• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 26, 2014

According to a report from the market research firm Keller Fay Group, most of the stories about Millennials focus on the fact that they are a highly “social” generation. For example, “… for 18-33 year olds, born into the digital revolution, creating and sharing content on social media is second nature…” says another author.

Millennials are indeed highly social, says the report, but there remains confusion about where their social activity takes place and how best to activate it. As a result some marketers may be misconstruing how best to engage with them, suggests the report.

Millennials are a communicative generation, accounting for 689 million word of mouth (WOM) impressions about brands per day. But despite their tech savvy, 84% of these WOM impressions are as a result of offline conversations, primarily face-to-face, according to the latest research from the Keller Fay Group.

Their word of mouth conversations cover a wide span of categories. Millennials are more than 50% more likely than the rest of the population to engage in daily conversations about technology, and 25% are more likely to talk about technology brands. And, they are a third more likely to talk about categories such shopping and retail or media and entertainment.

Media and marketing content fits easily into their social sharing, says the report. Nearly two thirds of Millennials’ conversations about brands include references to things they see online, or on TV, or at the point of sale, or other contact points. They are about 10% more likely to discuss media or marketing when they talk about brands than other Americans.

Media plays a significant role with the Millennials, since, for them, digital media is far and away #1, with 25% of their conversations including references to things they have seen on digital media, vs. 19% for non-Millennials. For Millennials (18-34) 62% of all conversations reference media/marketing, while for all other adults (35-69) 56% reference media/marketing

Magazines, email marketing, and radio all play a smaller role in the conversations of Millennials relative to digital media and TV, but they are talked about in larger numbers by Millennials than by those who are 35+, and thereby represent interesting media for marketers to consider when coming up with a Millennial marketing strategy.

Millennials are a digital generation and sharing online is a part of their DNA, concludes the report. But the key is to understand that it’s just “… a part of their DNA;… “ they are not singularly committed to communicating via social media.

For additional information from Keller Fay, please visit here.