By Joan Selby
Although Generation Y has often been criticized, there’s no denying the fact that its members are efficiently well-connected via image-based social media sites and apps. If you want to gain a better insight into the minds of the Millennials, there’s no better way to do it than observe and interact with them on social networks.
According to Aaron Williams, who is a writer for BestEssays, being present on social media gain a better insight into the minds of the readers. If you are a writer whose target audience are millennials, social media is where you would find them. And while we have already mentioned Facebook and Instagram, we have neglected to mention another wildly popular app: Snapchat.
With over 200 million people using it, and over 400 million images shared every day, Snapchat is definitely a platform worth exploring. Here are a few ways you can use it to address your millennial audience:
1. Create an Interesting Narrative
Instead of just promoting yourself in a very obvious and blunt manner, try to create a narrative that will spark your followers’ curiosity. For this, there is the “My Story” feature inside Snapchat, which allows you to upload several snapshots on your profile, which provides people with a chance to realize what you’re all about.
2. Do Promotions
More than 77% of college students use Snapchat in some way. More than 50% of them have used coupons they have come across on social media, which means you can use Snapchat for various promotions, such as access to exclusive content, free e-books, webinars, or courses.
3. Keep Your Audience in Suspense
While you should definitely let your audience know about promotions, you shouldn’t always reveal everything about a promotion right away. Because all of the snaps get deleted after a particular time period, if you cram everything important into a single image, it’s likely that most people won’t get to see it. Instead, share several images at different times, each revealing a single piece of the puzzle, so to speak. You can also draw out anticipation for a promotion by hinting about when one might be coming, keeping followers on the edge of their seats.
4. Let Your Personality Come through
Millennials aren’t interested in advertisements and corporate “selling. Like most people, they want someone they can relate to; and they love a good behind-the-scenes glimpse into things they are interested in. You can benefit from that by letting them get to know you as a writer on a more personal level. Provide them with a glimpse of your writing process, where you find inspiration, or some interesting elements from your personal life.
5. Interact with Your Audience
It’s not enough to just share snaps, you also need to interact with your audience, engage them in a conversation, and reply to their questions. Even by just following them, you are separating yourself from the rest, because you are providing a much more personal user experience. You can apply the same principle to all of your social media accounts, and respond whenever you have the time. Maintaining an active profile can help you out in the long run.
Conclusion: Follow Your Target Audience
Connecting with your younger audience on Snapchat is just as easy as connecting with them on any other social media platform; and, like those other places, it’s important to recognize it’s not about push-marketing, it’s about relationship building. It’s great a way for you to get know each other, and an effective means of generating engagement and interest on your work, so give it a shot!
Joan Selby is a former ESL teacher and a content marketer. She also runs her own blog about social media and writing tips. Joan is a Creative Writing graduate and fancy shoe lover. A writer by day and reader by night, giving creative touch to everything. Connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.
See other helpful articles by Joan Selby on the KWL Blog by clicking here.
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