According to new research by The Manifest¹, the majority of people from every generation are now using social media daily.

Most generations share similar social media platforms and usage habits. People under the age of 23, though, use social media a bit differently than their older counterparts.

To engage your audience across demographics and behaviors, you need a diverse strategy. Use this article to review the best way to approach social media promotion across teams.

The Importance of Market Segmentation by Age Group in Creating Content

Gen Z Uses Social a Lot, Usually on YouTube

Gen Z, broadly defined as people born between 1997 and 2012, uses social media multiple times per day.

YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are the social platforms favored by Gen Z. Most of them (90%) visit YouTube at least once a week.

Source: The Manifest

Most Gen Zers avoid Facebook; only 36% of them visit the platform each week.

Millennials Are Regular Social Users Across Various Platforms

Nearly all millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996 (89%), use social media multiple times per day and tend to divide their time across several social platforms.

To connect with millennials, brands should consider marketing on Facebook and YouTube, since nearly 90% of them (89%) visit each platform at least once a week.

The majority of people in this age group also visit Instagram and Snapchat at least once a week.

Baby Boomers and Gen X Prefer Facebook

Generation X and Boomers, born between 1946 and 1980, have a strong preference for Facebook. Nearly all of them (90%) visit the platform at least once a week.

Only one-third of Gen X uses Snapchat at least once a week.

Baby Boomers are catching up with social media trends, but still prefer Facebook over all other social platforms. Nearly all of them (96%) visit Facebook weekly, and over half also use YouTube at least once a week.

Snapchat is not the channel to use to connect with this generation. Only 5% of baby boomers use Snapchat weekly.

Source: Pew Research

All generations respond best to visual content, so posting images and videos is an excellent choice for all generations.

How to Tailor Content to Your Industry

To tailor social media content for your industry instead of by age group, begin by researching your competition to learn:

• What type of content is working
• What platforms are driving the highest engagement
• How often and when to post to social media

Each social media platform provides free insights that give you a detailed understanding of who your audience is and what causes them to engage with you.

How to Tailor Content to Your Audience’s Personality

Another way to avoid marketing to different age groups is to focus on getting to know the personalities of the people in your audience.

Through testing different types of content and measuring the results with analytics, you can develop content around a personality type rather than your industry or age groups.

For example, find out if your audience responds to personalities that are:

• Humorous
• Inspirational
• Informative
• Newsworthy
• Athletic

Tailoring content to your audience’s personality can deliver amazing results.

For example, Denny’s Restaurant displays a unique sense of humor that seems odd to most people but generates consistently high engagement from its audience.

Source: Twitter

Catering to your audience’s personality often comes with a learning curve, but it allows you to develop a highly-engaged audience.

Connecting with Your Audience on Social Media

Brands can connect with people on social media by catering to age groups, industry, or personality. Whichever approach you take, social media insights will help to refine your focus for greater results.

1. How Different Generations Use Social Media

Grayson Kemper manages and produces content as a Content Marketing Manager at Clutch, a unique platform that allows businesses to find, compare, and shortlist services and software for their needs.