Now, in Part 2, we’ll show you how your brand can start creating long-form content using resources you already have. You don’t need to start from scratch—whether it’s serializing existing content, building character-driven stories, or giving a fresh twist to product-focused formats, there are endless ways to create engaging narratives that align with young consumer’s content consumption habits. Here’s how you can get started:

Now, in Part 2, we’ll show you how your brand can start creating long-form content using resources you already have. You don’t need to start from scratch—whether it’s serializing existing content, building character-driven stories, or giving a fresh twist to product-focused formats, there are endless ways to create engaging narratives that align with young consumer’s content consumption habits. Here’s how you can get started:

Social media is evolving to look more like Netflix, with creators and brands embracing long-form and episodic content. From Reesa Teesa’s hyper-viral 50-part TikTok series to YouTube’s smash hit "Hot Ones", it’s clear that audiences crave content with depth and storytelling, just like TV. Nielsen has even crowned YouTube the #1 streamer in America for 12 months straight.

In Part 1 we explored how brands are increasingly looking beyond their own social channels to build awareness and cultivate brand affinity within broader online communities. 

By contributing to comment sections of viral posts, even when unrelated to their category, brands find new ways to connect with diverse audiences that aren’t engaging with them on their own channels. This off-channel engagement helps break through algorithms and creates opportunities for brands to become part of trending conversations and build new relationships with subcultures that align with its mission and values.

While navigating off-channel engagement might initially feel overwhelming, especially when deciding where to start, the impact is undeniable. Below, we’ve outlined several strategies that can be implemented easily to help your brand engage with social media users off-channel immediately. These strategies allow you to leverage organic conversations and create meaningful interactions that go beyond traditional brand communication.

Many brands focus on building relationships with their target audiences on their owned digital channels, like Instagram or TikTok. However, many brands have not considered an increasingly powerful strategy: off-channel community management. This approach drives engagement, creates a new pipeline for building awareness, and can put brands at the center of trending conversations.

In Part 1, we discussed the need for brands to evolve their targeting strategies online beyond demographics, given the shift in how consumers identify and connect online. Their preference for being described by their passions and interests, not solely demographic attributes like age, gender, and location, has changed where and what they’ll engage with online. 

The ever-evolving identities of consumers have shattered demographic norms, demanding a fresh approach from brands targeting them online. Gen Z and Millennials, the most diverse generations yet, defy traditional demographics in expressing their identities. As over 80% prefer being defined by personal attributes like passions, targeting strategies must shift beyond traditional demographics to focus on the online communities and subcultures formed around these interests.

Social media and their AI-powered algorithms are now the gatekeepers and the tastemakers of what products go viral. They’ve been able to anticipate consumers’ wants, even before they know it, through the content users watch and the topics they search to deliver personalized product recommendations. 

Social media platforms have perfected the art and science of serving Gen Z and Millennials the entertaining content they want to see. Thanks to AI, their recommendation engines are now zeroing in on driving sales. These AI fueled algorithms are getting increasingly better at anticipating consumers’ wants and serving up personalized product suggestions based on what users have searched and engaged with.

68% of Gen Z and Millennials say it's important to them that brands are seen as cool. A large majority of young consumers are more loyal to a brand if that brand is invested in the cultural moments that matter to them. With AI impacting how algorithms boost content, brands must start using trends and hashtags in their posts to guarantee their content appears on the radar of algorithms and audiences they want to target. 

Young online creators are king (and queen) makers of cool. From #RealOrCake to #MoistureSandwich, Gen Z and Millennial influencers are the new tastemakers, shaping culture with every like, share, and comment. Brands seeking to captivate these influential generations must tune in to the digital platforms they spent hours on, where these #trends are born, nurtured, and propelled into the limelight by algorithms hungry for the next big thing.

With young consumers having increased expectations of what they want from influencers and more scrutiny on the content they are willing to engage with, we're seeing content become more compelling by leaning into popular hashtags and viral trends and using first-person storytelling formats that draw the viewer in. Therefore, brands must shift what influencers they consider working with when it comes to branded content on social media and consider more than just follower count.