EP 20 Millennials vs Gen Z: How They Show Up & Consume on Social Media
Harley & Sonia are both Millennials but born almost a decade apart, they have unique perspectives on how each age group is using social media. On this episode, the duo discuss and dissect the differences between the consumption and content creation done by Brands & Creators from each era.
Timestamps:
[1:05] How do Millennials show up on online vs Gen Z?
[4:02] The content they are posting.
[7:54] "Curated" vs "casual."
[10:14] Advertising to Gen Z.
[12:09] The usage habits between these two generations.
[16:06] Closing thoughts and takeaways.
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LINKS:
Find Harley:
IG: @theharleyjordan
Website: https://www.theharleyjordan.com/
Find Sonia:
IG: @Sonia.elyss
Website: https://www.soniaelyss.com/
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00:00
Welcome to brand meet Creator Podcast with me Harley Jordan and Sonia Elise, a place where we pull back
0:06
the curtain and the trashy filters on the influencer marketing industry.
0:10
So pull up a chair and grab a notebook, it's time to shed some light
0:13
on the ever changing. It's diverse. Harley in social media, I think you know, there is a great divide, and that is Millennials verse Gen Z, the way they use the ABS the way they are represented on the abs, it's just a major shift in all things app based, especially when it comes to social media. So I'm dying to know your thoughts as someone who is she's not part of Gen Z, folks don't get it twisted, but she is almost a decade younger than I am. So we're close to representing these two groups. What are you thinking? How are you seeing brands and creators? Let's start there. How are you seeing brands and creators in these demographics? Show up differently on the apps? What's happening out there?
1:13
Yeah, I think right now you definitely see a different creation style and what feels comfy across the app, I think on Instagram you have and we were kind of talking about this last time where we had this Instagram upbringing of, you know, you know, to LIKE and comment and like, there was a whole phase of like, picture perfect. And everyone's using this, like, beautiful preset, and everything's filtered and phase tuned. And like all of that jazz. And now, I think what we're seeing really with this Gen Z era is this casualness. And for me, it feels it feels almost frantic. Like, okay, pause, pause, Pat, can we can we look at it before? Can we look at it? Before we press post?
1:55
I would agree. I would say when I'm looking at brands and creators, in these two groups on the apps trying to show up consistently, etc. I think that brands that are targeting or run by Millennials are showing up with much more strategy. They're much more we'd like to hit five times a week. And we really want to see an increase in engagement. And we're looking at our analytics, yeah, how's your shop, doing, et cetera. And, you know, creators and brands that are for Gen Z, or owned by Gen Z, are really more, I guess, frantic, seems a little bit negative, I guess. But they really are more open to experimentation. They're going with the flow, they're jumping on the trends.
2:45
They're lenders, yeah, there's a lot of fly by the wind,
2:49
absolutely. Which I love. I love to see people experiment. And I think that they're just maybe more realistic, that, you know, a brand can be made or broken. And an influencer can be created overnight. If you are really diving in and giving it your all. And people of the millennial era are more like slow and steady. Let's see what happens. I'll test this and then we'll measure and then we'll reflect. And Gen Z just doesn't do that.
3:23
They just post and I what I think is most interesting is I mean, I think this is where that lack of a niche concept that's kind of floating around Instagram right now, like kind of came up, because you have Gen Z, who is just like rapid fire telling about their lives. And even though these videos aren't necessarily doing better, that clapback content, and what they're putting out is so much content that at some point, yeah, you're just gonna hit off. Yeah, you're, you're gonna see some success at some point just for sheer numbers.
4:00
Mm hmm. And let's talk about like, the actual content that they're putting up to me on both ends. The content itself, for someone who's a millennial is more calming. I think it's a little bit more of the aesthetics, vibe, right? There's a lot of beige, there's a lot of neutrals, it's a lot of, you know, it's just more curated and more pristine and what I would categorize maybe as aspirational. And then on the Gen Z side, I'm seeing like acid colors, all types of different styles like one day or showing up in this type of outfit. The next day, we're a completely different type of outfit, like not even in the same genre. You're a musician and a model and a baker like they're doing all the most they're doing the most and it is okay, okay. It's kind of cool.
4:56
Is this. You said? Okay, you said showing up in 12 different ways. And I'm just like, I'm feeling so triggered. I am a millennial, I promise. But I'm just reminded of the fact that I've like transition through like 12 different styles of like, how I want my fonts and my reels. And I'm like, Oh, is this just like finding myself moment is that what's happening is that Gen Z style of creation is so immersed in, like, the time that your age and in your, you know, late teens, early 20s, we are finding ourselves, we're trying to figure out what on earth we fit into. So is that what it is? It's experimentation and age? Or do you think there's something more to it?
