What are the SNS habits of high school girls, and what are the criteria for selecting influencers?

Dentsu Inc. Gal Lab defines "Genre Innovators" as highly influential individuals possessing deep, otaku-level knowledge in specific genres and holding the key to moving markets within those fields. In the final installment of this series exploring marketing that leverages them, we present the real voices of high school girls. Alongside Toshiaki Iwabuchi from the Mynavi Teens* Business Promotion Office, Ayaka Asami from Dentsu Inc. Gal Lab explores the genre-specific innovator elements inherent in the influencers who serve as these girls' information sources, concluding with a summary of the entire series.

*Mynavi Teens: Supports corporate teen marketing and promotions by leveraging all resources, including the cross-media platform "Mynavi Teens online" targeting teen girls, the teen-exclusive influencer platform "SPIRIT TEENS," the teen-focused promotional space "JOL Harajuku," and "Mynavi Teens Lab," which provides teen marketing research data to companies.

<Table of Contents>
Ⅰ-1 What kind of content creators do today's high school girls want to follow?
▼Mynavi Teens: The Latest SNS Trends Among High School Girls
▼Three Key Characteristics of High School Girls' SNS Usage
I-2 Influencer Selection Criteria: Engagement + Affinity
▼Influencer Selection Criteria: Engagement Rate + Affinity
▼Bottom-Up PR Also Deployed: Sending Information to Class Community Leaders
KEY POINT　　　　　　　　
Ⅱ Summary of the "Era of Genre-Specific Innovators" Series　　　　　　

Mynavi Teens: Recent SNS Trends Among High School Girls

Two high school girls who are members of Mynavi Teens. First, we present their real voices on their own SNS situation.

■Ms. A (High School Sophomore) — 1,700 Instagram followers. Shares cafe information.

Right now, I'm hooked on Instagram. I don't just look at pictures from celebrities or couple Instagrammers; I also post my own cafe photos and have nearly 1,700 followers. When I started posting pictures with the hashtag "#location + cafe," my followers started growing. When I search for cafes myself, I do the same thing: search "#location + cafe."

Photos tagged "#OmotesandoCafe" get the best reactions. Well-composed shots or mouthwatering food pics get a huge spike in "favorites." Once, I went to a salad place with friends, arranged three plates nicely, and posted it on Instagram—it got over 400 favorites. Getting "favorited" instead of just "liked" probably means that person plans to visit that spot later.

Around 2,000 followers is plenty. I don't want to exceed 10,000 because I dislike the higher chance of my account being found when applying for jobs in the future.

Besides my cafe account, I have another Instagram account just for following friends' secondary accounts. This one has around 20 followers. It's private, and I mainly post Stories about everyday life.

■Ms. B (High School Sophomore) ── Loves Instagram with a unified aesthetic. But overdoing it is a no-go!

When I was really into photo editing, I used to post images processed with low saturation and a dark look, like you often see on Korean Instagram. When I started using Hangul in hashtags and adding tags popular in Korea, my core Korean-loving followers skyrocketed. But since I mixed my real account (for friends/acquaintances) with my Korean account, maintaining the aesthetic consistency became exhausting. I had over 2,000 followers, but I got tired and deleted the entire account. Now I only have one account for browsing things I search for.

The accounts I want to follow on Instagram are the ones with a consistent theme—like only bubble tea or only cosmetics. If I see an intriguing photo in Instagram's "Explore" section, I check the account to decide whether to follow. Editing is important too. If the same account has a mix of Korean-style, fluffy-style, and natural-style content, I probably won't follow. I also skip hair salons that don't post photos on Instagram.

If you don't post on Instagram almost daily, you lose followers, but posting too much also makes people unfollow you. Accounts that try too hard just seem "uncool" to me. When accounts desperately try to gain followers through mutual promotion exchanges, or when a fashion account suddenly starts posting only selfies, it just looks "embarrassing." The ideal is " , stylish in a natural way."

Three Characteristics of High School Girls' SNS Use

Interviews with two high school girls revealed key characteristics of their SNS habits.

① Using Different Accounts for Hobbies, Real Life, and Reading Only

The majority have three accounts: a "hobby account" where they build a worldview with information about their favorite genres, a "real life account" for casually posting about their daily life, and a "ROM account" solely for reading posts and gathering information. While many high school girls have nearly equal numbers of followers and following, a significant number have over 10,000 followers thanks to meticulous image editing and carefully crafted worlds (Mynavi Teens estimates the ratio of micro-influencers to regular high school girls is about 3:7).

