Its hard to believe that five generations of people are working under the same roof. It seems like just yesterday, Generation 9/11 was entering high school, not graduating, going to college and entering the professional workforce. I am officially part of Generation X or Millennials. I interact with Generation Y and Baby Boomers every day at work. I decided to interview a Baby Boomer since I support two of them at my current job.
Each generation has a different view of what social media is. When I interviewed Linda, I asked her what was her definition of social media. She said "Social media is any form of communication between two individuals in which there is no eye contact or physical contact. This includes email, texting. Facebook. Linkedin, Twitter. etc" Right away I feel slightly different from her. Social media can have face to face contact like facetime in the iPad and voice can be used when blogging or creating video for YouTube.
Next Linda and I talked about usage of social media, how often and what specific forms of social media were used. Linda says she uses it daily to communicate with friends, family and work customers. However, she is referring to email here. Linda said she texts a couple of times a week, mostly to talk to her children since this is their main source of communication. She has both a Facebook and LinkedIn profile, however these were created by a younger family member and are not used more than once a week.
I personally utilize email all the time as well. I email friends, family, work and school peers every day, so Linda and I share that aspect of usage. However, I utilize Facebook almost everyday and I utilized LinkedIn every day when I was looking for a new job. I also blog about traveling in my spare time. My usage is different from Linda's usage.
Linda's personal view on social media is very typical of a Baby Boomer and very different from a Generation Y. She said "My first experiences with social media outlets like Facebook was the observation that a lot of time was spent with virtually nothing accomplished. Because of this, I have in the past tried to avoid social medias. My experience with them is consequently very limited." I personally view social media as tools for me to learn, communicate and express myself. I have them as a blessing and less like a burden.
Despite Linda thinking social media was a waste of time she is starting to see the benefit of it especially for her small business. Linda and I both share the desire to learn. As a result, she recently took a seminar that went over the basics of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Like me, Linda is starting to see that there is some real value in social media and is exploring opportunities learning how to use it.
Every generation thinks and acts differently. When they come together in the work place, new ideas are formed and new tensions arise. As seen in the above interview, each generation has very different views on whether of not social media is worth time and money to a company. It is important, to cater to all generations when presenting a campaign to a company. Raising profits is important to Baby Boomers while Generation X and Y see it as a place to share new ideas and learn new things. If all of these points are conveyed in a social media pitch, then all generations can see the benefit of a social media campaign for their particular organization.
Due to the number of generations in the workforce, marketing campaigns for products have to be varied to appeal to each individual generation. There is an expense tracking tool for sales professionals called Expensify. It is a 3rd party tool for creating, tracking and submitting expense reports. When marketing this product, a component was created for each generation. For the Generation Y people, Expensify created a app that allows users to take a picture of the receipt that needs to be submitted as an expense. It instantly loaded the picture onto the recent expense report. Expensify also offers tutorial videos through its mobile app so users understand how the program works.
ReplyDeleteFor the Baby Boomers, Expensify offers free Live Meetings to teach users how to use the product and solicit feedback on the product. These meeting are either conducted by the local Account manager or via Live Meeting. Live meetings are also offered throughout the year whenever the software is updated.
Each large account has an account manager to service the company’s needs. For the Veteran generation, Account Managers install a manual on how to use the product on the individuals computer. If a company is small and does not have an account manager, these manuals are emailed to anyone interested from the customer service department.
Expensify is able to accessed anytime and anywhere. Generation X can use it just a work and not worry about accessing it from a computer at home, while Generation Y has the app that allows them utilize Expensify at all times. Baby Boomers have the option of logging on from a home computer in addition to having access at work. Expensify has done a great job of appealing to all generations through all of the different training options as well as accessibility.