Today’s generation relies heavily on interactions and likes. This was highlighted in the Frontline documentary “Generation Like”. Now more than ever, likes are generating many different types of fame, fortune, or viral content. People find comfort in how many likes they get, people rely on how many likes you get, and people are always striving to get more likes. Why do we do this though? Some do it for personal satisfaction, but in a case like Tyler Oakley, it can lead to a career. This documentary was able to show that now more than ever, social media has allowed interaction with all sorts of people. You can tweet your favorite celebrity, you can be a franchise’s number one fan, or you can just engage with friends and hope the likes are enough to keep you happy.
These social consumers also pose some problems for marketers in the world today. Marketers have to do a lot of extra work in order to make sure they are building strong social media relationships with their customers. Additionally there has to be a follow up to make sure their customers are satisfied. Social consumers are now able to do more research than ever before buying or interacting with products so it is important for companies to make sure their product looks great and have answers for any and every sort of issue that could arise. Overall, while social consumers do give companies some problems, for the most part the information companies are gathering from these social consumers is too crucial to pass up on.
