In a 2022 report, the U.S. Census designates Generation Z as “the youngest generation with adult members (born 1997 to 2013)”. Statistics Canada used 1997 to 2012, citing Pew Research Center, in a 2022 publication analyzing their 2021 census. (Source: wikipedia.org) This generation is growing up in the world of technology and digital social media. This has created their unique characteristic in communication, culture, and commerce.
The popular social media platforms among Gen Z are TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Discord. These platforms are used to promote their creativity and make it viral trends. They use it for online shopping. They prefer the digital way and not the traditional real shop purchasing. Also, Gen Z uses the platform to connect with peers to share their hobbies and create spaces that can make them engage more deeply than any traditional social media. We can always see the Ozford Gen Z students using the digital devices to connect the world and their friends.
The use of social media trends by Gen Z has influenced the marketing and branding. It is engaging with the media influencers and utilizing the user-generated content to attract the Gen Z buyers. The rise of micro-influencers who may have smaller followers but emphasize quality over quantity. The social activism is using the social media platform to promote the matters they believe in. Gen Z prefers to use visual communication, emojis, memes or GIF animations to express themselves.
Understanding Gen Z’s social media behaviour is important for anyone looking to recruit, promote and sell their products to them. They have deeply reshaped the digital platforms according to their behaivour. It has created new opportunities and challenges for users and brands alike. You understand and know their behaviour, you have wider and bigger influencing.
According to Tina Le who looks after Digital Marketing Media at Ozford, social media should be used reasonably to be helpful and advantageous, but users should not continue clicking and posting for hours on end. This is superior to withdrawing from social media because it enables one to detect and proactively manage obsessive social media habits.