This is a guest article by Rick Mathieson, Author of The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success
in an Anytime, Everywhere World.

#1: Don’t Ask How, Ask Why
Just because social networking is hot, that doesn’t mean its right for
every new business. Don’t just ask yourself what your social
networking strategy should be. Ask why it should be, and why your
target customers should care. Seattle-based Jones Soda couldn’t afford
pricey TV commercials to launch its brand of beverages. So it used
social media to connect with consumers in very personal ways. Fans can
upload photos that can be printed on Jones bottles. Today, it has over
1 million submissions and has used upward of 4,500 of the photos for
bottles — which consumers can collect and trade on the Jones Soda
website. As founder Peter van Stolk recently told BusinessWeek: “We
allowed the labels to be discovered, and that gave consumers a sense
of ownership. With big soda brands, the Britney Spears model of paying
a lot of money to some hot artist to sponsor your beverage is so done.
The wonderful thing about our competitors is for all the money they
have, they should be thinking more originally but they don’t. If they
ever do, I’m dead.”

#2: Keep It Events Based
Certain consultants (and business book authors) can have success using
social media to share their stream-of-consciousness about things
happening in their fields of expertise. But for most small businesses,
a much more strategic approach is in order. Think of social media as
digital direct mail — the ability to deliver a limited-time, social
network-only offer. Countless small pizza shops, for instance, offer
weekly specials on social networks to get people into their stores.
One shop, called Golden Knights pizza, has discovered 40% of its
business can come from these efforts, according to Clickz. In fact,
according to a recent Rice University study, Facebook fans of one
Houston-based café chain visited 20% more often, and spent 33% more,
than non-fans.

#3: Keep It Social — And Keep ‘Em Coming Back
Youth-oriented discount travel company STA uses social media to enable
customers to meet other people who love to travel, and who may be part
of the vacation packages they purchase. Users can read about other
people’s adventures through their own words, tips, pictures and
videos. And they can ask experts about travel related issues. Best of
all, every month, the company offers travel prizes to Australia,
Japan, Europe and other destinations. And Twitter and RSS feeds will
even send STA subscribers the cheapest flights so they can stop
spending hours online searching for the best deals.

#4: Don’t Just Pitch, Sell
The price of developing apps for Facebook is coming down, and with
ingenuity, can even be revenue builders. Pizza Hut recently launched a
Facebook app that enables customers to place orders without leaving
their profile pages. There’s no reason a small company, say a local
sandwich shop couldn’t do the same. Los Angeles startup ice cream
truck company Coolhaus takes a different approach. In addition to
differentiating itself with ice cream sandwiches designed using
architectural principles — with names like “The Mies Vanilla Rohe”
and “The Frank Lloyd Light” — “we roam the entire radius of LA and
update our location on Twitter,” co-founder Natasha Case tells Young
Hollywood. The idea: To entice people out of offices and onto the
street for an “ice cream social” that racks up serious sales.

#5: Don’t Just Talk, Listen
Social networks are also an excellent way to solicit feedback from
your customers. Perhaps you’ve heard of Dell’s “Twelpforce” (or
Twitter help force), a team that fields questions, offers and
suggestions and sends Twitter-specific promos to followers.  There’s
no reason why your startup can’t use social media in the same way,
answering any questions your customers have about the products they’ve
bought from you. Of course, as sophisticated as that may sound to
monitor and respond to social networking chatter, it should be noted
that it’s far more useful to have highly-trained, highly-effective
customer service in the first place. If you want to get cutting edge,
start there.

Author Bio
Rick Mathieson, author of The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital
Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World, is an award-winning
writer and leading voice on marketing in the digital age. His insights
have been featured in ADWEEK, Advertising Age, Wired, Broadcasting &
Cable, and on MSNBC, CBS Radio and NPR, while his next-generation
business models have earned recognition from USA Today and Dow Jones
Interactive. His first book, Branding Unbound (AMACOM 2005) was widely
praised in the business press. A regularly featured speaker at
industry events, Mathieson also serves as vice president and creative
director for Creative: Advertising & Interactive Media, one of Silicon
Valley’s most prominent advertising agencies. He lives in San
Francisco, California.

