To be honest, I saw this coming a few years ago when I optimistically quoted the blog post of Inder Sidhu, Cisco’s Senior Vice President of Strategy & Planning for Worldwide Operations.
“Statistically, Generation Y is the most educated and technologically experienced of any generation to date. Millennials have never known adulthood without the Internet, and are perfectly at ease with social media, digital content creation, and mobile connectivity.”
I was (and am) optimistic because I know young adults. Whatever you want to call them—Gen Y, Millennials, Gen C (for “connected” or “content“, depending who you ask)—this is a group of young people I know. For the sake of clarity, let’s start calling them “Gen C”.
Generation Connected describes these young adults more effectively than any of the other labels we’ve tried to slap on them. They’re connected. Everything they do is digital, most of them from the time they’re born. A 2010 Booz & Company report tags this group of as those born after 1990, while others specify an age group of 18-34, and others say 18-29.
The U.S. Census reports that this group of Americans make up 23 percent of the population. I’ve spent half of my life working with these youngsters. I can tell you how to market to them, how to get them to pay attention to you so you can train them, and I can tell you how to get them job-ready. I can now, with a 17 year old of my own, share my strategy on how to successfully keep one alive for 17 years. Not just alive, but thriving. I have, against all odds and to the surprise of many (including myself) somehow managed to do a lot of things right with my daughter. She’s an amazing kid. Good grades, gifted musician, loving sister, active in her church and community. She’s never given me a bit of the scary kind of trouble that some kids give their parents.
But here is the question: can I get her to work?
Here is what I know: the business world is excited about this demographic. Like, orgasmic-ally excited. Here’s why: An AVG Study surveying mothers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan shows that: 92 percent of U.S. children have an online presence by the time they are two years old. 23 percent of babies have sonogram images uploaded of them before they’re even born. Yes…there’s proof that he’s a boy! Don’t tag him in that when he’s 15. 81 percent of toddlers have a digital footprint under the age of two via images posted online by family members. 7 percent of babies and toddlers have email addresses. Spammers delight!’ So this is the online marketer’s delight, eh? But it gets even more awesome for businesses when you examine data from a 2012 Millennial Branding study.
The study targeted 50 million Facebook data points and identified spending behaviors of the Gen C demographic, and this is why marketers are paying a lot of attention to Gen C: By 2017, this demographic will have more spending power than any other generation that came before them, including baby boomers. 84 percent of them say that their purchases are and will be driven by UGC (user generated content). This means that if own a business, you’d better have your customers saying good things about you in a loud voice.
By the year 2025, Gen C will make up 75 percent of the workforce. And alas, some interesting stats from the same study that are very telling to those of us who have spent a lot of time working with young adults: 59 percent of students update their Facebook status in class. 11 percent equate money with success. 80 percent list their Alma Mater on their Facebook profiles, but only 36 percent list their jobs. They seem to identify more with their colleges than they do with individual workplaces. They spend an average of two years at their first job, and continue to job hop throughout their careers.
As entrepreneurs, the title of “Owner” is the fifth most popular job title on Facebook for this age group. Only 7 percent work for a Fortune 500 company. They enjoy the challenge and dynamic of start-ups. They expect companies to “hear their voice and recognize their contributions.”
Brian Solis, marketing and social media guru and the author of The End of Business As Usual, says that it has more to do with the disruption of technology than the age of the person. Please check out this Social Media Today article if you’d like to delve more into the impact of technology on youth (and adult) behavior. Nielsen and NM Incite‘s U.S. Digital Consumer Report says. They consume media, socialize and share experiences through devices more than other age groups.
Reference:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ciocentral/2012/04/30/get-over-it-the-truth-about-college-grad-underemployment/