5:42
I think it is experimentation. And I think it's also a mix of like, I don't want to say counterculture, but I'm gonna drop the F word. i It's like, I don't give a fuck. Yeah, right. Social media doesn't define me, where as a millennial was very much defined by social media. Because A, we grew up with it from the start, you know, it was introduced to us at that age, we grew up with it. But a millennial, or a Gen Z person is like, I don't care. I don't care if you like it, I don't care this, like whatever. And that's just a level of cool that I wish I was
6:21
that I aspire to be. Do you think that's just the group in general, that's grown up in all of the comment culture of tick tock where you can call someone out? Like it's, you know, nothing. And we have a lot of this, like people pleasing, and like, really trying to curate everything as you get older. I really just feel like it's a response.
6:44
I agree. I definitely think that the like, the millennial way was very much perfectionism, you'll succeed, grind, get to the next level, success is monetary. You know, the, your career defines your personality. That was very much the culture that we were brought up in. And I think Gen Z and like most eras that come after one, they learn from the one above, and I think they witnessed this. And they said, No, I don't, I don't really think that 40 hour week, work week is for me, I don't really think that the master's
7:22
degree for me.
7:24
I'm just gonna like travel or like whatever else that they're doing. And I love I love that for you. I love that journey for you Gen Z. And I'm jealous of it. Because most of us millennials, who were brought up in the more perfectionist and straight arrow way, didn't have that opportunity. And we didn't find it and had to, you know, go to therapy and coaching to break ourselves out of these bad habits. So we're just like, really, I'm, like, really proud of you.
7:53
So what about in content? You've mentioned this before, in, like, collaborative content influence our content, not in the creation of it, we see a lot more casual. And something that you've said to me in a previous episode was Why are you trying to show up buttoned up in a collab? Why aren't you showing up like planning casual, and I feel like it's that millennial culture of I need to be curated. And I need to put my blazer on to go to work. And like, that's that, but with the content that you're seeing for that's targeted towards Gen Z, and Gen Z are creating, you see extra behind the scenes, you see extra casual pop on it's really that FaceTime?
8:37
Yeah, I would agree. And I think it's because they probably honed their creative nature over on Tiktok, where I think that's more embraced, where the cuts are not so perfect. The you know, the lighting doesn't have to be exactly beautiful. You can kind of show up as you are and be accepted. And people I think are just listening more to what you're saying or how you're entertaining them. And then they've brought that to their paid collaborations later on. So I think it's just a different way and a different, you know, lens that they're looking through. And I think that has a lot of credit to be given to tick tock, you know, most Gen Z, I think tick tock, and snapshot work sort of their first social media presence. And Instagram is more of a secondary, if at all, and they probably vomit when they think about being on Facebook. So it's just a completely different way of thinking about content. And I think it's not not an option for millennials to step into that zone. It's just not the way that we were trained. So that is not to say that I can't adopt the Tick Tock style and the more I let myself be on Tik Tok and play with it, the more I'm seeing Yeah, it's not that difficult. It's just about reframing the way that you show up on that platform. So there's definitely love right lessons to be learned here. I am curious. Gen Z is notoriously difficult to advertise to, apparently given the studies, quote, unquote, whoever the people are who make these studies. Gen Z is just like not buying into advertising. They're not doing it. They wait for word of mouth. They want to discover something new on their own, and they just cannot be targeted by ads. Hell yeah, exactly. Exactly. I definitely think it's influencer marketing. I definitely think it's word of mouth and reviews. And it's being on the right people, for sure. Not your typical influencers, that people are gonna, like, roll their eyes and like, Oh, you're Hawking this others. Right.
10:40
Right. I mean, okay, here's, here's the problematic piece for me. I don't think I've purchased anything from an influencer recently. And I'm on I mean, I'm on Instagram fully. So yeah, that's another problematic piece of this millennial style of creating. Sure, because it feels like that if it looks like an ad, if it smells like an ad, I don't want it.
11:07
You're walking away. And I but I do try
11:10
thinking that I'm Gen Z.
