It doesn’t matter if Gen-Y is your target audience or the newest group of employees, it’s important to understand how they think and work. Eventually, you’ll engage with someone from Gen-Y so be prepared.

Mr. Youth and INTREPID surveyed a wide spectrum of this young generation, regarding their priorities as they lead the world through an innovative and ever-changing society. Change is only going to continue – in education, technology, business, communication – and to be successful, companies need to embrace and integrate the changes.

The survey, Millenial Inc.,  produced some unique trends within Gen-Y that will affect businesses everywhere.

• Millenials (Gen-Y) prefer to collaborate on decisions, responsibility, and even success – or failure

• “Millennials are not swayed by the “been there, done that” mantra intoned by previous generations, but are driven by ideas that move forward.” In other words, seniority is irrelevant and those whom excel in engaging and innovating will be rewarded

• Technology is vital to understanding consumers – creating customizable products and input directly from the consumer

• “Millennials are the savviest consumers ever…The truth doesn’t escape the Millennial. The only way to gain their trust is to deliver and do so consistently.”

• Social responsibility is important…but if it affects profit it’s seen as an inconvenience

• Two-way conversation and participation are invaluable

• Peer-to-peer communication, aka word-of-mouth, drives behavior as the #1 way to receive news and product evaluations

Clearly, Gen-Y does things differently than the current status-quo. However, their unique priorities and unorthodox methods have proven to be successful. For example, Facebook‘s CEO is 25 years old, yet the site has a population larger than the U.S. and is the most searched brand on the web. The key is utilizing the innovative ideas of Gen-Y and combining them with the experience of senior business execs. Use the best of both worlds.

Tags: Gen-Y, Innovation, pr, PR Scoup, public relations, Survey, Trust

This entry was posted on June 24, 2010 at 1:05 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Public Relations Social Media Issues by Gabe Chesman View Comments