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Unlike many might assume, older generations are active on social media. According to research, Facebook and YouTube are the most used platforms among Gen X and baby boomers, where they tend to research products and brands and follow influential people. These demographics are rarely tapped into by marketers, but it is possible to adopt a winning strategy to reach older generations.
The Most Overlooked Generations
Currently, when it comes to social media and influencer marketing, the big focus lies on Gen Z and millennials. By doing so, many brands are sidelining the generations that have the most spending power: Gen X and baby boomers. In addition, this misconstrued idea that older demographics are not on social media is a myth. In fact, baby boomers and Gen X spend approximately one to two hours on social platforms daily.
These older demographics tend to look for new brands and research products online. It’s also interesting for brands to know that more than half of boomers who see something on a social network will continue their search on a search engine or by visiting the relevant website.
Fifty-two percent of boomers and 56% of Gen X make their buying decisions based on online reviews, not to mention that more than half follow brands on social media for deals and promotions. Quite obviously, there’s a huge potential for influencer marketing in this space.
Bearing this in mind, we always carefully analyze the influencers we work with to ensure their audience matches the ideal audience for a specific campaign. In doing so, we can clearly see that older generations are active on social media, and they follow influencers just like younger generations do.
But Which Social Media Channels?
While Facebook and YouTube are indeed the most used social channels, Gen X and boomers are also on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The reason behind their high Facebook usage is to remain in contact with friends and family. They also like to follow influential people and groups, and the possibility to easily share what they find useful or interesting is very appreciated.
Over half of the members of older generations watch YouTube content, usually looking for DIY tutorials. On this platform, we’ve found that they also like to follow TV celebrities, politicians, writers and those who are passionate about online gaming (including gamers themselves).
Which Influencers Are Best To Reach This Audience?
On Facebook, we have found that older generations normally prefer to follow personalities they see on TV or hear on the radio and want to know more about their real lives. It’s important to note that these are not the same influencers we would suggest for a campaign targeting younger generations. However, these celebrities have built trust among the older audiences due to years of work on broadcast channels.
We’ve noticed that boomers and Gen X also follow micro-influencers who share informative, educational and cultural content, in line with the generations’ interests and needs. These profiles share, for example, tips on physical exercises, quotes from books or opinions on political situations. Older generations seem to feel a close connection with these smaller influencers and enjoy being part of a community that shares ideas and suggestions. If you choose to go the micro-influencer route, look for an influencer with no more than around 50,000 followers.
The same affection is not generally shown for YouTubers, since older generations rarely subscribe to a channel. However, YouTube surprisingly remains one of the most used social media platforms for Gen X and baby boomers. They use it as a self-education tool for DIY, food, arts, crafts and beauty.
So, in the context of an influencer marketing campaign, it is possible to leverage creators to produce sponsored videos showcasing a product or service, but you’ll want to work on the SEO to increase the visibility of the sponsorship with an older target audience.
In order to do that, carefully think about the benefits and challenges associated with what you want to sponsor. This notion will help you find the right keywords for your target audience. Besides, as older audiences want to deep-dive information before finalizing a purchase, your video should have a very attractive title, maybe even including a “how to” keyword to attract their interest. Tags end up being useful as well, especially if they are terms referring to specifics of your product/service.
A Winning Influencer Marketing Strategy
I’d recommend including these tips in your strategy to successfully influence Gen X and baby boomers:
Discuss the benefits of your offer. Why should they purchase your product or service? What exactly can they improve in their life if they decide to make the final purchase?
Show the usage. Visualizing the benefits of the product or service makes the campaign message much stronger and the advantages more trustworthy.
Add a link to your website or brand social page. This generation always looks for more information, so when advertising on social media, you will likely have more conversions if you redirect this audience to the exact page where they can find all the details of the product or service.
Solicit reviews and UGC. Incentivizing others to share reviews or user-generated content (UGC) could amplify the strength of the campaign as you are adding word of mouth over the social platforms. Keep in mind that working with influencers can be a great way to encourage UGC and reviews, which will push you one step closer to driving purchase consideration in these generations.
In conclusion, there is a huge potential for influencer marketing toward these generations that make significant purchasing decisions. The key takeaway is to understand the unique needs of each consumer and adopt the right strategy to target them. All in all, if you want to reach older generations on social media, it is a great idea to include influencer marketing in your strategy by following our tips.
