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This is sure to set online marketers -- and other aspirants -- to scratching their heads.

Turns out the youngest cohort of working consumers ­-- the age group 18 to 29 year olds commonly referred to as "millennials'' -- aren't all that keen on staying in touch with their favorite brands via Facebook, according to marketing research shared in by Quinnipiac University.

"Few brands are breaking through to this generation," Hilary Fussell Sisco, assistant professor of public relations in the Q's School of Communications, said Thursday in a statement declaring her study's findings. "Millennials are far more likely to "like" sororities and fraternities, sports teams, and nonprofits.''

Tina McCorkindale, assistant professor of communications at Appalachian State University, and Marcia DiStaso, assistant professor of communications at Pennsylvania State University, also shared in the research.

The trio surveyed 414 18-29-year-olds on three university campuses and found that

·75 percent of millennials have "liked" an organization

• 45 percent have "liked" products
• 48 percent have accepted friend requests from organizations
• 44 percent have donated supported or joined a cause
• 86 percent access Facebook every day
• 57 percent access Facebook via a cell phone.

"Only 10 percent accept friend requests from organizations," Fussell Sisco said. "But 18 percent accept friend requests from people they don't know.''

When they do go to organizational sites, she said, they do it for discounts and free samples almost exclusively.

They also aren't terribly loyal to any specific brands: 42 percent said they have left or "unliked" a page, mostly because the organization was mostly selling products or was "annoying or excessive" in their notifications.

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