Ah.. more than 42 Million Gen Y members can vote in the upcoming election. And why is that only one candidate is really using the web And why is it that only candidate thought to go to an expert or at least someone who lives and breathes online stuff. Why is it that only one candidate hired the founder of Facebook to help him with his campaign. Why is that even though only 48% of the Gen Yers claimto be a Democrat, they will still vote for Obama.

46% of Gen Yers expect the next President to interact with them online. Isn’t amazing that other candidates–in any election–still haven’t integrated online into their communications with these constituents

Simmons Research, an Experian company, has chronicled the predilections of consumers in its National Consumer Study since 1960, and recently added social media to its survey. That includes social-networking sites, blogs, message boards, podcasts and e-mail. Simmons agreed to slice and dice its volumes of data for Advertising Age to identify social-media consumer profiles. The first five are from its bank of 38 consumer personalities; the others are pulled from demographic data.

SOCIALLY ISOLATED

These people are generally unhappy with their lives and feel alone. Not surprisingly, they fall at average or below average for e-mailing. But that doesn’t mean they eschew social media. In fact, they’re 12% more likely than the average person to use blogs, message boards or social-networking sites. They also post comments on blogs at least twice a month; personal, music, consumer-product and video-game blogs are most visited.

APPROVAL SEEKERS

This group buys what others are buying and likes to follow styles and trends. They use social-networking sites to meet like-minded people, express their views, get music and entertainment recommendations, and keep in touch with family and friends. They rate average in e-mailing friends and co-workers but above average in using e-mail to communicate with their parents. They are 23% more likely to instant message and download music.

HEALTH AND IMAGE LEADERS

This is eager to try health and wellness products, experiment with diets, and spend to look younger. The majority are under 50. They prefer reading blogs over posting comments or creating their own blogs and prefer to read about TV shows, video games, music and art/literature. They also like social-networking sites: More than one-fifth visit them more than twice a month.

SMART GREEN

Clearly they prefer to buy products in recycled packages and eschew products that pollute. They are average users of social networking, blogging and podcasting but slightly above average in message boards. They are older (50-plus) and are most likely to go online for health or financial information. And in the spirit of their eco-friendly attitude toward trees, they’re 23% more likely to send electronic greeting cards.

BRAND-LOYAL

This group shies away from buying unknown brands just for a bargain and prefers to buy brand-name goods. They’re very average social-media users, but some subjects of interest drive them to social media more than the average person: They’re 21% more likely to read environmental blogs and 22% more likely to use professional-networking sites to make new contacts.

STAY-AT-HOME MOMS

They’re 25 to 49 and have at least one child living at home. They use social media for a variety of reasons, including staying in touch and parental guidance. They visit parenting blogs five times more often than average. They’re also active on social networks, blogs and chat forums but tend to stay away from podcasting. They visit blogs once or more a week and create their own blogs at a higher than average rate.

UPSCALE GRAYS

These 50-plus consumers with college degrees and household incomes of more than $100,000 are low-level social-media users. They are almost 40% less likely than the average person to have read blogs, visited chat forums or instant messaged and 70% less likely to have visited a social network in the past month. One of the only places they skewed higher than average were professional networking sites.

FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS

It makes sense that people in the market for a home would look online for information about not only real estate but other products involved in home ownership. But Experian found that this under-35 set also includes very active social networkers, bloggers and message-board users. They also rank high in texting, podcasting and business networking. They use social networks to keep in touch but also to find information.

DIVORCED

Unsurprisingly, both sexes index high for dating sites, but women are more likely to visit social networks than men. Divorced women are also 20% more likely to buy something online, while men are 52% more likely to visit sports sites. Neither is into blogs or chat forums, but women communicate more than average via text message, while men use e-mail 45% more than average to communicate with their children.

I had a very nice e-mail today from Briel Zagarow. He is the Communications Manager for Mr. Youth, and he passed along a link to a great white paper that every marketer needs to know about.

