Report – What Are Young People in Barranquilla Talking About on Social Media, and How Can Organizations Connect With Them? 

What Organizations Are Missing About Youth Content Online

One in four people in Barranquilla is young. Connecting with their conversations is not only an opportunity—it is a necessity. At a time when public and private organizations are constantly making decisions that shape the city, engaging with a quarter of the population is essential for the territory’s development.

Today, social media makes it possible to connect and interact with diverse audiences. However, a digital disconnect exists between organizations and young people in Barranquilla. On any given day, an organization may publish a carefully designed post on X (formerly Twitter) about educational opportunities, complete with a polished graphic and well-crafted copy—and receive little engagement. At the same time, a young content creator from Barranquilla may post a TikTok video describing the challenges of accessing higher education or paying for studies, unsure of what path to take. Within minutes, the comments section fills with responses like “same here,” “me too,” “you’re not alone,” and supportive emojis. Both are talking about the same issue—access to education—but only one succeeds in capturing attention, generating interaction, and creating a sense of connection.

This article seeks to understand why this happens and what can be done to better connect with young people. Between May and December 2025, NuestraBarranquilla, with support from Linterna Verde, conducted a social listening exercise (monitoring and analysis of digital environments) across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and YouTube to better understand these conversations. Beyond measuring the volume of content published, this analysis allowed us to identify the topics present in conversations by and about young people, the emotions driving them, who was shaping them, and what happened when organizations attempted to engage with youth audiences.

This article presents some of the key findings from monitoring thousands of pieces of content related to topics prioritized by the youth ecosystem, based on previous research by NuestraBarranquilla: education, productive inclusion, socio-emotional well-being, youth leadership, and city life. It is intended primarily for organizations seeking to connect with young people in Barranquilla, but also for young people who wish to better understand their own digital conversations and explore new ways of engaging with organizations. Based on the findings, we propose three ideas to better understand youth conversations on social media and six practical recommendations on what to do—and what to avoid—when communicating with young people in digital environments.