I recently had the opportunity to have an informal interview with one of my co-workers. Barrett is considered a Millennial (Generation Y) and I am considered Generation X. We spoke after dinner for nearly 30 minutes about his views on social media.
Barrett is an avid television viewer, unlike myself. I asked him how he feels about being bombarded with commercials suggesting that he like (insert company here) on facebook. He quickly named off a couple of companies that annoyed him. Specifically, Stark Air and Milestone Electric. He said that he would never do business with those type of companies because every few minutes their commercial was being played and what difference did it make if you like them on facebook or not.
I then asked him if he maintained an online profile. He quickly laughed, rolled his eyes, and told me no. However, he told me that when he was in high school he had a myspace page. Mostly all that he used it for was music. He has a facebook page but says that he hasn't updated it in ages and has no plans of doing so.
Next I asked about social media as a whole and what he thinks about everyone uploading videos of themselves and telling everybody about their personal business. He feels that the internet gives people a sense of hope that people care about what they are doing at all times of the day. When in reality nobody really cares that much.
We then briefly spoke about the time management and productivity issue when it comes to updating and maintaining a profile. Barrett's wife is a nursing student at TCU and is heavily involved in campus activities and social events. She maintains a facebook page and at times it baffles him with the amount of time that she spends on it.
Barrett told me that when it comes to researching a company to do business with, he would much rather go to their traditional website than their social media page. He also told me that the facebook of today will soon be the myspace of yesterday. For instance, his mother who is in her early 60's uses facebook to find old high school friends. Barrett seemed to think that older populations are beginning to adapt to social media more out of curiosity than necessity. An example that he gave is a widow or widower that has lost their spouse and may have had a high school sweetheart that they are curious to find out about.
He also told me that he views social media as a tool for companies and that it should not replace their day to day methods of doing business. He gave an example that a company can have the latest and greatest social media campaign and keep it updated all that they want. But in the end if a customer calls or walks in and can't get the help or answers that they need, what good is it?
Overall the interview was a bit surprising to me. Although many of my questions were somewhat loaded I did that on purpose to try and get Barrett to persuade me the other way and prolong the interview. For the most part we agree upon how social media impacts us today. I feel that I am of the minority when it comes to my views on social media. I am a bit old school when it comes to how and why I choose to do business with particular companies. To me a simple phone call or walk-in to the company can tell me more about a company than their social media campaign can. Social media for the most part only highlights their positive side. However, I am aware that a company's reputation can be ruined by others using social media to let others know of their experiences.
As far as developing a social media campaign that reaches all of the generations one must be versatile. Because you are going to have the traditionalists that don't want anything to do with social media. You are also going to have those that only want to correspond and deal with you via social media. Since every generation uses social media differently, you must approach each generation differently when you are trying to get your message across. For instance this summer the City of Fort Worth put outside watering restrictions into place. Baby boomers were reached through physical signage, television commercials, and through the city website. Generation X was reached through direct mail and online through the city website as well as websites such as The Lawn Whisperer. Millennials were reached through the internet with social media sites like facebook, blogs, and digital newspaper. Generation Z was reached through mobile media such as apps and mobile video.
All in all the interview went well. Many thanks to Barrett for taking time out of his busy schedule to accommodate my request.
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