We’ve all seen a flurry of marketing stats about Gen Z, but those haven’t always translated into great insights on how to reach this increasingly important demographic.
With that in mind, the team at Wizz – a social communication app with more than 10 million monthly active users (MAUs), the majority of whom are under the age of 20 – reflected on everything they’ve learned about our user base to create a three-part series about the importance of community to Gen Z.
To get started, here are three ways your brand can develop and foster a community with Gen Z users on social media.
Inclusive messaging is important to Gen Z
Gen Z is a generation of digital natives. With this in mind, it’s natural for people who’ve been online all their lives to want to join online communities where they can feel a sense of belonging and inclusion.
This becomes more important when you consider that Gen Z is widely viewed as the loneliest generation. According to a study by Cigna, 73% of 18- to 22-year-olds reported feeling alone either sometimes or always. The same Cigna study found 71% of adults who were heavy social media users reported feeling lonely compared to 51% of light social media users.
Another study from Tintup found 92% of Gen Z consumers agree the community surrounding a brand impacts how they feel about the company. Eighty-one percent of Gen Z respondents to that study also said being involved in an online brand community makes them more likely to purchase the brand more often (13% higher than other generations) and 83% of Gen Z respondents said being a part of a brand group makes them more likely to trust the brand (19% higher than other generations).
Your social strategy must include TikTok
Gen Z’s favorite social media platform is TikTok, and you must be on there to have a voice in their conversations.
Jodie Renassia, head of growth at Wizz, says they’ve been able to grow their social media brand by joining the conversation on TikTok.
“We’ve grown Wizz through word of mouth,” Renassia said. “Users who have had great experiences on Wizz started talking about it on social networks, and it went viral – especially on TikTok. We went viral several times with videos that had millions of views, which generated thousands of installs on our side. Our best ambassadors are our users.”
TikTok is the ideal platform for building a Gen Z community because of the type of content that’s made by its creators. Jumping on brand-relevant trends can be a great way of joining the conversation and boosting engagement, as it shows your brand is connected to what’s important in the moment for your target audience.
Catch them in the comments
A social media platform’s comments section is also an effective place for your brand to stand out to Gen Z. And we’re not just talking about the comments on your brand’s posts, either. You can post comments on content that’s relevant to your brand as a way to connect with existing and potential Gen Z customers.
When you comment on relevant content beyond your brand’s accounts, you’re increasing your brand visibility and creating new opportunities to kick off a conversation with Gen Z users. Also, commenting and replying helps humanize your brand while making more personal connections with your audience.
Build communities on the Wizz platform
At Wizz, we’ve witnessed incredible community building across Gen Z users first-hand. We live and breathe our mission to expand your world, and that means facilitating authentic and safe connections between our Gen Z users so that they build their own communities on Wizz. Thanks to the inclusivity and sense of belonging Gen Z users feel on our platform, we have fostered the ideal environment to create meaningful communities.
As a result, Wizz provides marketers with a unique opportunity to connect with Gen Z. We offer brands the ability to serve up video ads to a captive audience of 100% Gen Z users, allowing your brand to start building a community of like-minded Zoomers.