“If people don’t talk about me (whether it’s the truth or falsehood), then I worry. Because it means I ain’t nobody. So either way people better be talking about me.” – 2face

Public Relations is never an easy game, it’s tough, makes you anxious and sometimes very frustrating especially if it’s with a Lean Startup. I should use the next few lines to shed light on what I mean by “Lean startups” before I proceed. Over the past few years, the economy took a huge tumble, stocks lost their value, interest on moneys put away declined and ultimately investors lost a lot of money. As a result, it became incredibly hard for companies to get loans and it trickled down to smaller startups. Entrepreneurs who sought seed funding had to start cutting back on how much they asked for and sacrifice some aspects of the start-up that they had anticipated in order to succeed. This is where the term “Lean Start-ups” apply. When a start-up cuts its expenditure to fit a smaller budget while still optimizing products.

PR in itself isn’t easy, it’s even more difficult when you are Lean and fresh off the tracks in your start-up journey. I have seen both sides of the table, I’ve been involved with an established company that had no problem getting their press releases to the top news outlets, and most recently with a fresh off the tracks start-up with no reputation acting as wind beneath its wings. My experiences have shaped the way I think PR should be applied and how I talk about it with people. Despite all the differences, there’s still a universal agreement in what makes you succeed in PR: Make yourself/brand unmissable.

It’s normal, every Tom, Dick and Harry want their stories and press releases published in BusinessWeek, CNN, VentureBeat etc.. why not? those are the most popular news outlets. Even blogs like TechCrunch and Mashable are constantly receiving several hundreds to thousand pitches per day! So getting your new start-up published in any of those is almost as easy as walking through the eye of a needle. Based on my experiences so far, I have found some tips that could help New Entrepreneurs on their way which I’ld like to share.

1.) Don’t hire a PR Firm. I have nothing against PR firms, some of them are awesome and do amazing work. However, if you are a fresh off the tracks start-up with “Lean” on your mind, you know for damn sure that you can’t afford a PR firm. PR firms charge somewhere between $5k to $20k per month for their services. Besides the astronomical cost, the way I see PR, is different from the way many other people see it. You want to be a brand, a movement that people can relate to. With PR firms, that could get tricky. I have found that the most success comes from having a PR person who is part of your brand, speaks the brand language and HAS solid experience.

2.) Put yourself where you can be seen. For all the hype about social media and how it helps localize PR, I am of the school of thought that offline PR is still as important if not more important than online PR. Networking is absolutely vital for new start-ups and the more connections you make in person, the better your chances of getting heard. This sort of ties in some ways to the point I made above about PR firms. The physical connections that will be made via PR firms vs. those they make online for your start-up is a very small fraction. You want to interact and mingle with people who can make an impact for you. I have always been a fan of TechCrunch events, SXSW etc… these are the sort of places where lasting impressions can be made. Twitter is an example of a startup that found fame by putting itself where it can be seen. They chose to launch the service at SXSW interactive in 2007, we all know the state of Twitter at the moment. I always advise Entrepreneurs to go out and meet other Entrepreneurs, mentors, journalists and even Investors at these sort of events, you have a better chance of getting heard by meeting in person rather than being one of the 1,000 people sending them emails daily.

3.) Interact More, Pitch Less. When you are doing PR for your start-up, make sure you cut down on the pitches and interact instead. Even on my blog, I get many emails from people pitching their startups to me. I only put out very few of those on the site, and that’s only because of the way I was approached. When you talk to people about your startup, be the one who stands out, be the one who doesn’t pitch. It’s far easier to approach the situation as though it’s two random people, meeting for the first time and simply talking about their careers. It’s just more relaxed and less “in your face” when done this way.

4.) Focus on the smaller News Outlets. One method that has always worked for me and start-ups I’ve been a part of is starting on a small scale. When you contact smaller, less popular news outlets and blogs, you have a better chance of getting a positive result than when you contact a national/international outlet. Most of the smaller syndicates don’t get pitches or stories sent in from the bigger companies, so they are more receptive when smaller start-ups reach out to them. On the other hand, if you really have to get in touch with the bigger news sources, make sure you are contacting the junior writers rather than the Chief Editor. The later most likely receives 5 times as many pitches as the junior writers do, so you stand a better chance scrolling down the staff list. Either way, you are getting some “air time”!

