TAKEAWAY: Millenials are always connected, but they prefer content generated by their peers.
Image from TechnomicBlog (https://blogs.technomic.com/millennials-shape-digital-marketing-efforts/)
In the early 2000s we were discovering media consumers of the “always on” generation.
At that time, today’s so called “millenials” were in elementary or middle school, already attached to a digital device to play games, perhaps.
Now, those same millenials are redefining media consumption: not only are they more “always on” than previous generations, but they are also “always on and ready for content published by their peers.”
We in the media may spend time and effort researching what these millenials want to consume, but they have their own idea, and they seem to like stuff produced and curated by those in their own age group.
One thing is for sure: those millenials do spend time consuming information, according to new research from Crowdtap, a social analytics platform :
“Millennials are apparently spending 18 hours per day consuming media. The hours are compounded, meaning that a person watching TV and checking Instagram at the same time for one hour would rack up two hours of media consumption—one for each device.”
Even more interesting is the fact that Crowdtap found out
that 30% of millennials’ media time is spent with content created and curated by their peers. Not only are they consumers, they are also publishers, it seems.
What are publishers to do with this data?
Obviously, they need to keep an eye on what social networks are doing?
What trends are social networks projecting and reviewing?
Where are the millenials on your staff? Bring them out and put them in a position where they can guide content decisions. Have them write blogs and columns.
More importantly, curate content specifically geared to mobile platforms and schedule it to coincide with times of the day when these millenials may be seeking a calming moment with their content, even if it is for 3-5 minutes.