Monday, October 12, 2009

The ME Generation!

What is a Millenial? It is me- we have made Google a verb, we're bloggers, facebookers, use Twitter, and know all about the latest technologies. We were the first generation to truly use AIM [wow remember those days!?]. Now that we are all entering the work force, there are multitudes of books and articles written about certain characteristics we exhibit. According to a newarticle "A Millennial's Guide to Millennial Guides" by Dan Macsai he outlines some of the biggest points to categorize a Millennial. As much as some of these points are valid, I believe there are a few additional reasons Macsai does not discuss.

1.
"If you don't tell us you love us, we might break up with you."
Macsai states that since we grew up in a time of Mr. Rogers telling us I love you that we feel like in the work place we must feel love and approval. I do agree with this; however, I don't think this is unique to just Millenials. I don't believe it's going out on a limb by saying that everyone appreciates a few words of encouragement every once in awhile. In addition to encouragement and approval, we also appreciate [at least I do] constructive criticism.

2. "Because, let's be honest, we're pretty fabulous."
The article states that 'Generation Me' is focused on themselves over others and are fully self absorbed. Thus, in the work place when these Millenials get criticized they become 'whiney and uncooperative'. I think about half of this scenario is actually correct. Yes, we are an egotistical generation. We have grown up with AIM profiles about ourselves, Facebook profile all discussing ourselves and to see how many 'friends' we can have, we have Twitter accounts, Myspace, the list goes on and on. I believe the world in general has become more self involved by creating these pages about ourselves for everyone to see. So, of course we are fabulous and if you would like to you can become my friend.

3. "Sorry, can you repeat that? We were updating our Facebook status."
This section is the most right on out of the whole article. Of course we are Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and all the other social networks in between obsessed. We are somewhat self absorbed so when someone writes on our wall we have to know immediately what is going on. Thus the advent of iPhones and Blackberries which simply feeds into our obsession of social networks. Next topic...

4. "Oh, you did NOT just call us 'obnoxious.' MOMMMM!!!"
Recently there was a book that stated that us Millennials are not reasonably mature for the real world. There is a 'story', I use that loosely, about an employee who brought their father in for their performance review. Really? I know I may be a bit naive, but I could not think of one person I know who would do that. So what if we were a little sheltered or coddled in our childhood days, but this does not mean we will bring our parents in to talk to our bosses. Millennials reading this please do not ruin this for the rest of us.

5. "Well, glad that's settled. Wanna grab a drink?"

Companies need to keep Millennials interested by bringing work and play together. My current job has alcohol every Friday- from beer to margaritas, it definitely keeps us youngin's interested. It is an extra perk to have fun coworkers who will go to happy hour or better yet if you bring the alcohol to the office!

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Your social reputation

Saying that you can control your reputation is almost like an oxymoron. However, now that social media like Facebook, Twitter and even Blogger are at every one's fingertips people can post whatever they want about companies. What it comes down to is how a company controls their reputation and any criticism online.

Recently, Southwest Airlines had an fiasco with having a foot wide hole in their plane, but it was able to land safely. After the plane landed, passengers began sending in Tweets, Twitpics, and even YouTube. Essentially, starting to ruin their reputation as a reliable airline carrier. However, Christi Day their marketing manager began to twitter about the incident. She linked to the company's official statement, said that everyone on board would be refunded, and essentially defused what could have been feeding frenzy.

Social Media outlets have allowed companies and even celebrities take on the media and other criticizers. These medium can take the guessing came out of who said what and how things work. Southwest shows how intelligent they are as a company for stepping up to the plate and taking on the criticize. I seem them as a much reputable company now for taking a bad situation and turning it to good.

shabby cheek