11:13
Yeah, at that moment, she's like, I'm a Gen Z identifying like, I do like to remind myself, though, that I am not the average consumer and neither are you. Like, we're not because we're in the space. And we know what we're looking for. You know, you're working with influencers all the time, you know, what sponsored content looks like, you're more likely to sweep paths. And because I'm running ads, I'm looking at influencers, I know all the tips and tricks, I'm more likely to sweep paths and recognize it right away, but the average consumer may not. So I do really take note of anything that that has me raising eyebrows like, Hey, I didn't even notice this was an ad right away, then I'm like screen recording it instantly. So I think it's really hard to achieve. And consumers are not dumb, and especially now this Gen Z consumer, is there. No doubt me. So you gotta be trickier marketing people. What about the usage habits of these two generations, I also think that is very different. I think that Gen Z, from what I've seen consume so differently from Millennial millennials, because they've had this for such a long period of time, they do more mindless scrolling, much higher rate of mindless scrolling. And that's why you get a lot of lower engagement rates, I think, because if you have a high follower count, people in that age range, I noticed it from myself. And I noticed that when I observe my friends and people around me, they're scrolling and I will watch them watch an entire video and laugh at it or like say something, make a comment, or they just scroll to the next one they haven't liked. They haven't commented they didn't do anything. And they just keep moving on. I think
13:03
this is so funny, because I feel like this changed. Two years after me. Two years after me just two years, not much different. Where I remember being like 18 and talking to someone who was 16 are like scrolling next to them and not liking very many things like liking, you know what you like, like, actually what I actually like, and the person next to me, it was like, liking everything like double tap Central, like rapid fire liking. I'm like, did you even look at that? Do you even the care like what's going on? And they're like, Oh, I just like everything. I was like, yeah. What?
13:43
Yeah, and I think two things are contributing to these to that habit and in two different ways. One is that people who are millennials started following so many different types of accounts when Instagram first came out that they didn't, and then their preferences changed, right. So like, I used to be very involved in the fashion world. I followed so many fashions, fashion accounts, news networks, all the influencers, everything. And now my specialty started up. Exactly. And now my specialty is beauty. So you know, it took a long time to unfollow people that I was no longer interested in seeing. So I think that's one thing where people are so used to following people that they don't even care for anymore. And they don't actively unfollow that they just don't like at all.
14:31
Okay, I have a question for you. Okay, so did you know that you can go back and Instagram and see the first thing that you ever liked and commented on? You can sort by like age? So I went and looked at this. And keep in mind that I was 16 years old when Instagram first came out I was like In my prime time of like competing in the cheer world, and like just being a teenager in general. So the things that I was liking was all like, just what we called at the time cheer celebrities, these like, Oh, my 13 year old girls, were just like celebrities in the sport. Some like really cringy like things that we posted on a whim. Like, I was like, Oh, I don't want to walk down this memory lane right here. This is disturbing.
15:31
That's so funny. I know. I think that people, the the Gen Z usage of Instagram is just more intentional. They think that they're following people that they actually want to like, which is why if you're watching someone, and then they're then just like liking every single post, it's because they have followed people that they actually like, and I had a sticker on my old sticker pack. That said, I know. If you don't like it, don't like it. Don't like it. Don't like, that's just like, fine. All right, so final thoughts here on Millennials versus Gen Z, take it to go Harley's doggie bag moment. What is it? What do you want the audience to take to go here?
16:19
Okay, this curated nature that we're so used to, I think, if you are a millennial, and you're listening to this, and you're saying, Wow, I yeah, I put a lot of overthinking into all of my stuff. I encourage you, for your next post to drop it like just press post, you don't need to think about it any more than like those five minutes. Like, write your caption, don't just reread it once, not any more than that you don't need to fine tune it, press this press post.
16:54
I love it. I think my to go moment is more directed towards brands, no matter who runs the brand, what generation that they're in, you need to take a long hard look at who you want to be consuming your content. If your end goal is to capture Gen Z, you need to post like a Gen Z posts. And that means spending more time observing what we're talking about here with this like slightly chaotic energy and willing to throw anything against the wall and get it out there and test test test and try. And if you really are trying to attract a millennial and maybe someone who's a little bit older, consider that refined strategy. A little bit more of the, you know, beautiful photography and luxurious look and aesthetic vibe behind what you're putting out there. But it all starts with that lifestyle to engage first. Yeah, it all starts with the who first. So take that to go
17:57
take that to go and we will catch you later. If you loved it. Come hang out with us on Instagram. Tell us what you want to hear more about. The Harley Jordan and Sonia dot Elise. See ya