The white paper, titled Consumer 2.0, discusses the effects technology and other marketing advances have had on consumer behavior, the youth market in particular. The white paper outlines Five Rules to Engage a New Breed of Consumer. So check it out!
Thank-you Briel…this is great stuff!

Interested in learning more about how to market to Generation Y?  Check out Bea Fields’ articles or contact her today to speak to your company or upcoming event:

Marketing to Generation Y: What You Can’t Afford Not to Know

10 Surefire Strategies for Marketing to Generation Y

Listen to Bea Fields interviewed on the topic of Marketing to Gen Y 

Everyone keeps talking about how Obama has leveraged Web 2.0 Technologies better than his opponents. But there’s something else going on. And that is how do people find these videos, podcasts, and blogs. It is not just by going to YouTube.com. Instead, it is based on online word of mouth. Younger folks are forwarding Web addresses in their emails, or leveraging ‘beacons’ on sites like FaceBook. Beacons basically let your friends know what you are doing, such as ‘listening to Podcast of Obama’s speeches. According to Gen Yers, I speak with, they are subscribing less and less to paper based newspapers and reading more online. And it is there friends and coworkers who are using the Web to let them know what to read online. This also impacts the type of info consumed by Gen Yers. Instead of reading what experts think about an event, users just go to a recording the event (after they receive an email from a friend).

Anya Kamenetz has a great post today on Yahoo Finance about the issues facing young voters. A big concern? The economy.

Several more senior leaders have been telling me that Gen Y does not seem concerned about the economy, but this is not what I am hearing, and Kamenetz’s opinion is more in line with what I am hearing.

Why us old folks sometimes hate Gen Yers?

Disclaimer: I don’t really hate Gen Y. I love working and learning from them.

BUT, there are folks who come straight out and say, ‘Gen Y is spoiled.’ I recently met with a company where a senior manager said, ‘those kids are spoiled… they think they can just take off an afternoon.’

When I challenged this manager and asked him how many Gen Yers were on his staff, he said ‘1′.

When I asked him how many Gen Yers he interacts with a week, he said ‘1 or 2.’

When I asked him if he explored FaceBook or some other websites where there are a lot of Gen Yers, he said ‘no’

When I asked him if he read our book, he said ‘no’

Ignorance is not always bliss. Just like any culture, generation or religion, you (Gen X, Boomers, etc.), need to get out of their current mind set and interact with young folks. Besides learning, there is another good reason.

It is scientifically proven that one lives longer if they interact with younger folks. (Please don’t ask me to send you the article that states this because it will take a while to find it)

It is ok for Gen Yers to wear their pants low, wear a baseball cap sideways, have a tattoo or a pierced body part. Who are we to judge? It is natural to have some prejudices, but hopefully they can dissolve over time.

Just know that they will change jobs more than you do, they will dress differently, they will have a different vocabulary, and they might even eat different food.

Be open. Be Y!

Listen in to this great interview I held last night with Misti Burmeister. Misti is the CEO of Inspirion, Inc. and is one of America’s top generational experts (and she’s only 29). She is the author of the new book From Boomers to Bloggers: Succcess Strategies Across Generations (a really great read). Misti is featured in Chapter of 19 of Millennial Leaders.

Listen to the interview here:

 

 Audio Interview with Misti Burmeister: Author of From Boomers To Bloggers [76:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Political leaders want their votes. Businesses want their disposable income. Organizations want their talent. Generation Y represents over 72 million influencers, and they are a powerful force to be reckoned with. During this interview, published author and corporate writer, Sara Thomas, interviews executive coaches Carol Graser, Beth Bloomfield and Bea Fields about some of the most pressing questions companies are facing about how to best develop The Millennials into future leaders.

For more about host Sara Thomas, visit her blog at SarahThomas.com.

