By Michelle McIntyre

In recent months, business partners and clients have been using the term “Millennials” a lot.

Millennials, also called Generation Y, are young adults who are now around 18 to 34 years old.  They are social. They are mobile. They are a target for those marketing to a group with uber online buying power.

I’ve been wondering why this group of consumers has become so important so I did some research and found one fact that shocked me.

“Hooked on Social Networking” Blogger and mom to two young Millennials, Holly Nielsen said that some have more buying power because they are living at home with their parents longer and therefore have more disposable income because they are not paying rent.

On the other hand, Nielsen says, some have less extra money because they are paying off their student loans. She added that Millennials grew up with social networking and smartphones so they are totally comfortable on-line.

The Chief Marketing Officer Council just published some facts and figures about this category in a story introducing a new initiative called “Turning Social Feeds into Business Leads.”

The description of the program on the council’s website uses the automotive industry as an example.

It says that Millennials are a lucrative target for automobile manufacturers because they make up 40 percent of the total available car buying population, contributing $200 billion to the U.S. economy annually.

It adds that there’s been a massive acceleration of social media usage, with 70 percent of consumers using social media to learn about other customer experiences when making car-buying decisions. Visit this link for more details about this CMO Council initiative.

Lastly, a recent eMarketer story discusses Millennial online buying trends including one that surprised me.

It said that male Millennials were more into mobile shopping than their female counterparts.

I used to think that women beat men in all areas of shopping but it’s just not so.

The report discussed a January 2013 survey of U.S. Internet users and uncovered these facts about male Millennials:

• They currently earn more* than, and are happier at work, than their female counterparts. 
• 43% said they typically shop on auction sites, while only 31% of females gave this response
• 40% said that in a perfect world they would buy everything online while only 33% female said this
• 24% typically shop and buy using their mobile devices while only 19% of females said they do so

This definitely shows that young men are a hot target for digital marketers.

Feel free to follow the Twitter feeds of people and organizations mentioned in this story including @CMO_Council, @eMarketer, @HollyNielsen, @FromMichelle. 

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*One part of this is not so surprising. Men have always earned more than women for the same jobs. The ratio is 77 cents to the dollar so that wasn’t overly shocking. By the way, this is unfair and it needs to change.