Who is Generation Z? Anyone born between roughly 1995 and 2010.
You’ve likely already heard that this tech-savvy group has an attention span of eight seconds, but here are six more Gen Z statistics that might inform how you market to the cohort on social media.
1. Gen Z makes up around 26% of the U.S. population
Take a seat, Gen Y. Millennials might be the most researched generation to date, but Gen Z is here and they also have buying power. In fact, some of them are already old enough to be in college. Soon it won’t be long until they start career, families, and spending even more money.
Marketers are used to targeting Millennials on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It turns out their successors gravitate towards disappearing content platforms like Snapchat, and anonymous messaging networks like Whisper. According to the 2014 Facebook Demographic Report, 25 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds left Facebook in 2014.
This means that marketers who want to reach a younger audience will have to adapt their social strategy to include new networks.
Companies like Dove are already targeting Generation Z with ad campaigns on Whisper. Unlike a promoted ad or sponsored post, Whisper gives brands ownership of keywords—these are called ”brandwords.” Every time a user punches in words like “hair” and “hairstyle,” they are served Dove-branded backgrounds to use for their Whisper post.
3. The majority of Generation Z, 52%, uses social media for research assignments
A Pew Research Centre study shows that Gen Z is using social media to learn online. Now—more than simply a discovery tool for products and memes—Generation Z uses social media for working with classmates and as an education resource.
As more of Generation Z uses social media as a learning tool, brands can engage them by offering educational content. This works in favor of dedicated online learning organizations like Udacity, who partner with industry leaders to provide degree certification on topics like digital advertising and social media…
