The Research Playbook

Recently, within a discussion about Why Local Businesses Need to Embrace Social Media a tangential conversation centered on why it’s a good idea for businesses to hire Gen-Y professionals to work on social media marketing. Yes, the person making the suggestion was a Gen-Yer and admitted her potential bias, but she made an excellent point. “We’ve grown up with these tools and understand their capabilities and reach better than most marketing professionals who have been in the game for a long time.” Christina Galoozis also reminded us to “Remember to always use social media to connect with and listen to customers -never just talk at them.”

In general, I think most of us would agree that people who grow up with a new technology have an advantage and the advice that Christina gave is important for us all to hear. However, I would like to add two points. First, Gen-Y professionals like all the rest of us, will have to learn new skills as the marketplace evolves and it always does. Therefore, any advantage this age cohort has may be short lived unless for some odd reason the world stands still for a decade, which is highly unlikely.

Second, I have had the pleasure of teaching more than a few Gen-Yers how to leverage Internet marketing and in particular social media platforms. Gen-Y professionals do not have a corner on the SM market. Nearly anyone can learn to use social media effectively to promote a business. Unfortunately, some people are intimidated by the vast landscape and for others the time commitment is overwhelming

Building a meaningful social presence takes time and often the expectation is to achieve immediate results. Most of us know instant gratification is generally not part of the game. Many of the older dogs who have been in the pack for a long time appreciate this fact of life. We cannot only learn, we can still teach, new tricks!