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Communicating with a Millennial (Part 2: Dubs needs friends)

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There was a fair amount of conversation regarding this “millennial” generation last week, some of it controversial and with minor disagreement. There doesn’t seem to be differences in that we all agree that each generation has it’s own quirks in terms of preferences that can be stereotyped, as well as communication methods that might be particular to that generation.

Here’s my point though. After some serious though, I have to agree with Recruiting Animal. Every generation has been defined by a portion of the population that popular culture has latched onto. The 70’s have turned into disco and mod, the 80’s punk and preppy. We might be looking at the Millennials as idealists, but I must say that an experience over the weekend (confined in small quarters (a boat) with a couple hundred high school and college age students) has left me thinking that this idea of idealism is really a fairly small part of the population. The thought that they may be more global minded than their parents is certainly feasible, but how this has shaped their thinking is still largely unknown. The fact that they have different modes of communication is undeniable as Colin states, but again, the full impact of this is largely unknown.

I went over to Ryan’s site and noticed something fairly different. Many of us bloggers seem to have linked-in profiles. The fact that there is a major presence in recruiters in the overall HR blogosphere is possibly ha substantial contributor here, but we all use linked-in nonetheless. I myself have one I have never publicized here since it’s under my real name (If you have any desire to link to me, you can send an invite to “admin (at) systematicHR (dot) com”). Ryan’s site didn’t have the normal linked-in profile, he had a myspace profile. While I’m extraordinarily dubious about the professionalism of any myspace site and the business potential must be faced with healthy skepticism, I have set up a myspace page as an experiment. You can find me at http://www.myspace.com/systematicHR (and be my “friend). I say the professional elements are dubious mostly because as I tried to categorize my interests, “business” is not even listed among the music, art, and more “social” choices presented. Myspace is not intended for this type of networking, but I’m very interested to see if the Millennial attention to social networking can be translated into a professional program.

Communications are different. I have to admit that I don’t “get” social networking and “buddies” and people spending time commenting on inane topics their friends write about. But at the same time, we’ve been talking about innovation, collaboration and talent networks, and bringing user communities together to make them work. Somewhere there’s an intersection of when the Millennials are already doing, and where we want to go in the future. Somewhere there’s a space where they learn to interact with the business world while bringing their own brand of communication skills to the table.

So here’s what I want you to do. If you have a myspace page (I’m guessing that 99.9% of the readership does not) make me a friend. I’m really curious what type of networking we can do, and how it will compare with Linked-in type formats.

MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/systematicHR
Linked-In at: “admin (at) systematicHR (dot) com”

More to come Wednesday.

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5 responses to “Communicating with a Millennial (Part 2: Dubs needs friends)”

  1. Communicating with a Millennial (Part 2: Dubs needs friends) The fact that there is a major presence in recruiters in the overall HR blogosphere is possibly ha substantial contributor here, but we all use linked-in nonetheless. I myself have one I have never publicized here since it’s under my … [

  2. Recruiting Animal Avatar

    I have a MySpace page. Never use it because like you say, music is the focus, not for business. If I wanted to chat with other teens, however, about music, I’m sure that I would be there. I have a Facebook page too. But I don’t recruit fresh grads. So, again, it’s far less essential to me than to someone younger or perhaps to a company looking for someone who just got his BA. I’ll link to your myspace page later today. Regards.

  3. DonaldHTaylor Avatar

    Spot on, Dubs, I have a Linked-in page (viewed infrequently) and no MySpace. In short, as you suggest, my blog is the centre of my online identity, with my Linked-In profile as a sort of permanent roadsign enabling contact.

    I do, however, use the limited ‘Community’ functionality of MyBlogLog and Explode, and am currently setting up an online community for Learning and Development professionals.

    I’ll be fascinated to catch your continuing thoughts on this.

    Don

  4. The Other Systematic Avatar

    “I have to admit that I don’t “get” social networking and “buddies” and people spending time commenting on inane topics their friends write about.”

    Ah, but you do, Dubs. If you didn’t get social networking and commenting on inane topics then you and I wouldn’t have our very enjoyable dinners and conversations! In the absence of an online forum how would we have met? I’m confident that HRT would be considered more than inane by folks outside our little sphere of interest.

    As for myspace compared to linkedin, they’re simply specialized interfaces. My kitchen has 2 wall ovens, a microwave, a toaster oven and a bread baker. 5 different appliances that appear to do the same thing – make hunks of food hot. But they do it in specialized ways so that each suits a slightly specialized purpose better than the others. This lines up with the comments that myspace serves a completely different purpose than linkedin for them. In this case the specialization is the demographic and tone of the collaborative environment.

    I have teen-aged children and I’ve observed that myspace is (among other things) a way for them to ‘try on’ identities. Kid’s myspace pages and AIM screen names are as disposable as their clothing, they quickly grow out what fit yesterday, especially in matters of style and sophistication. Fears of predators notwithstanding, it seems to me to be safer than some of the ways my generation tried to be hip…

    Cheers,
    T O S

  5. Ryan Avatar
    Ryan

    I’m interested to see how this study pans out. Professionally, I don’t believe that MySpace should be considered a networking technology. As the Animal says, “not for business.”

    One thing it is not, however, is purely about music, but it’s easy to make that misconception. When you boil it down to the basics MySpace is two things, a way for friends to keep in touch through pictures, blogs, etc. and a way for businesses to market to Millennials.

    Granted, a lot of that marketting is for music & movies, but if you do a search, you will also find a bunch of other businesses, big and small, that use it as well.

    I even found out that Guiness has a MySpace page, “Brilliant!”