5.) Build Relationships early with Journalists in your Niche. Getting press is the fastest and best way to endear your brand to your customers. We all know this, your start-up would either succeed or fail depending on how it is received by the customers. Your ability to secure top talent to join your team, raise capital and convert members all boils down to how solid your PR campaign is. That being said, nothing drives PR faster than Journalists. Their views and opinions about your start-up could make or mar your chances of making a splash.

For those who have tried pitching journalists, you know it’s rare to get a call back or reply email if you are part of a fresh off the tracks start-up. The key is relationship building. You need to start interacting with the journalists you intend to reach out to in the future on a regular basis and long before you need them. You need to comment on their articles, e-mail/tweet your thoughts on their previous articles and get them to know you. After a while, you name sticks out, they know who you are and start respecting your views. Soon enough, when you contact them with a NEWS-WORTHY article from your start-up, the chance of them working on it is far greater than if you are a random PR guy emailing them just like every other person does.

In summary, never forget that PR is all about getting people to know about you. Come up with creative ways to do this so you can make a lasting impression. This guy did it, even though he was selling himself and not a brand, but you get the message. He created ads on google for the names of the bosses at the company he wanted to work for, so that when they google themselves, they see his ad asking for them to hire him. Creative eh? Be that guy! Be daring, adventurous and you might just be ripping rewards sooner rather than later.

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Social Media and Web 2.0 has really swept across the internet community like wild fire and the effects it’s had are remarkable. When I decided to start building my start-up, I knew my main obstacle would be the marketing aspect once I am done. This is certainly not because I lack the skills to successfully get the word out, but the resources I will have to work with on my PR and Marketing campaign are very limited. I am bootstrapping and will do so until the I convince the right investors that I am worth their coin. However, the emergence of Social Media has really cut down the costs of most marketing campaigns if you know how to take advantage of it.

When we say Social Media, one word immediately comes to the mind of the young, tech savvy individual – Twitter. Whether you like it or not, Twitter is an amazing platform for people to build and grow relationships. If you are an Entrepreneur and you are good at networking with other people, you can win several thousands of followers just from Twitter alone. On the other hand, there’s a whole lot more to Social Media than just Twitter. Websites like Facebook (0ffering fan pages or company pages), MySpace, Scribd, LinkedIn have all shown potency as a means to reaching a targeted audience.

I first heard the phrase ‘Social Media’ a little over 2 years ago, and have always been fascinated by how people jumped on the bandwagon. We are talking about a network of websites whose premise is to get people to interact with others. It first started off as people staying in touch with their friends and then it grew into getting to interact with friends of friends and so on. Today, the openness and the ease with which people can communicate with other people (friends and strangers) on these platforms have made Social Media Networks a revelation in the world of Marketing.

Three brands that stand out to me when I think about social media and businesses are: Zappos, Ford and Dell. Now you may say these brands are all popular names and it is only natural that people flock towards them. While I agree with that stance, I also still believe it takes some good strategizing to achieve what they have achieved using Social Media.

When I first examined the Ford Brand presence across the social media sphere, I imagined that these networking sites were built for Ford. Ford has taken a few specific networks, focused on them and built a community in each network. They also built a ‘media hub‘ that brings together all their feeds, networks and online presence in one place.  They have used Social Media to handle their PR effectively and this can be observed in how they dealt with the copyright infringement fiasco they dealt months back. Not only can Social Media win you new costumers, it can help you define your public image.

Dell and Zappos have done very well with Twitter especially. They have used this network to develop intimate relationships with their customers, announce new developments, get feedback and so forth. The success of these two companies can only inspire young, new Entrepreneurs like myself. Their stories have taught us the importance of building personal relationships with fans/customer, being open to their needs and being readily available to interact with them.

The moral lesson of this post is just to encourage every new entrepreneur, whether you are still in stealth mode or you have gone live with your product, learn to embrace Social Media. Study some of the success stories of companies on Social Networks and take follow their lead. I understand that not everyone is Social Media savvy and can handle Marketing for a start-up, in those cases you can always outsource. You can also look for firms that are specifically build for this purpose – to market for startups. People like Samir Belwani, Reem Abeidoh, Rebecca Ryckman are all brilliant Social Media Strategists with good experience. Remember that the startup journey is always a lesson, you might learn that you failed or learn that you succeeded, all that matters is that you learn.

