How to Grab the Attention of Generation Z on Social Media

Generation Z is defined as people born between the mid-1990s to early 2000s. This group is the key target demographic for a lot of social media content creation and marketing, so understanding what Gen Zs respond to is key to grabbing their attention with your Wechat campaign.

What’s important to understand about this generation is that they are heavily visually-oriented. More often than not, this means they just want to buy things that look cool. They’re also huge impulse spenders, so if you can grab their attention you can probably also have their pocket money pretty quickly, too.

“But what even is ‘cool’ these days?” you may be thinking. Not to worry, in this blog we’ll discuss some ‘cool’ trends circulating social media right now – so that you can post content that the Gen Zs will be sure to share.

Fancy Font Types

To start off with, let’s talk about typefaces. There is so much hype around curly cursive calligraphy in the world of type: the rise of the ‘organisation’ trend of keeping bullet journals and diaries has resulted in this trend blowing up across social media.
Neon signs are also heavily trending among Gen Zs. They are attracted by the bold colours and effervescent lights. If you’re looking to post something text based on social media, consider instead turning plain text into one of these much more exciting options.

ASMR

This is where it starts to get a little strange – welcome to the world of Gen Z. ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. The internet is full of people posting content of the most random objects that make an attractive sound or do anything to trigger a sensory response: things like mixing paints, playing with slime, even cutting up soap bars. Something your brand can do to utilise this is to think outside of the box to make sensory associations with your product – this generation will absolutely love it.

Tik Tok

Tik Tok is an external app that lets users make short selfie videos with a huge range of sound and visual effects, which they can then share to their friends via social media. It’s seriously blown up among Gen Z’s and they can spend up to hours at a time scrolling through Tik Tok tags on social media. If your brand can figure out how to make cool content on this handy app, you can really make it work for you.

Nostalgic Aesthetic

Who’d have thought that photography would have come full circle to a point where people would rather wait two weeks to see 30 photos they took on a roll of film while it gets developed, than take a dozen photos instantly on their high-speed iPhone cameras. This is the effect that trends can have – and film grain is a huge trend right now. If you don’t believe this one, just go search the hashtag #35mm on Instagram and see for yourself.

Activism

Gone are the days when brands had to keep their worldviews to themselves in order to be fit in. These days, if you aren’t joining a movement, you’re deemed irrelevant by this generation. Voice your brand’s (left wing) opinions on social media to gain a loyal following of Gen Z’s.

This one can be tricky though, and it pays to not just pick a cause and run with it, but try to choose something you believe in. This generation can see right through phoney bandwagon advertising and is not afraid to call you out on it – if you can remember Kendall Jenner and the Can of Pepsi.

Just Out of Reach

This generation looks to social media to see where the grass is greener. Whether it’s another country, or a whole other person’s life, they covet what they can’t have to the point where they’ll spend all their money copying social media personalities to have the trendiest things.

A way to make your products just out of reach is to use social media Key Opinion Leader marketing – or influencer marketing. Doing this presents your product as something that the trendiest people are shopping for. Alternatively, use international imagery to make your brand seem worldlier and less touchable. Places such as Bali, Greece and Mexico are trending right now for international approaches.

Bonus Trend: Trash-posting

If all else fails, just remember that Gen Z’s have the most obscure sense of humour, and if you can post a skeleton on a horse and make it relate to your product, then you go ahead and do just that with the knowledge that no matter how much Gen Zs care, they really also don’t.

Star China Wechat Agency

The most important thing to do on social media is to be relatable, and that’s not as straightforward as it sounds. If you’re looking for help marketing your brand on social media, Star China is the WeChat agency for the job. We are experts at delivering content that gains the attraction of generation Z, so contact us today to discuss your project. Contact info: 1300 228 525 info@starchina.com.au