Tweak Your Biz » Management » Engaging with your future force

Engaging with your future force



Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, Generation Next or Net Generation. Characteristics of this generation vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions.

However, it is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. Is your business engaging online with Gen Y? Do you have a presence to attract students, graduates-the possible future hire of your company?

It’s September. Universities and schools are back in action and those graduating this year will kick start their career hunt. My guess is that they will take this hunt into the online domain of social media interaction. They will seek your company out! Do you have a social media or new media marketing campaign in place, do you have a plan to engage online with the future of your company?

With Gen Y making up 30% of Internet users how can you liven up your marketing plan to keep this audience demographic engaged. Do you utilize your company website to the best of it’s ability? Are you present on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BraveNewTalent, YouTube? Connecting to them through these channels will give them more of a personal connection and will also give opportunity for customers to recommend your business to their friends. From a candidate perspective how cool would it be to get the opportunity to engage with your HR team or even marketing team through online interactions and conversations? How cool would it for you to understand this audience, engage with them and identify potential hires?

Companies need to gauge entry into a market by investing more time in identifying trend makers/trendsetters among Gen Y as a target group. Gen Y may not only be your future employees, they may be your future customers.

Regarding your presence on social media platforms ask yourself the following:

  • Do you have a dedicated team member managing your social media strategy? If so, are they familiar with Gen Y
  • Are they social media savvy themselves?
  • Are you taking part in dedicated discussions online to engage?
  • Is your company branding attractive, consistent-do you stand out amongst your competitors?
  • Do you update these platforms on a regular basis?
  • Do you have buy in from the business regarding social media?

Take your online campaign offline also. Get out and meet Gen Y. Be a proactive member of the University programmes. Engaging with your future audience will make your business amazing! I am a fan…..are you?

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Add Your Comment

  • http://www.btbtraining.com/blog Niall Devitt

    Hi Lindsay, welcome to Bloggertone, It’s about time :) Generation Y have gotten a bad press in some quarters but a lot of what is said misses the point, every generation is different from the one before, the Millennials just happen to be the most tech savvy people on the planet. Smart companies are quickly learning to embrace Gen Y and their tools because as you point out, Gen Y may not only be your future employees, they will also be your future customers. Great post! Politicians, Educators, Biz leaders please pay attention!

  • http://www.seefincoaching.com/blog Elaine Rogers

    Hi Lindsay – welcome to bloggertone.

    Thanks for the post – very interesting, I wouldn’t think of grads coming out of college at this time, so good to have a reminder (to avoid the usual spots!)

    Your comment – “However, it is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies” got me smiling :)

    We are an information society, we get and pay big bucks for information and expertise. However, probably related to the bad press Niall refers to below, with all our new communication channels, we are actually communicating less in person-person. I am not suggesting this is a bad thing, but in all honesty, business people have forgotten how to communicate verbally, hence the huge increase in courses being sought for communication skills, negotiation skills, leadership skills etc. – these all come down to communication (or lack thereof)

    Could be an interesting discussion!

  • Anonymous

    Nice post Lindsay

  • Anonymous

    Thanks, Des, for a very insightful piece. It taught me a lot.n:0)

  • Des

    @LewisEvans , @Niall Devitt. Thanks Folks. More to come.

  • http://www.hal9000.ie/blog/ Jennie

    Great post Des. nnMobile local search is growing hugely with availablity of location-based relevancy. It’s more important than ever for local businesses to have an optimised Google Places listing. nIf I search for ‘coffee’ in Dun Laoghaire, I won’t get my favourite coffee shop returned (which happens to be the closest) because they’re not optimised for the term ‘coffee’ in Google Places!nnJust on the group deals websites, one of the problems I’ve found as a user is relevancy. So thought I’d plug a new Irish service to ‘sift’ through the daily deals from various sites and just send you the ones that are relevant (based on your preferences). nnIt’s http://www.sift.ie – if anyone wants to give it a whirl.nnIt’s all about relevancy..

  • Des

    Hi Jennie,nnThanks for the comments. Have you tried using the newly redeveloped Google app on your phone. Appears to be big improvement on local results. But you are right Local and even National business with a local focus have some catching up to do! nnOn our LocalSearch blog I have been speculating about when we would see the first Irish Deal a Day aggregation website. It makes way more sense to have all the deals in one place and available in one email. Good luck to Shane Hayes and Sift.ie.nnDes

  • http://twitter.com/Sift_ie Sift.ie

    Hi Des,nnThanks for your kind wishes with regard to http://www.sift.ie (we pronounce it Siftie).nnWe would really welcome any feedback.nnAll the bestnnShane

  • Abhinav

    Great Post Des

  • Des

    Thanks Abhinav