At this stage of development, my start-up is starting to take shape and things are finally beginning to fall into place. A section of the site will contain videos that cannot be downloaded or embedded and we struggled initially in deciding which of the available methods of doing this we would go with. Earlier this week though we found a way out and are working on that at the moment. I have severally found myself in a position where I have no clue what to do and could use the advice of someone who has experienced what I am going through. This brings me to the issue of Mentors and Start-ups. Many young Entrepreneurs try to avoid having an Advisor or Mentor on board, but I doubt that is such a good idea. The most popular reason why these ‘freshies’ do this is that they don’t like people telling them they are wrong or asking them to ditch one of their ideas because it’s not likely to work. I don’t like hearing that either. I don’t like people telling me my idea is not practical enough and that I should modify it, but I also know that it might be in my best interest to listen.

As far as Start-ups are concerned, a Mentor is someone who has been in the industry for much longer and has been involved in a number of startups himself/herself. The duty of this person is to advice you based on their experience and also help you out courtesy of the connections they have built while gaining that experience. Okay, that’s just a primary overview of what a mentor does. There are many other things a mentor brings to the table that could be invaluable and I will get to that in a minute. When looking to find a good mentor, make sure you look for someone who will add value to you in every way possible. A person who pays for servers and hardware for your start-up doesn’t automatically become a Mentor. There have been several scenarios where investors have become Mentors but it’s paramount that these people have been involved in other start-ups in the past as well. Finding a good mentor is not the easiest thing in the world but it’s not climbing Mt. Everest either.

With the advent of Social Media, it has become much easier to find people that will fill that position very easily. Sites like Twitter and LinkedIn are awesome places to find and link up with experts in your industry. While most Mentor – Founder relationships I have seen have been built and nourished offline, there is a rise in the number of founders meeting potential mentors online. The guys of MentalFloss did a Google search to find Samir Husni who turned out to be their Mentor. Samir had several years of experience with creating and marketing magazines. He knew what people will like to read and what they wouldn’t be so interested in reading, which made him a perfect Mentor in this industry. With his help and constant advice, they have grown Mental Floss into a household name.

I am not vast enough or experienced enough to know all the possible means of compensating Mentors, but I would imagine Cash payments and stock options are the most popular way. It is usually well worth the cost though, these people can help immensely so make sure you spend time researching your options and be careful making your final decision.

Here are a few other positives a good Mentor brings to the table:

• They have an outsiders view, and that combined with experience puts them in a position to see the good and not so good aspects of your start-up. They will then be able to advice you on how you can put yourself in a better position to succeed.

• They can open doors for you. Mentors usually know people who can be of help especially where it matters: Finances. They have connections with Angel Investors, VCs and can even hook you up with potential partners.

• They motivate you to go for more. Many Entrepreneurs are in business for the big bucks and so when you are doing well 2 years in, you might get a buy-out offer. In several cases, young entrepreneurs tend to jump on the offer, but if there’s potential to grow and be worth even more later, the Mentor acts as the ‘calm down’ factor who slows things down and steer you the right way.

• They hold your hands through the rough patches. Every Start-up goes through a trying period where things don’t seem to work out at all. These Mentors have experienced these testing times themselves and can keep you from giving up. They will offer a shoulder to cry on and push you forward, telling you things will get better.

Notice I said these are some positives a good Mentor brings to the table? A bad Mentor can completely destroy your dreams likewise. That’s an entirely different discussion however. So make sure you take time to look for a Mentor that will be right for you.

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I was just thinking about the things that really fire up young entrepreneurs these days and decided to pen down a few. There are quite a few things that certainly warm my heart as a gen y entrepreneur and I don’t think it much different with others that fall into this category. What gets a young entrepreneur going? What’s the young entrepreneur’s kryptonite? I decided to get on Twitter, Facebook and some other social networks and find out if other people’s reasoning was similar to mine and most of the replies I got were pretty much the same.

Tech savvy people and environment: The millennial entrepreneur, actually, the typical gen y-er is well vast in most things tech related. These days most young people are walking around with cool gadgets and working daily tasks with tools that the older population are probably not so familiar with. The typical gen y entrepreneur believes he/she will relate easily with a tech savvy person and they will have things in common, so they are easily drawn to each other. Technology drives business in the world we currently live in, so when we discover people who appreciate it as much as we do, we immediately feel this North pole-South pole attraction.

