A focus on how friends and influencers spend on social media is translating to significant consumer activity.

Just under half of millennials say that social media use compels them to spend money they don’t have, according to an article on CNBC.

“Just under half, 49%, of millennials (ages 23 to 38) say social media influenced them to spend money on experiences, according to Schwab’s 2019 Modern Wealth survey. And 48% say they’ve overspent when sharing experiences with friends, whether it’s dining out or going on a group vacation,” the article said.

According to the article, personal finance author and “So Money” podcast host Farnoosh Torabi said, “We all spend time, so much time, on social media. We tend to overspend because we see all the lifestyles on Instagram and Facebook.”

“Millennials are feeling a lot of stress, and one of the things that are causing that is the influence of social media,” said Terri Kallsen, Schwab’s executive vice president of investor services, according to the article. “That’s because a majority of millennials is paying more attention to how their friends spend than how they save. It can be easy to do: How many of your friends are posting about how big their savings account balance is this month versus how many are posting photos of their latest vacation or fancy dinner?”

What does this all mean for a franchising audience? Most obviously, that it’s more important than ever to have a strong social media presence for your brand, as significant consumer activity is happening on social media platforms (a trend to which Instagram got hip; the social media giant rolled out a shopping feature last spring.)

It also means that social media-based consumer behavior should be tracked by franchisor’s real estate development teams when sourcing prospective locations.

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