When it comes to these and other emerging technologies, it’s impor- tant to remember that, for many consumers, even those in Gen Z, these technologies are not yet mainstream. As such, brands need to educate consumers on the benefits, how the technology can make their lives better and, most importantly, how you will use and protect the personally identifiable information (PII) and other data you are collecting. We go deeper into both COPPA and GDPR and current online privacy proposals in Australia, and how they impact your brand community, in Chapter 9.
Contrary to what you may hear in the news, as a generational cohort Gen Z is very concerned with privacy, even more so than previous generations. Even the US toy giant Mattel, which recently announced (2017) the launch of Aristotle, a home baby monitor that
‘comforts, teaches and entertains’, faced a public backlash for its use of AI and the potential privacy implications. Gen Z takes privacy and data collection very seriously, and if you violate their trust, they will hold it against your brand.
TL;Dr: chapter takeaways
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● Leverage the strengths of each social, digital and live streaming platform by creating poignant and authentic content that appeals to Gen Z.
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● Establish consistent branding, voice and tone across all social platforms.
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● Focus on social interaction, connecting with followers as friends, and sharing experiences with your brand and/or fan community.
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● Choose and secure a vanity URL – your unique web or social account address that identifies your brand, even on social plat- forms you don’t intend to use.
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● Influence marketing is not a quick fix. There is a common misper- ception that influence marketing will increase your social media reach and improve engagement over a short period of time. Your
brand may experience an initial bump, but developing a consistent following happens at a slow and steady pace.
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● Create content that is inspirational, relevant, and share-worthy.
It should help elevate young people’s status in youth culture by participating in the conversation and sharing content with their friends.
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● Use digital and social media platforms as tools that help them solve problems, complete a task and connect with friends and entertain- ment experiences. If your social media and content strategy doesn’t provide them with any of these things, your brand will be filtered out of their feeds, screens and world.
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● Start developing emerging media strategies today (hopefully, you’re already in progress). Do you have tutorials online that could be ported into a chatbot or AI skill? If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, is there an AR experience that can bring customers into your store?
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● Legal implications of influence collaboration. Increasingly, there are more laws and regulations that now require influencers, brands and marketers to clearly state the nature of their relationship through transparent markers such as hashtags and watermarks.
It’s up to you to enforce and manage influencer compliance with these laws in any country where you are using them to market products for your brand.
references
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