How to talk to different generations

Communication guide:

How to talk to different

generations online

Who are we talking to?

Baby Boomers who were born before 1960 are similar in their preferences to Gen X.

Let us see what every generation is used to.

Generation X – born: 1960-1979Generation Y – born: 1980-1999Generation Z – born: 2000-2020

Generation XGeneration X

is considered the best educated generation. They

are smart and sceptical. They are also the last

generation who grew up reading paper books.

Generation YGeneration Y is nice and flexible. They have been exposed to different kinds of media since they were born: cable TV, Internet, radio podcasts and so on. This is also the most photographed generation.

Generation Z

Generation Z is fast and highly-connected. They are growing up being surrounded with highly sophisticated media and social networks. They will know more about

technologies than any of the previous generations ever did.

So?They have different habits and different preferences.

Let us see what happens when a representative of each generation sees the same web-page.

It is amazing.

What do they do?

Gen-Xer reads the text first.

Gen-Yer looks at pictures first.

Gen-Zer plays the video first.

This gives us a pretty good idea of their preferences.

TargetingIf you target Generation X, you need to have texts.

If you target Generation Y, you need to have pictures.

If you target Generation Z, you need to have videos.

What ifIt is all clear, but what should you do if you are not sure which generation you are targeting? Or want to target all of them?

USE PICTURES

This is the most ancient format – well known since the Stone Age,

so it still works.

By Katerina Kovaleva

Copywriter, scriptwriter, script doctor

[email protected]

Illustrations by http://mkovalev.net/