To Social Media Marketers, From A Gen Z Consumer

I’ve been seeking summer internship opportunities, mostly in digital (social) media marketing, for about 3 months now. In the process, I’ve sent my resume (or a summarised version) to more than 50 companies, received email replies from almost 20 HR personnel, prepared and went for 12 interviews (3 physical + 9 online/call), created 2 self-introductory videos + 1 micro-learning program, and wrote 2 essays + 2 digital marketing proposals (or the equivalent in answering questions via email). All, but to no avail.

To not let my efforts go to waste, I’ve consolidated some key takeaways with regards to digital (social) media marketing in this article. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Gen Z-ers may not have been "digital pioneers", but we are definitely "digital natives".

That said, I must preface this article by mentioning I’m not claiming to represent all Gen Z-ers. I am simply making observations and voicing my opinions as a member of Gen Z. Allow me to present a brief overview of my background in digital (social) media marketing and I’ll leave it to you to decide whether I’m worth hearing out.

I’m currently in charge of managing multiple social media accounts for a major school organisation, where my team plans, designs and schedules social media publicity content across multiple platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn) and maintains subsequent engagement.

I also run a public Instagram account (@blogbycayenne), where I post movie reviews and commentary on pop culture, accompanied by this website which hosts my portfolio of articles and entries I’ve written for professional and personal purposes over the years. (Note: These are merely outlets for my creativity, so I’m not concerned with building a following – unlike social media for a company/ business/ personal brand.)

Doing all the above concurrently, in addition to having recently completed 8 LinkedIn Learning courses (about 5 hours’ worth) on digital (social) media marketing, has taught me many things. I’ve broken down what I learnt into the following 3 aspects.

Content Strategy

A company, or personal brand, must establish a specific purpose for each social media platform (intended to be) used. The same purpose could apply across multiple platforms, but you still have to recognise and understand what it is. The purpose(s) will then dictate what content should be created and posted, who to target as your social media audience and how frequently you should be engaging on the platform. Investing some time and effort in maintaining a social media content calendar will be extremely helpful in not only planning and scheduling content, but also providing an overview of your social media presence and cohesiveness of your overall branding.

Content Analytics

One of the best things about social media is the data it provides. Even with zero prior knowledge or experience in data analytics, the “insights” provided by in-built software on the social media platforms make it relatively easy to understand for amateurs.

Taking Instagram as an example, the “insights” have 3 categories: content, activity and audience. Use this data to determine what content works for your social media audience. The popular or trendy style of your content doesn’t guarantee its success or effectiveness. Just because you’re targeting a certain market segment doesn’t mean they’re the ones engaging with your content. Your follower count pales in significance compared to your engagement rate: Gen Z-ers notice when an account has more than 1,000 followers but an average of 20 likes per post.

Simply put, use data to back or challenge your assumptions!

Content Itself

You don’t need me to tell you the various social media platforms have different user demographics and content formats. I can, however, provide you with some context as to how I use social media as a 21-year-old female university student.

On one hand, I don’t use Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok in my own time. Facebook is commonly deemed by my peers and juniors as “for the older generation”, though a source reports recent data that shows the largest group of Facebook users is aged between 25 and 34. (Then again, it wasn’t explicitly stated in the source whether “Facebook users” are active/ regular users on the platform.) There’s barely anyone I know personally who’s a Twitter user. While TikTok challenges are justifiably fun, easy and popular among my demographic (more so my juniors), they’re just not my thing. Yet.

On the other hand, I use Instagram and YouTube on my phone, every day. On Instagram Stories, I view my close friends’ IG stories (with no sound) and try my best to ignore all sponsored stories. On my main feed, I ‘like’ a few posts, scroll past all sponsored posts, and DM my friends if I have something to say instead of commenting on their posts. I also cringe when brands, personal or corporate, go overboard with their Instagram tile designs – e.g. when consecutive 3-tile banners make up the bulk of their posts. These look great on the account profile but unless each post design works on its own, they just look fragmented when they appear in a user’s main feed. There’s some validity in these fragmented posts piquing viewers’ curiosity and maybe leading them to visit your account profile, but as with all things, do so in moderation.

If you decide to use YouTube as part of your social media marketing, hats off to you. Videos undeniably require more resources to conceptualise and produce (and edit!), and your best bet is to get your content recommended by the proverbial “YouTube algorithm”. (Here’s an article that delves deeper into how it all works. Key concept: SEO) As a person who can spend an entire day watching YouTube videos, the No. 1 issue that turns me away is the lack of screen presence. In other words, if you’re putting up a video that involves people talking on camera, those people have to look natural on camera. I admittedly don’t look natural on camera, just like many non-public figures, but as viewer of more than a thousand YouTube videos at this point, I can attest to the difference screen presence makes. How to improve screen presence? I have no idea – maybe try watching some YouTube tutorials?

LinkedIn is a whole other ball game because it’s not just social media, it’s professional networking. Because I can hardly consider myself to have any experience in this field, here’s a pretty comprehensive beginner’s guide to LinkedIn marketing.

I must reiterate that my thoughts and opinions don’t represent those of all Gen Z-ers. In fact, this in itself brings up something marketers shouldn’t do – target Gen Z-ers assuming they’re all the same. We might have similar characteristics to one another, but probably like other generations, prefer not to be labelled as such.

Ultimately, there's no hard-and-fast rule when it comes to social media because every company/ business/ personal brand is different. What works for others may not work for you.

Nonetheless, I can offer an insider tip to reach Gen Z-ers: If you can, find a way into the communication networks within tertiary educational institutes. Polytechnics, universities, and other institutes tend to have well-established networks (e.g. Telegram channels) continually passed down from seniors to juniors. Ta da! There exist pools of hundreds of Gen Z-ers, phones already attached to their hands, open to hear what you have to say.

Thank you for reading my article! Have a great day ahead and stay safe!

Cover image by bongkarn thanyakij from Pexels