5 Ways Millennial Social Media Habits Will Change In 2017

5 Ways Millennial Social Media Habits Will Change In 2017: "Millennials’ sMillennials’ social media habits matter. Why? Some of the reasons are obvious; millennials represent tremendous potential buying power, and are some of the most important consumers to reach through social media marketing. They’re also young and have grown up using the Internet, and are therefore more likely to embrace new technologies, which is important for emerging brands.

Accordingly, watching and predicting their social media usage patterns is of critical importance to any business or individual invested in the social media game. So how are millennials going to be using social media differently in 2017? Here are five predictions.

1. Ratings will be everywhere. Millennials love rating and reviewing, and they trust reviews and user-generated content more than any other demographic. Currently, we’re used to rating our dining, purchasing, and customer service experiences, but the world of ratings and reviews could skyrocket in 2017. We’ll start to see more qualitative ratings for content within apps and social media, and newsfeed algorithms that sort and display content based on those ratings. We may also see more requests for recommendations, and millennials trading reviews with one another.

2. Workplace communication will start to shift. The use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is starting to become more tolerated in the workplace. As millennials start claiming higher positions of leadership, we’ll see a massive shift in how social media is used from a professional standpoint. Employees may be required to be on social media, to bolster the visibility of the company’s brand through a network of personal brands, be more available for conversation and updates, or social media may be used as an entire replacement for instant messaging (or eventually, email). We may even see professionally-angled social media platforms emerge to fill this need, similar to LinkedIn, but with more functional features for communicating with colleagues.

3. Millennials will face a choice: Bail on social media platforms, or fall deeper in the echo chambers. Currently, 88% of millennials get news from Facebook, and because of the way Facebook’s newsfeed algorithm works, users tend to receive more news stories like the ones they’ve engaged with in the past. This has produced an “echo chamber” effect, where users end up surrounding themselves in news and ideas they already agree with. As there are currently no plans for Facebook or any other major platform to take action in reducing the power of those echo chambers, users will venture deeper into those polarized, abstract social bubbles. This will, in turn, polarize millennial participation in social media; some will become more vocal in posting online, while others may bail on social media entirely to escape these echo chambers.

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