Millennials. That term probably brings a lot of things to mind: entitled, hip, tech addicted, constantly connected, lazy, disillusioned, liberal, annoying, powerful to business. No, that last one isn't in there by mistake.

It might be time to disregard your opinions about Millennials, especially if you own a business, because Millennials will soon have the greatest combined purchasing power in history. Yes, you read that right: Millennials will have more combined purchasing power than any other generation in the history of the world.

That's significant, something I'm sure Millennials will hear and respond to with a sly smirk. 

If you can't stand another artistic food picture, selfie, or entitled Facebook rant, you might need to search deep within yourself for any amount of patience left. Your business could be the beneficiary.

So how can your business engage Millennials? The answer to that question can be summarized by this statement: the majority of Millennials are immune to traditional business tactics. To support that statement, here are some glaring statistics about the type of media Millennials choose to spend their time with:

Millennials spend 18 hours with media per day

• 30 % of that time is spent with user generated content (mostly found on social networks)

• 37 % of that time is spent with other media (everything except traditional media)

• 33 % of that time is spent with traditional media (print, TV, radio, etc.)

Millennials check social media more than any other media type

(Media type participation per day)

• Social networking: 71%

• Watch TV: 60%

• Listen to radio: 53%

• Email: 49%

• News, weather: 47%

• Pre-recorded TV: 46%

Millennials aren't influenced as much by traditional media

• User generated content is 35% more memorable than traditional media

• User generated content is 50% more trusted than traditional media

The majority of Millennials don't trust product info from traditional sources

• 34% trust information from TV

• 37% trust information from the radio

• 44% trust information from print newspapers

• 50% trust information from social networks

• 68% trust information from peer reviews

• 74% trust information from conversations with friends

Millennials trust peer reviews more than professional reviews

• 68% trust peer reviews

• 64% trust professional reviews

User generated content is 20% more influential on purchase decisions than all other media types

(Percentage of Millennials who say they use user generated content to inform decision on different purchases)

• Major electronics: 59%

• Cars: 54%

• Major appliances: 53%

• Mobile phones: 46%

• Hotel choice: 45%

* Travel plans: 40%

* All statistics based on data from Ipsos and Crowdtap

Millennials aren't just good for being the punchline of jokes; they're also a huge asset for your business. In order to take advantage of their purchasing power, though, you first need to know how to engage them. That's done most effectively away from traditional types of media.