Catching your customers’ eye and selling your product used to mean showing up in the magazines and newspapers they read or putting a billboard along the streets they traveled. In the 21st century, much of our day-to-day news and interaction has moved online, particularly to social media, giving marketers another platform on which to sell. More recently, within the last few years, social media has seen an exponential increase in users.

Keeping up with social media is key to staying relevant. When we talk about social media marketing, we’re often referring to the Big 4: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. But the tides are shifting, especially with younger demographics. If you’re selling to Gen Z, Millenials, or the cuspers in between known as Zillenials, it may be time to ride the wave of these emerging platforms.

1. TikTok

With over 1 billion average monthly users, TikTok has quickly come to the forefront of social media. On the app, users make videos displaying jokes, talents, and all sorts of different content with the intent to gain exposure and likes. This brand-friendly platform makes reaching your audience easy and cost-effective. Creating videos and having genuine interactions with other users’ content can expand reach, no ad spend necessary! The nature of TikTok videos allows marketers to use creative and fun advertising rather than professional or invasive advertising, drawing the attention and favor of the younger generations. This favor of the younger generations is key to succeeding on Tiktok as almost all of its users are of the Millennial and Gen-z generations (almost 70% of users are under the age of 40).

Tiktok users by age:

One brand that has “blown up” on Tiktok recently is Adult Swim, a TV network that started their own challenge prompting thousands of users to get creative and create videos promoting the brand. Here is one example that puts this strategy into action.

Still not sold on TikTok marketing?

2. Clubhouse

The platform Clubhouse is brand new, still only available in beta and by invitation only, but it has already caused quite a stir in the online social community. Clubhouse is known to be everything that social media is not: It is a synchronous audio connectivity site gaining favor with the Under-30 audience.

Hubspot describes it as “not quite a podcast, but a more personal way to share information with your audience who can talk back to you in real-time.” How Clubhouse can best be utilized by brands is yet to be determined as it is not yet released to the public, but if you are a brand that has received an invitation and are unsure of how to use it, consider:

• Hosting an informal focus group
• Starting a conversation about a blog, article, or post your company has published
• Contributing to a conversation being hosted by a thought leader in your industry

3. Caffeine

Caffeine.tv is a social platform built by ex-Apple designers that allows users to create live broadcasts for friends and followers. These streams can also be watched live while playing video games, making it a competitor to the popular game streaming service, Twitch. The video nature of the app makes it useful to a wide variety of industries. Caffeine’s early success demonstrates the popularity of live video and video platforms among younger audiences, especially Gen-Z. If the app continues to gain popularity, marketers might consider using it to show off their brand through:

• Behind-the-scenes content
• Q&A’s
• Live videos
• Partnerships with popular streamers & creators