And so that's going to be really important to make sure that when you are producing content, that you're reintroducing yourself, you're telling your story over and over, knowing that a lot of times non-followers will be seeing it and you are trying to hook them in.
Feedback & Future Episodes
00:15:12
Speaker
I'm so curious to know what you thought.
00:15:13
Speaker
And if this is ringing true to how you use social media, if you're going to use this to apply to future strategies and campaigns, if you've noticed these generational nuances, but my hope for you would be that one takeaway it maybe stood out.
00:15:25
Speaker
Maybe it's that you need to pick a generation to market to.
00:15:28
Speaker
Maybe you've got multiple generations and you need to pick and choose what you do.
00:15:31
Speaker
Or maybe you just need to pick one tactic, like going all in on a short form video, whatever it is.
00:15:36
Speaker
I hope that this episode was helpful.
00:15:38
Speaker
So excited to be back and so excited you're here and we will see you for another episode next week.
00:15:46
Speaker
Thanks for joining us this week on the Anya Mike podcast.
00:15:49
Speaker
We'd love to hear from you.
00:15:51
Speaker
Make sure to visit our website, anyamark.com, where you can subscribe and never miss a show.
00:15:57
Speaker
While you're at it, if you found value in this episode, be sure to drop us a five-star review on iTunes and share the show with a friend to help us to continue to influence more people to create maximum impact.
00:16:08
Speaker
Tune in for next week's episode, and we'll see you then.