20-21 is not just a year, it’s also the age of a normal social media user. You are pitching your advertisements and products to a whole generation and not just a user. They have their own beliefs, their own lingo and a mob mentality to follow social media influencers & celebrities. So how do you reach us customers with an effective marketing strategy?
As marketers are betting big on social media advertisements, influencer marketing and social reach, it is important to study this diaspora of various social media platforms – who they are, what excites them, what are their interests, how they spend their time and their reactions to socio-political issues.
Understanding the World called Social Media:
The offline or real world is divided into several countries but the online world is divided into social media apps and platforms. The largest ones being owned by Facebook – Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram. Not far behind in this cold war is Google with Youtube. Other competing platforms are Twitter, Snapchat, Tiktok, Pinterest and more. Then we have country-wise homegrown platforms such as MX Takatak, Josh, Chingari in India; Weibo, WeChat, Renren and YouKu in China; and many more…
Just like the Army, Navy and Airforce for each country, social media platforms have Posts, Stories and Messengers. These armed services of Social Media platforms are equipped with features such as Filters, Emoticons, Polls, Mentions, and more…
Just like each country, every social media platform’s users have their own characteristics. Each social media platform caters to a different interest group of social media users and each of these platforms have their own Kings and Queens – the Stars with maximum following on the platform.
There are meme pages and other social pages which act like the newspapers and magazines of the offline world, imparting knowledge of current affairs or providing interesting or spicy content for daily consumption.
The general public however, plays the same role. They worship the Kings and Queen, look up to them and follow their word. They form their opinions based on the opinions of the young brains behind meme pages. And just like the normal world, this virtual world has also built some inherent hierarchies with a few controlling the consensus of many.
Every person’s role is defined in the social media world as is in the normal offline world. Just like salary appraisals in jobs, we have 100k or 1M followers on social media while Promotions are equal to the Verified Badge or Blue Tick.
But who are the Gods of the social media world? Well, the owners of these platforms deserve this stature – Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Evan Spiegel and a few more. They have the ability to monitor everyone, listen to the prayers of all the inhabitants of the social world, control their actions and reactions as well as ban normal people from their world (platform).
Now let’s find out who social media users are and how to advertise to them.
Think about social media users as youngsters moving out of their teens, thus the age 20-21. These users adapted to social media lifestyle in last 5 years and certain traits are now embedded into them. These are some common ONLINE TRAITS of a normal social media junkie:
- Peer-driven aspirations
- Being youthful and showing off
- Social Recognition as Growth
- Friendship and Adventure is content
- Freedom and Fun trump Responsibilities
But how do you recognize an average social media junkie offline? Most of us, today, are tuned to hours and hours of social media surfing on multiple apps. Gone are those days that humans would interact with each other in person and live in a reality where things were tangible. We now live in a world which is virtual – a world where eyes have been replaced by cameras and the 3D reality has been constrained to a 2D mobile screen. The footprint of our social media usage is clearly visible in our daily lives as our body language, manners and gestures have been replaced by the following habits:
- Mobile in hand and eyes on mobile
- Swiping fingers for exercise
- Detached from the world with wireless airpods
- Followers pursuing these junkies and they in turn pursuing cameras
Most of us are now on social media and it has transformed our daily offline activities to new online activities:
- Daily evening playdates are now social tags & mentions
- Sharing memes is new socializing
- Sharing life in stories instead of secret diaries
- The short forms (LOL) instead of love songs – OMG
- ‘Food for Thought’ is now ‘Food for Posts’
- Tag It and Bag It is now Online
What’s funny though is how our bios have changed from professional resumes with our experience and character well defined in crisp and concise words to:
- Everyone being a Public Figure and Influencer
- Birthdays defined as “First Cry On” or “Landed on Earth On”
- And our identities being “Papa ki Pari”, “Doston ka Dost” etc
Overall, the population of this online or social media world is more impulse driven. They fancy the products that they want to purchase. Their buying decisions are not just influenced but they are commanded by their revered celebs and influencers. These users have high purchasing power and costly desires which makes them ideal for technology as well as products which can create urges such as food, travel and novelties.
They want products which can help them be distinct from their peers. These products should speak to their aspirations, individuality and identity. Once they find the right product-identity fit, they make quick buying decisions, therefore, discounts and LTO (limited time offers) convert into purchases at exceptionally high rates. The rationale of usable value of the product is not one of the strong suits of this social media population. The value perceived is virtual and it should boost their aspirational egos in short term rather than long term. Thus, stylish designs and packaging are an important part of the product being pitched to them.
The potential of marketing a product on social media is immense or even infinite. A curated social media strategy with the right mix of boost by celebrities, real time intent and frequent reminders are commandments for social media advertisers to follow.
Mindless (www.mindless.in) is a digital martech agency that helps businesses with their social media presence and advertisements along with other digital presence such as website development, mobile apps, SEO and digital marketing. With our comprehensive checklists and detailed processes, we are able to quickly and flawlessly build and execute social media strategies at scale. We produce content that engages and advertisements that convert into purchases.
Seamlessly implement these bulletproof digital Social Media Strategies at low cost with Mindless.
Our team members have worked with over 100 hotels & 350 restaurant clients to build their online business and social media presence, scaling some of them by 500% in one year. We provide beautiful and efficient Social Media Optimization services for more organic exposure and revenue. We take care of their social media presence of our hotel clients and also create their awareness using multiple social platforms.
Feel free to reach us on ceo@mindless.in for all the digital requirements of your business.