A lot has been written about Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation. There’s a tendency towards materialism but also a greater awareness of and involvement in social and environmental issues. According to a report from digital analytics leader

#1. Expand your definition of content

Blogs, articles and posts can be an effective way of communicating your message, as long as they are relevant and written with the target market in mind. Don’t think of written text as the only valid form of content, however. Videos, photos, infographics and animations can all be just as effective. The message is more important than the medium used to deliver it.

#2. Create a brand identity

An effective content marketing campaign will spread from a central hub – typically your corporate website – along a number of different branches. It’s important to link these strands for a cohesive content marketing strategy and to establish a strong brand identity throughout. Think about your core values and message and use this as a starting point for all your content.

#3. Blog and guest blog

Blogs are a great way to express your core message and present related information in a little more depth than social media posts and the like. Your own hosted blogs can be valuable but posting guest blogs on suitable platforms can help to extend your reach, as well as boosting your SEO by establishing backlinks.

#4. Use infographics

As a general rule of thumb, web users in general and Millennials in particular don’t want to wade through huge blocks of text online. Make your blogs snappy and concise or consider delivering information in another format. Infographics can be great for delivering valuable information in an easily digestible – and shareable – format. Make sure that any infographics you create use accurate source material and credit your sources as appropriate.

#5. Post videos

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Initiative (VNI) video-on-demand traffic is set to almost triple by 2017, representing the equivalent of 6 billion DVDs per month. Corporate videos do not have to be dry or boring. They can be innovative, entertaining and even interactive. They can also incorporate a number of different formats, from ‘explainer’ videos that explain what your company or a particular product is all about, to step-by-step how-to videos.

#6. Share images

Photos and other images can be a great way to instantly convey a message or information. You can share your images via your own website and social media profiles but some platforms are uniquely placed for the task. ‘Visual discovery’ site Pinterest became the fastest site ever to break through the 10 million unique visitor mark while SlideShare (essentially the YouTube of slideshows) claims to average 60 million unique visitors and 215 million page views a month.

#7. Host webinars

One of the watchwords of content marketing is ‘value’. If you can get recognised experts in your field to deliver webinars or take part in live chats, participants can find this extremely valuable and engaging. Once the live event is over, you can post the record or transcript to serve as permanent content.

#8. Reach out to influencers

Channel 4 News recently ran a story on the a new breed of YouTube commentators who are treated like stars by their mostly young viewers and whose endorsement of a particular product or brand can have a major impact on sales. Free resources like Social Mention and Buzzsumo and more sophisticated subscription tools like Radian6 are useful for helping you to identify key influencer in your field by analysing web data such as the number of fans, followers, likes and reposts they receive.

#9. Don’t over-rely on automation

Automating certain processes on your blogs or social media presence can be a real time saver. Tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer can be used to schedule pre-prepared posts to go live at the most appropriate time, which can be particularly useful if you are working across different time zones. Millennials are adept at spotting ‘bots’ however and some things, such as personal responses, should never be automated.

#10. Don’t neglect mobile

Small screens increasingly mean big business and most Millennials are used to consuming content through smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. It’s important to optimise websites and content for the smaller screen. A recent survey found two-thirds of smartphone users cited slow-to-load web pages as one of their biggest frustrations and poorly formatted sites that are awkward to use or fail to display properly on mobile devices provide further causes for complaint.

Images: ”Content marketing online concept/ Shutterstock.com“

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