② Information gathering centers on Instagram and YouTube, with personalized content being the norm

Instagram and YouTube are the primary sources for information on cosmetics, food, fashion, etc. Among these, the most frequently viewed is Instagram's "Recommendations" feed. While the past required actively searching for needed information, today's high school girls live in an era where personalized "recommended" information and content automatically "arrives" based on past viewing history. They are a generation greatly benefiting from this.

③ Five Key Points for Accounts That Make You Want to Follow on Instagram

The conditions for an Instagram account you'll want to follow are the following five points:
・A cohesive aesthetic
・Beautiful editing
・Natural and effortless
・Consistent content without sudden shifts
・Posts at an appropriate frequency

The key isn't just having a well-crafted worldview, but being natural and genuine. I feel repelled by content that tries too hard, seems manipulative, or isn't authentic. Consistency in worldview and content aligns with the theme of this series, " : Innovators by Genre."

The criteria for selecting influencers are engagement rate + affinity

At "Mynavi Teens," we assign influencers across various genres to execute PR campaigns.

The target audience, high school girls, dislike lies and rigorously check the credibility of information. A certain number of them understand that posts tagged "#PR" are advertisements. That said, they don't automatically distrust PR posts. If an influencer clearly states "This is PR" and then adds, "I've used this for two weeks and will share what I liked about it," they accept it. By not hiding the PR aspect and ensuring the influencer uses the product for at least two to three weeks, the information is accepted as credible.

When selecting influencers for PR campaigns, follower counts on social media were once the primary focus. However, around four years ago, as high school girls' interests shifted from Twitter to Instagram, engagement rate* became the key metric for influencer selection. While Twitter allows reach and virality with high follower counts, Instagram lacks that virality, meaning information won't spread unless engagement rates are high.

Furthermore, influencer credibility has gradually become a topic of discussion, ushering in an era where engagement + affinity matters. Even if you cast an influencer who regularly engages deeply with their followers, it's meaningless if their engagement rate plummets when they post PR content. Therefore, casting influencers with affinity for the product is crucial.

When we cast influencers, we also check whether the product suits them—meaning whether they are a "category innovator" with deep knowledge in that field—by reviewing their past Instagram and YouTube posts. The key point is the "worldview" the influencer projects through Instagram and YouTube.

As seen with the two high school girls earlier, this worldview is something crafted. So, by looking at their posts, you can understand their taste and what they typically do. In other words, Instagram and YouTube are like a "user manual" for that person. Planners need the skill to decipher these user manuals.

In that regard, YouTube is clearer about genres and activities. Instagram tends to prioritize "stylishness as the norm," so things like cafes and cosmetics—different genres—get lumped together just because they're stylish. On YouTube, for cosmetics creators, even if they go traveling, they'll seek out local cosmetics and showcase them in videos, making it clearer. Personal character also comes across more distinctly on YouTube. If someone who usually acts silly suddenly does something serious, it feels off—so they might commit fully to silliness instead.

There's also a successful case where a campaign aimed at encouraging friends to visit together featured YouTubers who create playful, inside-joke videos with their middle school classmates. They created PR videos similar to the YouTubers' own series, and it worked well. The key point is high affinity between the product and the influencer.

※Engagement rate: The percentage of followers who actively engage with content by liking, commenting, or sharing.

Bottom-up PR targeting class community leaders

Instead of popular YouTubers or Instagrammers, some cases involve sharing information with class community leaders. These leaders are the "top tier" of the class. While the top tier used to be dominated by the athletic kids or the cute ones, today it includes various types: not just the cute kids who show their faces on SNS, but also those skilled at self-expression on SNS, or those who look handsome on SNS. Regardless of follower count, more students are adept at using SNS effectively.

Popular students who master social media excel at self-expression and possess the power to influence others and communicate effectively. Previously, companies could only approach influencers affiliated with talent agencies, but now they can reach these high school students too.

Traditional PR activities aimed for a top-down "shower effect," where information dropped to power influencers like talents or models affiliated with agencies was then spread by community leaders within their classes.

Today's teenage girls are more likely to trust information from friends. Therefore, bottom-up PR targeting community leaders within the class aims to create a word-of-mouth effect. This creates a flow like: "I searched for the cosmetics I heard about from the community leader, and power influencers were recommending them too. This really is a trustworthy product."