Listen to the audio here:

 

 Audio with Carol, Beth and Bea [60:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

10-year Forecast With the Institute for the Future Shows Entrepreneurs Poised to Thrive in any Industry, Anywhere

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Artisans, historically defined as skilled craftsmen who fashioned goods by hand, will re-emerge as an influential force in the coming decade. These next-gen artisans will craft their goods and shape the economy – through upswings and downturns – with an effect reaching far beyond their neighborhoods, or even their nations. They’ll work differently than their medieval counterparts, combining brain with brawn as advances in technology and the reaches of globalization give them greater opportunities to succeed.   Read the full press release here.

I want to continue the blog entry started by Scott on the Profile of Gen Y job article by Tamara J. Erickson.

What we are seeing is that Gen Y has a different definition of “work ethic”.  Baby Boomers seem to define work ethic as giving 60-70 hours per week, rushing from here to there in order to have the world see how much they are doing.  I am a Baby Boomer, and I know this mentality (I live this mentality).

Gen Y, however, is different (remember…they have different world views from any previous generation).  They not only have the knowledge and the tech skills to get the job done more efficiently and effectively, they have the network to pull off a task in a matter of 30 minutes as opposed to two hours by a solo worker working as a “lone ranger”.

I have had people ask me if Baby Boomers are upset with Gen Y’s view of work, because they also really crave less work hours and  more free time.  There might be something to this notion, but let me just put this into perspective on how I see the different generations and how they view work:

1) Traditionalists:  Traditionalists were affected by the Great Depression.  Work meant work…you worked to earn a living, save and invest.  If you left a job, there was a stigma attached to it (Oh…Henry must have been fired).  They were highly respectful of authority, and created a hierarchical structure to the leadership in organizations (so…everyone worked hard to climb to the top).

2) Baby Boomers:  Baby Boomers fall in that category of working 60 hours a week at a corporate job so that they can “keep up with the Joneses”.  To change jobs is a waste of time, and in order to do a great job, it means that you must hold a LOT of meetings and work week-ends if necessary.  Boomers love Mondays…because it means they get the chance to get back in there and work, work, work really hard (and many ended up being affected by the downsizing of corporate America in exchange for that hard work).

3) Generation X:  Gen X grew up being fiercely independent.  As latch-key kids, they began to depend on themselves and their friends for support, and many began dabbling with tech start ups during the Dot Com boom.  The Dot Com bust happened, and many went back into full time work, yet they had a few new demands, including flex hours, telecommuting and being able to move to different divisions in the company and spend time with their friends. Gen X really worked in order “to live”, and they don’t like close supervision.  So, meetings which made no sense and managers telling them how to work and what to do were met with quite a bit of resistance.

4) Then came Gen Y.  Okay…think about this…Gen Y has watched all of the above.  They watched their grandparents (traditionalists) in coat and tie, watched their Baby Boomer parents work 60 hours a week just to get laid off or fired and watched their older siblings (Gen X) start to ask for things like flex hours and movement.  So…this is an evolution of generations and how they view work.   Gen Y’s mantra is “Live First, Work Second”,  and they know how to use technology, online social networking, and the massive amounts of knowledge they have to multi-task and do it well!  They see work as something they do between the times they live or see their friends or do something fun.   So, they are changing the way we work and live…living first, working second…isn’t this what we all want?

I want to close by saying that I really believe that Gen Y is going to change the way we all work, and again…I think this is an evolutionary process in our world.  Sure…there will always be Generation Y adults who work hard, but they are putting their foot down and saying “We want to live in a different way!”.  If we can get the job done (and done well without the quality of the end product or service suffering), then why not do it in half the time?  What’s the purpose in the 60 hour work week?  If you enjoy working 60 hours…great!  I congratulate you.  However, be very careful about speaking about Gen Y as if they don’t have a strong work ethic.  They just have a much different way of moving about work, and their priorities are  in a bit of a different order right now, and this is all subject to change.