Social Media Use Making Millennials A Business Savvy Generation

BY BRIANNA DUNN

Millennials may be known for their avid and even excessive use of their phones, specifically for social media. However, it seems that millennials and businesses alike are benefiting from the skills they acquire from advertising and branding themselves online.

Millennials are changing the business game by starting and opening up their own businesses, as early as in their 20’s. They’re starting sooner and growing faster.

“You look at these profiles of people who started out posting for themselves, like my best friend started an Instagram page to show off her fitness transformations, and now she is a personal trainer for over 30 clients who saw her page and were inspired to become the best versions of themselves as well,” said Penn State marketing student Kate Kearns, 22. “It inspired me to go to school for marketing, I want to own my own business one day. Although, I feel like I could advertise online right now if I had to, since it’s what we do basically everyday.”

Research by BNP Paribas and Scorpio Partnership showed that, of the 2,000 Millennial entrepreneurs they surveyed across the world, twice as many businesses have been launched by Millennials than Baby Boomers.  Seems impossible, but then, the data shows that Boomers tended to launch their business at age 35 or after. Many more Millennials started their businesses by age 27.

Businesses Accepting Millennial Influence 

Small businesses and large corporations alike are adapting to the changing marketing and advertising methods. Some businesses have not only grown from the use of social media, but some have been created on apps like Instagram and Facebook.

“Since we hired someone specifically to create and post social media advertisements for last year, our business has increased by at least 10%,” says small business owner Chrissie Summers, 55  of Lake Hopatcong, NJ. “It is much more affordable to advertise online, and from what we’re seeing, much more effective.”

Millennials agree that branding themselves online for so much of their lives has helped them to become more business savvy. They are creating an image of themselves that may not even be real. They know how to word things in an interesting way, how to take effective and eye-catching pictures, and how to get the attention of their peers.

“Day in and day out, you’re trying to put your best foot forward on social media. The best pictures on Instagram, the funniest tweets on Twitter. You want to be seen as cool, as pretty, as smart. You’re creating an image of yourself that may not even be real,” said Rachel O’Connell, an advertising intern.

“Having that mindset makes a millennial a natural at marketing and advertising, which is essential for business. I think CEO’s, company owners, and managers are starting to realize that and are beginning to appreciate that maybe millennials are the most business savvy people around right now,” she said.