6 Ways Brands Readily Use Instagram to Market to Gen Z’ers

After the Millennials, came a new breed of “Generation Z’ers.”  In order for you to market to Gen Z’ers, you need to understand what we’re talking about.  While there’s no exact age cutoff to define this young generation, most tend to group anybody born between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s demographic.  

Perhaps the greatest defining trait of Gen Z’ers is their lifelong engulfment in the Internet and mobile technology. In other words, they’ve never known life without cell phones or easily accessing the Web.

With that said, there’s no denying their psychological differences and how we as marketers need to adapt.

For the sake of advertising, it’s safe to assume that nearly every Gen Z’er regularly uses social media – especially Instagram.  If you market to Gen Z’ers, cater to their trends and social ideologies, you will surely organically grow Instagram followers and make your brand appeal to even the savviest demographic.

As such, a huge responsibility for your brand is keeping up with this quick-paced and ever-changing demographic on social media. To help you out, we’ve listed six of the most effective methods to market to Gen Z’ers on Instagram:

1) Investigate to Market to Gen Z’ers Consumer Mindset

The only way to develop a truly successful digital marketing campaign is to understand your target audience inside and out. Given that most brands today tend to associate Gen Z’ers with their target demographic, it’s time to connect on a personal level.

We can only learn so much about a group of individuals through the web. If you don’t have Gen Z’ers at home or working at your company, interviewing avid consumers and social media users from this era is a sure-fire way to get the scoop on that they’re shopping for and what they find engaging in their feed.

2) Maintain a Fun and Consistent Story

Quick and easy content – need I say more? As Snapchat took Gen Z’ers by storm in 2011, they have become accustomed to this process of viewing and posting unscripted, temporary content.

Instagram recently adopted this story feature and it has completely changed the way users are engaging with the app. Give your followers a behind-the-scenes look at your brand with some fun videos and photos. Remember that stories are only viewable for 24 hours; so be sure to post often.

3) Keep Tabs On Gen Z’ers’ Favorite Accounts

This suggestion is to be used purely for inspirational purposes. Many brands fail to incorporate any individuality on their Instagram and wind up posting the same content as their competitors. This strategy will unfortunately fail to organically grow Instagram followers. 

It’s important to note what tactics are working within your industry, and how you can build off that while maintaining an original brand image.

4) Be a Valuable Information Outlet

Gen Z’ers turn to social media for the news. If you can make your account a reliable source for pressing information while staying true to the roots of your brand, you’ve mastered a difficult feat that many are unable to achieve.

Brands such as Toms and Brita have the advantage of being a socially responsible company. As such, they can regularly post social awareness tidbits on their account because of the relevance to their brand message.

5) Use the Power of Video

You can thank YouTube for the Gen Z’ers’ love of short video clips. Depending on your brand image, many Gen Z’ers agree high or low-quality videos are equally acceptable if the content is engaging enough.

This means video content for social media is getting easier to generate – for now.

6) Acknowledge Values Beyond Material Goods

While many have perceived a life entirely immersed in the Web to be a negative trait, Gen Z’ers are actually more socially and environmentally conscious than previous generations. Use this sudden realization to your advantage when generating Instagram content for your brand.

There’s no denying the strenuous task of effectively marketing to this younger era. Consider these tips when revamping your brand’s Instagram account for the most prosperous digital marketing campaign possible.