Socially mindful people and environment: So New media and social networking is the big thing on the internet now and gen y-ers are in the middle of it all. This generation grew up in the middle of the buzz so it’s sort of customary for us to carry on with our lives on these channels. If you utilize these social media and just carry on with these tools, we definitely have a soft spot for you.

Those who carry around Tim Ferriss’ “The 4-hour workweek”: It’s just the way it is. I get a lot of stick from people when I say the typical gen y entrepreneur would rather have his day very short and chill for the rest of it than wake up at 7a.m and be at work till 6p.m. I am not saying millennial entrepreneurs are lazy, but we kind of think people like Markus Frind rock! I mean the lad works 1hr/ day and his company’s average annual revenue is $10million. These are the sort of people we draw inspiration from, so if you are down with these methods, then we are down with you.

Cheap stuff: I know everyone likes being prudent with funds, but millennials are especially careful. Young entrepreneurs are very financially intelligent and have grown up reading books and blogs detailing how to retire rich and how to stay away from spending money on things they can get for free. The typical millennial entrepreneur is not always keen to sign up for Adwords, he/she will much rather look for channels where they won’t have to spend a dime. Here are some things you will see:  (a)We will create a Facebook fan page and invite all our friends to join, then ask these friends to invite their other friends and so forth. We will then send message after message until we reach out to enough people. (b) We will get on Twitter and make so much noise that we are hard to ignore…the point of the whole thing.  (c.) We will walk up to people on the streets and try to charm these innocent people into patronizing us and our service. E.t.c.

Believe it or not, we will rather go through all these stressful situations than shell out hard earned bills. It’s just the way we are wired; cheap stuff puts a smile on our faces.

Independence: In case you didn’t know, gen y entrepreneurs don’t like being told what to do without having us understand why we are doing it. There’s a difference between being stubborn and being genuinely inquisitive. Most gen y entrepreneurs are the latter. I personally like to take advice from people especially those who are more experienced in my field, after all they have been through what I am currently going through, so I would expect them to know more. However, millennial entrepreneurs don’t derive joy from just the monetary reward of doing something, we get our thrill from learning something new and understanding why we are having to do what we do. While we do take advice and other people’s opinions, we are usually self-directed and we like to call the shots.

The smart and the Innovative: Gen Y entrepreneurs are suckers for new information! If you are one of those with something novel to share, you will get us going. I like listening to people, I believe everyone has something good to share and I find myself constantly getting drawn to those people who think out of the box and whose concepts are somewhat controversial. I am sure this is not something only I suffer from. We like to learn, so if you have something innovative to say, you are a winner in our eyes.

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One of my favorite quotes reads: “If you always wait for the perfect conditions, you will never get anything done”. I have always lived my life with these words at the back of my mind. I mean back in college I had no car or lots of cash to spend on lovely dates yet I didn’t say oh I am going to wait till I have all these things before I move in on the gorgeous lass I’ve had an eye for. It was even more evident in my footy game, I didn’t and still don’t believe in waiting till I am one on one with the goalkeeper before I strike at goal (thanks to Kaka, I know to do otherwise every now and then). But is this also the case with building a startup? Should you wait until all the pieces of the puzzle are available before pressing forward or should you just take the chance?

Unlike scoring goals and moving in on pretty girls, building a startup might require one to forget about that quote and be more pragmatic. In a game of footy, I am usually playing as a striker and my job is to do what Fernando Torres does for Liverpool…score goals! But I have 90mins to do that. If I miss a chance in the 5^th minutes, odds are that I get a few more to make amends, no? Same with girls, there’s quite a lot of lookers anyway, so one can move on to the next girl if the first one doesn’t work out. When it comes to building a startup however, if you get it wrong at the beginning or if you start with a few things missing, then your brand will be remembered for that. Your company will be associated with that for a long time and you can’t just dump your first start-up and move on to another and then another. That doesn’t look good on your resume when you start seeking funds from investors, VCs and so forth.

