Generation Gap: How People of Different Ages View User-Generated Content
The word “millennial” is thrown around quite a bit and many marketers are greatly concerned with how to reach this group of consumers. Which raises the question, just how do you interact with different age groups across social media?
The vast majority of people use social media to talk about companies; from celebrities to friends to your mom, people take to social to discuss a newly discovered yoga clothing company or share a photo of a meal made with the aid of their favorite local produce delivery service. However there is a great difference in the way different generations do this social sharing. Millennials to baby boomers, it varies widely how people of different ages might create, consume, and share user-generated content.
Put frankly, people trust consumer images more than traditional branded content. You might love your content but your buyers likely don’t. That’s why we’ve seen a huge push towards influencer marketing and, as mentioned before, user-generated content (UGC). UGC is any type of content that has been created and shared by unpaid contributors, aka loyal fans. Photos, videos, tweets, blogs, doesn’t matter what it is – if a user is promoting a brand rather than the brand itself, it’s UGC. Authentic, honest content (not polished, exaggerated advertising from the brand itself) is what consumers want.
Social marketing platform Olapic polled 1000 U.S. residents age 16-65 to learn how people of different generations view user-generated content. According to Olapic’s survey, millennials trust user-generated content more than baby boomers but both groups trust UGC more than brand-created content. Other stats back up this idea and say that 86% of millennials believe UGC is a good reflection of a brand’s quality. According to eMarketer, 68% of social media users ages 18 to 34 are likely to take into account posts shared on social when making a purchasing decision.
It’s easy to see why UGC is so powerful and successful and why your brand shouldn’t ignore it! Read the infographic below to learn more about how to build trust through UGC.
