Millennials (adults born 1982 and later) outpace other generations in their use of social media to share information about products and services, according to survey results from Market Strategies. Millennials were 22% more likely than the rest of the respondents to report having shared a link to a product or service on social media (39% vs. 32%), and 52% more likely to have posted a picture of a product or service (38% vs. 25%). The results also indicate that Millennials are more likely to be using a variety of social platforms beyond Facebook to share product and service information.
For example, they’re:
- twice as likely to have posted a picture of a product or service on Instagram;
- twice as likely to have written about a product or service on Twitter; and
- five times more likely to have posted a link to a product or service on Pinterest.
While it’s unsurprising that Millennials are more apt to be sharing product and service information on social media, a study last year found that among online adults, Gen Xers were actually more likely than Millennials to have shared a link to a brand or product’s website or video.
Meanwhile, Millennials’ greater propensity to use social networks beyond Facebook to share information no doubt relates to greater use of those platforms, as Millennials are more likely than other generations to be using Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, among others.
But it also appears to be a reflection of the greater trust they put in social platforms. Compared to Baby Boomers, Millennials are three times more likely to consult comments on social media when researching products and services, and three times more likely to consult blogs, according to the Market Strategies study.
Indeed, word-of-mouth appears to have a significant influence on Millennials, per recent research. Baby Boomers, meanwhile, are heavily reliant on advertising as a product information source, according to data contained in a new MarketingCharts Debrief, “Advertising to Baby Boomers: The Why and How” [download page].
About the Data: Market Strategies interviewed a national sample of 2,011 consumers aged 18 or older from February 5 to February 11, 2014. Respondents were recruited from the United Sample, Inc. (uSamp) opt-in online panel of US adults and were interviewed online. The data were weighted by age, gender and census region to match the demographics of the US population. Due to its opt-in nature, this online panel (like most others) does not yield a random probability sample of the target population. As such, it is not possible to compute a margin of error or to statistically quantify the accuracy of projections.