Generation- Y Startup has been doing quite well lately and I am glad. I typically measure its success based on how many people it connects me with and how many genuine relationships I have built from it. I get a lot of e-mails asking if this is my ‘start-up’ (writing about entrepreneurship, interviewing entrepreneurs and featuring successful gen y start-ups), but actually it’s not. This is only a blog I started 3 months ago to document my journey as I go about building a start-up from scratch. I started working on it some months back and initially it was only me, now I have brought 2 other awesome people on board. It is a great feeling knowing that you are pursuing your dream and it’s close to becoming real.

Lately however I have found that I am having to cut out aspects of the start-up (still in stealth mode) for several reasons. First I found that it will be difficult to do one important aspect of the start-up, so I cut it out. I said to myself “it’s not that big of a deal, it won’t affect the overall look of the business that much”. Before I knew it I was saying it for the 5^th thing I was cutting out. It was then I decided to take a step back and re-evaluate the situation. These changes and cuts have been done for several reasons and here are the top 3.

1.)    I am only 14months old as a college grad and so I am not exactly an experienced entrepreneur. I am still learning and I admit this all the time. I lack the experience and this shows up in my decision making on a few occasions. I imagine if things will be different if I worked at a start-up for a bit before coming back and pushing forth with my start-up especially since I am a sole-proprietor.

2.)    Funding sometimes is an issue. I believe in bootstrapping when starting things off, and I have done that all through even till now. I worked as an Engineer for my first year out of college and the money I saved up during the period has been used for that cause. I also currently consult for some companies and handle social media marketing for a few clients. That’s how I have funded my startup so far. I feel like with more money I will be able to bring more talent on board on top of what we already have and those things we couldn’t do and had to cut out might be done now. Would things be different if I take my foot off the gas pedal, take up more clients, save up a little more and acquire more skilled people?

3.)    There’s also the issue of time. I have quite a number of clients (that I must have to make sure funds are available for the start-up) and the work I have to do for them doesn’t leave me with a lot of time to work on the start-up. I imagine how great it will be financially, experience wise and in terms of building connections if I just put the start-up on hiatus for a while, take on more clients or a full-time/part-time job in the meantime.

While I am not particularly keen on putting things on hold right now, I can’t help but think it might be best for me and the start-up in the long run. The plan is to launch in October if things move as planned, but will it be worth it when it goes live? Will it be my dream come true? Makes me wonder, when is it time to put your start-up dreams on hold?

At the moment, there’s about 78million men and women who proudly represent the millennial generation in the US, and they are taking up their places in the various facets of the workforce. Just as this is happening there’s a switch in gear, there’s now a difference in how people work, when they work and what they work for. Between 2002 and 2010, there’s going to be a drop of almost 33% in number of workers aged  38 and above. As this starts to happen, the scale will start tipping and Gen Y-ers will suddenly become more prominent in the work force, causing a huge generational baton-exchange in the workforce.

Gen Y has a completely different idea and approach to work than the baby boomers. They don’t live to work, they work to live. They have watched in horror and shock as their parents, uncles, mentors e.t.c. worked punishing hours to make money…money they rarely had time to spend. They’ve graduated college with this idea that they would not suffer the same fate as the previous generation and hence have become more demanding. More demanding in how much they ask to be paid, more demanding in the way they want to work, how flexible their hours are and so forth. They have come in with the idea that a fine balance must be struck between their work life and personal life.

Some months back I had coffee with some seniors at my Alma Mater, UMBC. The discussion swiftly shifted to what they planned to do after they graduated college. “I can’t stand all this 8 – 5 people get sucked into” started Megan, a Finance and Mathematics major who already had an offer from a big firm in downtown Baltimore. ” I have spoken to some of the employees there and I just think they are treated so poorly. The idea of working 9 hours a day, with overtime every now and then just doesn’t appeal to me. I want to have a life! I want to have flexible hours and be able to go to concerts, watch my favorite tv shows at 7pm. How can I do that when I get off at 5:30-6p.m, sit in traffic for about and hour or two and wake up 7a.m. the next day to do it all over again?” In reality, Megan is not alone. Research has shown that more and more Gen Y-ers will quit their job if it wasn’t fun enough or if the salary doesn’t meet their standard. The idea of dealing with mediocrity is not one the millennial generation like, they will not settle for anything they don’t deem worthy.

