Look I admit it; I am not the most social-media savvy person. I don’t “get” Twitter and last month I canceled my Facebook account. These behaviors aside, the weak signals of social media combined with the pending influx of millennials paints a clear picture. Marketers and managers, prepare yourselves for the pending onslaught of millennial workers who will change the way we work, the way we buy and the way we think.
Let’s start with the HBR article “Are you ready to manage five generations of workers” by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd from Oct 16 2009. The most telling point of the story is the graph that shows that by 2015, millennial will be the dominant generation in the workforce finally wedging the baby boomers out. Thinking back to how the tidal wave of boomers shaped the way we did…well, everything, we can expect that this next swollen generation to make its presence known in ways we cannot imagine.
Moving to social media, for any of you exposed to millennials, you will recognize they are arguably more engaged into the virtual environment than they are in the physical. How many teens do you see playing outside in your neighborhood? How will the way the play WOW translate into managing real teams in the workplace, how they manage projects? This will have an impact and it’s going to be fascinating to see it happen.
Turning to social media, an article posted earlier this week titled “Six Social Media Trends for 2010” by David Armano argues that we are about to see the “noise” become targeted, companies will take social media seriously, and e-mail will take a back seat to social media as a means of communication. These trends in play, you, me and the rest of our Gen X colleagues need to get over our hang-ups and… well “get it”.
Follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/bloomport (although I have no idea why).
Shawn Grubb
[...] me” Twitter button on your website. Don’t have a twitter account? I was a late bloomer as [...]
By: Twitter Button « Bloomport U on 06/01/2011
at 3:48 pm
The Top 10 Most Important Tweets of 2009
http://bloomport.com/?p=281
By: Shawn on 01/06/2010
at 6:29 pm
update… twitter pops in 2009
http://bloomport.com/?p=281
By: Shawn on 01/01/2010
at 7:13 pm
When I first heard of twitter..I felt the same ways as you guys but now I am using it for my entrepreneurship ambitious. It’s really good if you need a group of people to follow you..but from an individual stand point i think it’s useless. I don’t have any feeling to share when I am going to eat…so use it as a marketing tool which wasn’t its intended purpose…join my tweeterfilms page..
By: NICK on 12/24/2009
at 12:39 am
Nick,
Marketing makes sense… but now that I follow a few people, I am finding that those who over-tweet, just annoy me. Use discretion!
By: Shawn on 12/29/2009
at 6:23 pm
just love the graph (and, as a genx’r, hate it too…especially that short little blue line in 2020)
anyway, like your tone, questions and randomness…trying to figure it out myself….
jb
By: john on 12/01/2009
at 1:03 am
Hmm… perhaps twitter is not all that after all?
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/05/twitter-data-analysis-an-investors-perspective/
By: Shawn on 11/08/2009
at 9:15 pm
I am not sold yet.. but still trying to see a point. Thanks for a gen y perspective. Shawn
By: Shawn on 11/08/2009
at 8:33 pm
I think twitter is a waste of time.
By: maplesyrup10 on 11/07/2009
at 12:52 am