5 Things Social Media Experts Can Learn From Hipsters

Hipsters are the bane of many people’s existence but in five years, they (or at least their generation) will make up 75 percent of the workforce…so maybe we can try to learn something from them.

Turns out they might just show us a few novel tricks regarding this social media thing. Here, then, are five things the ninjas and gurus and wunderkinds may learn from OG hipsters on social.

1. Don’t Forget About Tumblr.

Ever since Yahoo spent $1.1 billion for Tumblr in 2013, its user base has grown. Why? You thought people just focused on the big three, right?

While the rest of the world is making sure Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn qualify as “on fleek,” hipsters have stuck with Tumblr and made sure that it remains amazeballs. Today, there are more 220 million blogs and 117 million Tumblr posts each day. They may not be fans of “the mainstream,” but quite a few attitudinal millennials are hanging out on Tumblr waiting for a smart strategy to find them.

2. Make Posts Shareable. 

Most of the standard hipster “flair” comes from another generation, another soul…another thrift shop. In the interest of sustainability, they share everything from grandpa’s pants to the garden gnome T-shirt your little sister used to wear–and they adore making old things anew.

Consider the overactive social media user as one who wants to make your posts similarly “sustainable.” The point of your tweets, pins, grams, and posts are not to position your client once; it’s to position them over and over again.

3. Deliver Insightful Content.

Content is the skeleton key behind any page, any post…anything that lives online.

Without content that creates interest and draws people closer to the brand you are trying to promote, you don’t get the traffic and your client gets bupkus. That page-turning stuff also happens to be the hipster’s highbrow entertainment of choice. Consider it intellectual curiosity: what can you do to make your content appealing and pique the consumers curiosity?

Word to the wise: link building and keywords have nothing to do with it. You have to write something that people want to read, discuss and share.

4. (Self) Indulge Them. 

Hipsters honestly do not care about 90 percent of the stuff that makes you tick…but if you are seen perusing a book entitled “Facial Hair Styles of the Reconstruction Era,” you may spark a conversation.

What you develop in social media should be more about them and less about your client. I know that’s hard to believe, but if you are looking for shares, consumers want to share things about themselves. Consider the selfie: from yoga poses to sipping on yet another fair trade mocha frappuccino, it’s all about how those abstract angles and mood lighting make the person taking the pic look better.

Do what they want but what your client needs. (SPOILER: they’re one and the same.)

5. Make a Statement.

Everything the prototypical “hipster” does–from waxing his facial hair to living in a houseboat in the Gowanus canal–is done to make a statement.

It’s nice when you can star in your own movie about pound puppies or recycling toilet paper, and no one knows that more than the hipster. Sp how can you make your client more accessible in social media? Allow them a forum where they can stand out and get noticed.

Seriously, think about the hipster with mutton chops drawn from the year 1836. That stuff doesn’t happen naturally, and neither should your client’s social strategy.

Make a statement and make a difference instead of doing what’s expected.