Twitter Can't Get Young Users

If you're an artist or in a band then you're probably on social media to reach your existing fans and to expand your fanbase. There's a problem though, in that it's getting a lot harder to do that, especially with the biggest social platforms available.

This is especially evident with Twitter, which still has 320 million monthly users, but most of those seem to be business, sports and celebrity users or journalists. Gen Z and younger millennials are staying away like the plague.

It seems that, unlike Facebook (which they reluctantly use), younger users really don't have a good reason to use Twitter when other alternatives like Snapchat, Instagram and Kik fulfill their needs in a better way.

Twitter is hard to define and even harder to describe why you need it, but any social network is in trouble if the user doesn't have any friends on it, as is currently the case with Twitter and the Gen Z and millennial crowd.

Brands are beginning to recognize this as well and spending less on the platform, understanding that it probably won't be growing much in the future, and that you're buying current users, not future ones.

That's why it's important that you know exactly where your fans are before you invest your time in a social platform. You only have a limited amount of energy and as a result, can't be everywhere, so go where you can get the most bang for your buck in terms of time invested. If you know that your fans are on Twitter, spend your social capital there, but if more are on Instagram (for instance), that's where you have to be.

Also, be aware of the ebb and flow of social media platforms, because they change every year both in terms of users and features. What works this year might not work next, and vice versa.

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Choosing The Best Content To Share With Fans

Whether you're creating or choosing content to share with your fans, it pays to know just what your fans like and how they consume it. BuzzStream and Frac.tl recently surveyed people from 3 generations to determine their content preferences. This is what they found.

First the similarities.

• All three generations had the same favorite and least favorite types of content.

Most favorite:
   1. Blog articles
   2. Images
   3. Comments
   4. ebooks

Least Favorite:
   1. White papers
   2. Webinars
   3. Slidshares

• Content length was also unanimous. Articles of 300 words in length were the most preferred, although Gen Xr's also like longer articles of 500 or more words.

• Genres of content were also unanimous with entertainment being the most popular, although technology was a close second for Millennials and world news for Baby Boomers.

• When it came to preferred social platforms for sharing, Facebook was far ahead of all others for the 3 generations as well, with YouTube a distant second

• For visual types of content, there was a bit of a difference between age groups with Boomers and Millennials both preferring videos slightly over pictures.

• The big divergence came from the amount of time spent online. While everyone thinks that the younger you are, the more time you spend online, the study found the opposite, with 25% of Boomers spending at least 20+ hours per week online compared to 22% for the other generations.

• That said, one huge divergent is when each generation consumes their content, with both Millennials and Gen Xrs peaking in the late evening between 8PM and midnight and Boomers in the late morning between 9AM and noon.

Once again this all comes down to knowing your audience and fan base so you can tailor the right content to them at the right time in order to increase your engagement.

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The Millennial's Choice For Social Networks

Millennials love their smartphones and they love their social networks. Here's an interesting Statista infographic derived from comScore and Mobile Metrix info that shows their most popular social networks while using their phones.

What's interesting is that Facebook is still the number 1 choice by far, followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Now you can see why Snapchat turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook last year.

What this chart tells artists, bands and musicians is that no matter how badly you feel treated on Facebook, don't give up on it yet. It can still be a powerful marketing tool if you know how to use it.

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Social Media Can't Defeat The Law Of 250

It's been speculated that because of social media, we'll all have far more friends than ever before. This was expected especially of the Millennial generation, who have been far more connected in their lifetimes than all previous generations combined.

But a new Pew study has found that even for Millennials, the median friend count on Facebook is still 250, just like it's been for other generations.

250 has always been a magic number. People would like to invite 250 or so to a wedding, and an average of 250 show up to a funeral. In sales, 250 is seen as the number needed for a sales or business career. Joe Girard, who's been billed as the world's greatest salesmen, has long contented that 250 prospects or referrals are required for sales success. The number has cropped up time and again, but it was thought that social media would transcend it.

But it looks like despite all of our hyper-connectivity, we just can't get away from that 250 friend count. Sure, many of us are way beyond that number on various social platforms, but how many can we really count as true friends? My bet is that you're lucky if you get to 250.

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Radio Reaches An Unexpected Audience

We've heard the claims over and over that Millennials are so wrapped up in new technology online that they don't have time for anything old like television and especially radio. A new survey by Nielsen finds that mostly untrue, at least when it comes to radio.

In fact, it found that 65 million Millennials (age 18 to 34) listen to radio each week, which is about half the people in the age group. That amounts to around 11 1/2 hours of listening per week, which is still behind Gen X at 14 hours and Baby Boomers at 14.5, but it's still far more than was generally thought.

An even bigger surprise is that country is the #1 format that Millennials listen to, followed by contemporary pop and contemporary hits. They're much more mainstream that previously thought.

In general, radio is doing fine and is in no danger of going the way of other older technologies. 9 out of 10 people age 10 and up still tune in per week in some way, which amounts to 242 million people!

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What Younger Fans Want

MTV recently asked Millennials (those born between 1980 to 2000 and sometimes known as "Generation Y") just what they expected from their favorite musical artists. The results are decidedly different that what you'd get from other generations.

• They think music should be free, but they might buy it as a gesture of support.

• They really want an inside look at things. Nothing is too personal or mundane.

• They really want to be engaged. The more they're asked to be involved in creation or branding, the better.

• They crave interaction. Using multiple platforms to do so is okay.

• Shuffle-mode is just fine. They're really into musical diversity.

• There's no such thing as selling out. Blatant commercialism by an artist is almost expected.

We live in a new world where the concepts of old no longer apply. Anyone who doesn't evolve will be left behind because the music world, and music consumption, changes with new consumers. All you need to do is ask them.

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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.