Cathal Berragan is the creative director for the U.S. division of Social Chain, a global social media marketing agency. Social Chain has recently gained attention for the ability to make any topic trend on Twitter within 26 minutes by utilizing its vast ownership of social media accounts, including Student Problems, Love Food and Game Byte. With its communities amassing over 386 million followers, the company has been a strategic partner with brands such as Coca-Cola, Spotify, BBC and Puma.

Q: What social media outlet should companies use to target millennials and younger generations?
A: It depends what business you’re looking at. Instagram is the place to be for consumer brands that sell aesthetic products. It’s the fastest-growing social platform at the moment. People naturally enjoy consuming visual content. Facebook is equally important because of the huge amount of data you can pull from your audience there.

Q: How are you able to make a hashtag trend so quickly?
A: Our reach and distribution makes it easier. The real value is we know exactly how to speak to these consumers. You can’t push just any content to get something trending. We’ve built these audiences.

Q: How did you build those audiences?
A: We realized we could take individual pages we built on Twitter and Facebook and build them across other platforms, turning them into full publishing arms. At first, we took a single Instagram page of 6 million followers, and then we gave it a Facebook and Twitter presence, extending that audience even more. It’s like we’re building publishing houses.

Q: What type of content do they respond best to?
A: Video content is number one. With increases in technology, our phones can now handle video on the go, and internet streams mean we can view it faster. About 70%-80% of Facebook content is now video. You can tell a story much easier.

Q: How can companies leverage their social media following into sales?
A: You have an audience who has seen your brand on different levels; the product is ingrained in their minds and now they’re more likely to purchase. We found you can create pieces of content thousands engage with and treat it like product placement. With Facebook in particular, you can target your intended audience with ads specific to their interests and your product.