When someone says “social media platform”, the first demographic everyone thinks of is Millennials. This generation is the ultimate social media consumer, they have grown up with the technology of the digital age, and it has become an essential part of their individualities. So, not doubting that the younger generation like Gen Z will also continue this trend, the habits and desires of Millennials are the priorities of social media developers. You ask why? Millennials are currently the biggest demographic in the world, and their buying potential keeps growing with the noted positive effect of social media advertising. According to surveys that are constantly conducted among this generation, here are the ways that social media platforms will develop and adjust in 2017.
Spotlight on ratings and reviews
This generation is notorious for their perception of – and reaction to – various traditional marketing strategies. They have basically caused the ground beneath the entire world of marketing experts to shift and along the way have given headaches to many noted names in the industry. The formula that works for this group is ratings and reviews. This generation is addicted to user-generated content. It doesn’t matter if they want to buy lunch, a smart phone, or a house – they will not make a decision without consulting with fellow Millennials. A good review from a young person living on the other side of the world will have a greater effect than high-profile advertising done locally. Millennials have thus developed the habit of rating everything, and this is expected to increase from this point on. So one should be prepared for social media platforms that enable even more review and rating methods.
Changing the basis of office communication methods
The older part of the Millennials generation remembers a time when the boss did not allow social media to be used in the workplace. Multiple companies provided software in order to block their employees from entering their Facebook, Twitter, and other social media accounts. However, the situation has drastically changed in the last few years, and now we see that some companies want their employees to have a social media profile that can be used for marketing purposes. As this generation is inevitably getting older, Millennials are taking over leadership positions in multiple industries and are changing communication and advertising policies. It is expected that in the year 2017 even more work-related communication will be done via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. It shouldn’t be surprising if a business-oriented social media platform emerges, similar to LinkedIn, that allows instant communication among people from the same industries.
The echo chamber effect – a blessing or a curse?
The strong connection between Millennials and social media is confirmed and reaffirmed each day. This phenomenon has resulted in a very large percentage of the entire generation who reportedly get their news and general info online via their preferred social media platform. As we all know by now, these platforms use algorithms that generate news stories that respond to individual users and their particular interests. Now this is something Millennials generally like – having things customized to their needs, however it is rather problematic. The overall result of this phenomenon is the so-called echo chamber effect – meaning that many people only see the news they want to see and hear from others who have similar interests and views. The negative impact of living in this form of isolation may result in decreasing the number of Millennials who use social media to get information and news.
New Year’s resolution 2017: Getting rid of social media addiction?
This may sound a bit harsh, but realistically speaking, Millennials are slowly entering the phase of their lives when stability and an overall sense of happiness, fulfillment, and joy is their main goal. Despite the fact that, according to an Infusionsoft survey, 90 percent of young adults from this generation use social media, one may expect a decline in the overall usage of social media going forward. Millennials grew up with these media platforms, and most of them use social media throughout the day. On the other hand, as this generation is becoming more mature they are starting to realize that these social media platforms present a well of unhappiness. Due to this fact, it is expected that most Millennials will change their favorite social media platforms as the old favorites become too childish for their needs, and will try to reduce the amount of time they spend on their profiles on a daily basis.
I <3 emojis
The generation that has grown up in a fast-changing world, and that always lacks the time to get every single project done while not jeopardizing their social lives, has caused social media developers to develop fast methods of communication. Thus emojis were born. In a world where maturing Millennials are dealing with a constant lack of time, the need to have tools that provide them the opportunity to communicate quickly and easily is getting bigger each day. Despite the fact that emojis have evolved so much in the past few years that they can replace entire sentences, it is inevitable that these tools for fast and concise communication will be evolving further.
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