Entrepreneurs, are you ready for the next generation of customers?

Introducing Grain Creative & its services at the talk with students

Last week, I was invited to give a talk on social media and public relations for students at Kaplan International College in Holborn, London. The purpose of the talk was to introduce them to the creative industry in London and inspire them to become part of this rapidly growing sector. I ended up being inspired myself by the students, and the talk helped me gain insight into the new generation of consumers.

If you read my article on the first ever event organised by Facebook, you will already be aware that there is a great shift in customer’s behaviour from online search to discovery. People no longer search for specific products – they expect you make content available for them to explore and engage with. In other words, search intent is being replaced by brand awareness. It is clear that the next generation of customers is very different from their predecessors.

Technology has changed the way we communicate with each other. Hence, it has a huge impact on how businesses work. Having worked in social media for years, however hard I try, I always feel pressured to keep up with new trends, hashtags and new social platforms. After all, I’m a ‘digital immigrant’ like all people born before the ’90s! Today’s teenagers are truly digital natives. They grew up with technology: the internet is part of their childhood and is an integral part of their lives. They not only totally understand what the media offers, they co-create the content, and most of the time lead the trends in the online world.

My talk with this young group confirmed what the Facebook UK director told us during the Facebook event. During our conversations, I was surprised by the level of social media knowledge that this interesting group have. When we discussed the main difference between advertising and PR, I explained that media coverage is often more credible and likely to be of readers’ interest and how adverts have lower credibility and will often be ignored. Interestingly, these young people said that they are well aware of this but they are willing to click on Facebook adverts or watch a TV ad if it is funny, interesting or “super creative” (hah!).

So, if you are an entrepreneur, how do you respond to this? How do you appeal to these Millenials in the most effective way?

For me, some key things you can do to keep up with this new generation of consumers are to stay ahead of the trends, keep them engaged with thought leadership and more importantly, constantly improve your brand. Remember, customers are now overexposed to news and information, so unless your brand stands out and provokes ‘discovery’, you’re unlikely to stay in the market for long.

To help you I’ve come up with some characteristics that the next generation of entrepreneurs must and need to have, which I have gained from this experience and further research.

They are:

• Be technology-savvy
• Be innovative and creative
• Offer services with a digital focus: invest more in SEO!
• Cut cost on paid media, shift it to owned (corporate website, social media) and earned (digital PR)
• Be sensitive to major changes and evolution in the digital world
• Brand yourself well and get the right positioning
• Be a thought leader

Of course, these cannot be strictly applied to everyone as the points can vary from business to business and sector to sector, but you’ve got the idea. The key take away is to have strong branding. Your next generation of customers would like to be pulled to your brand rather than pushed towards it. So work on your brand strategy, and make it worth their time!