PR effectiveness is heightened when information comes from both influencers within their own community (like school) and genre-specific innovators renowned in that field— .

High school girls, who have been naturally accustomed to communicating on SNS and gathering information online since elementary school, possess highly developed skills in collecting and editing information according to their goals. The insights shared by Iwabuchi-san of Mynavi Teens, who continuously engages with these girls at the forefront of their generation, offered many crucial perspectives for understanding marketing in the era of category innovators.

The key points to remember are the following three:

① The axis of communication shifts from "words" to "visual worldviews"

High school girls acquire desired information through "images" and "videos." Rather than searching directly with keywords, they follow images that match their preferred worldviews to gather content. This enhances the accuracy of recommended information and allows them to build their own worldviews through social media posts, attracting like-minded individuals. Their skill in identifying favorite images and discovering worldviews from them is growing. When trends shifted from Twitter to Instagram, a paradigm shift occurred, moving from the era of words to the era of images.

Collecting, editing, and sharing information from the internet to give it value is called "curation." Originally, this referred to organizing special exhibitions in museums and galleries. In terms of competing on theme and worldview, we can say we've now entered an era where curation in its original sense holds value.

② Information Sources: Personalized & Recommended "Primary Information"

High school girls place high value on "primary information" shared by people on social media. Primary information refers to information the sharer personally saw, heard, or experienced firsthand. In today's world, where even personal posts automatically "arrive" as personalized "recommended" content, expressive innovators in specific genres who can share their own primary information as valuable content are highly valued information sources for these girls.

③ Increasingly Demanded "Expressive Skills" for Information Sharing

High school girls not only gather information but also possess skills as content creators. They research what kind of information gets noticed, repeatedly experiment through trial and error, and can transform information related to their personal interests into content and express it. The point is that these discerning consumers will move up into older age groups. To survive in the future, all forms of expressive power—the ability to articulate, explain, and create a worldview—will become key.

This concludes the final installment of our 7-part series, "The Era of Genre Innovators." What did you think?

Here's a quick recap of the series' key points:

●Part 1: What is Dentsu Inc. Gal Lab's "#GirlsTag" Marketing?

We defined "Genre Innovators" as highly influential individuals possessing deep, otaku-level knowledge in specific genres who hold the key to driving markets within those fields.

● Part 2: Genre Innovators Hold the Key to Consumption

Genre Innovators exist in both large numbers among influencers with many followers and wide reach, and in smaller numbers among ordinary people with fewer followers. To efficiently drive market consumption, companies effectively leverage the power of highly influential Genre Innovators.

●Part 3: Interview with Eiji Doi: How Are Influential "Category Innovators" Born?

We spoke with Eiji Doi, an influential innovator in the "business books" genre who also produces genre-specific innovators.

To cultivate influential category innovators, it's crucial to "establish a unique position" and "hone communication skills." Marketers should prioritize understanding the innovators' points of resonance and philosophy, proposing messaging that aligns with their beliefs.

●Part 4: More Freedom in Makeup. Genderless Men Who Changed Conventions and Created a Market.

We spoke with Yoji Kondou, who established the new genre of "genderless men" who freely enjoy makeup and fashion without gender boundaries, and producer Takashi Marumoto, the mastermind behind the boom.

The new values communicated by innovators across genres possess the power to create entirely new markets when minorities become the majority.

●Part 5: Uncovering the Secrets of Influencers Driving Consumption Across Multiple Genres

We spoke with influencer Noah Sato, who drives consumption across multiple genres.

For influencers to wield influence, it's crucial to consciously build "fans" who value their humanity by focusing on "time," "story," and "trust," and further enhance the credibility of their messages by establishing unique rules for their PR posts.

●Episode 6: What is the New Genre "Pro Traveler," Born in the Era of "Experience Consumption"?

We spoke with Anna Haneishi, a "Pro Traveler," and Rika Fujii, Editor-in-Chief of GENIC magazine.

By curating information within a specific genre, they gain the power to drive consumption as genre-specific innovators. Creating a place where curated, accurate information gathers also builds popularity.

In the final 7th session, we deciphered the era through the lens of high school girls' SNS trends, representing the cutting edge of the times.

Genre innovators are uniquely energetic individuals whose power holds the potential to revitalize society and the economy. Dentsu Inc. Gal Lab will continue providing solutions—including initiatives and ideas—to support this era of genre innovators. We look forward to meeting you again someday.

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