Are these demands being accommodated by companies? You better believe they are! Why wouldn’t they? Have they got an option? Most companies infact will do anything and go any length to lure the very best graduates. Madalyn Brooks is an HR at Procter and Gamble. I once heard her stress the difference between the interview sessions she had some years back to those she sits in on now. She explained that most young job seekers now care about how many days off they will get, if they can work from home, if they have at least a 3 month sabbatical and so on.

The issue of money and benefits also comes up. Most Gen Y-ers are asking for a lot more than the baby boomers did for the same position. They are asking for several other perks as well. It’s not unusual these days to see companies luring graduates by offering them a company paid BlackBerry phone, an ipod touch, a macbook amongst other things. Why is there this sudden demand for more money and perks? For one, the cost of going to college has blown up off the hinges leaving several graduates in debt. You can’t expect them not to ask for more money when you require them to have a Masters degree  or MBA(for better chance of landing the job). How do you think they paid to attain this level of education? There was a CNN documentary some weeks back when a recent grad expressed his desire to be started on $70k a year in an industry where the average salary was $50k last year. His argument is that most companies won’t look your way if you don’t have internship experience(s) under your belt. He explained that he worked terribly hard to get those internships and while he doesn’t expect an official car or a macbook, he expected to be atleast “compensated for the hard work he put into preparing for the position.”

The improvement in technology has a lot to do with this change in my opinion. When young graduates see Gen Y entrepreneurs like the creators of Facebook, Myspace, Youtube and other web 2.0 companies, they have this belief that they really don’t have to give up their life in a boring 10hr a day job in order to be successful. The fact that social media is now also a basis for many companies reaching more customers has also been responsible for how Gen Y has chosen to work. Most companies now encourage their employees to try to harness the power of social media for the good of the company, and who better to go to than Gen Y-ers?

Just like it is quite hard for most members of Generation X to understand why many young adults these days would rather pay $100 for a ripped pair of jeans than $40 for one that has not been met by a blade, they find it hard to understand why they need to invest in Social Media for their companies and businesses. Most new companies/start-ups have already done their research and joined the bandwagon, take Zappos for example, and with how much buzz it has built from Social Media it remains hard to phantom why the  ‘not so new’ companies don’t get it.

A few days ago, I was reading a post by Monica O’Brien, who I have come to admire as a person and whose brilliantly written blogs I can’t stay away from. In that particular post, she explained the type of clients she won’t work with and those she loves to work with. The types that struck a chord with me are the inspiration for this post. Two things: 1.) Those that “measure experience in years” 2.) Those clients who don’t know what it is and despite explaining over and over several times what Social media is all about and what it can do for their company, they still don’t get it.

I have been working on Social Media for quite some time now to understand that it isn’t about how many years one has been doing it that sets one apart. I was reading an article on Mashable the other day and somehow I ended up in the ‘Jobs’ section which I have never even seen before. I checked it out and was quite surprised when I saw some positions where one of the requirements was “atleast 8 years in Social Media…” I sat and thought to myself what exactly this meant. Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social network sites and even they haven’t been around for 8 years, so what do they mean by 8 years of experience in social media? Besides I would think that one will measure experience in this case based on how often one has used it over the time it has been in existence. If I were to hire a Social Media strategist today, I would rather have someone who has used social media for actual networking and used it everyday or there about to connect with friends basically before delving into the professional market than hire someone who knew nothing about it a few years ago and has only used Social Media professionally. I just think the former will have a better grasp of the underlying concept of Social Media. If anyone understands the principle behind measuring one’s social media ability in years, please enlighten me.

The other thing that caught my attention is how people fail to understand what Social Media can do for you. My most recent client asked me “Tolu, I know everybody is jumping on the Twitter wagon, but how will this Twitter bring me more customers?” In truth, he has never used Twitter before and claims to only read about it and see on CNN how people love and use it so much. It took me two hours to get him on board and one of the things I made sure to drive home to him is that Twitter alone is not equal to Social Media presence. In those two hours I tried to explain the following values:

1.) Branding: The best way to set yourself aside in any tough industry is to build a strong brand. Branding helps you build a place in the hearts of your fans and confirms your credibility as a company. The easiest and most affordable way of doing this with the aid of social media. A strong brand is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies day by day. It’s important to spend time investing in researching, defining, and building your brand. After all your brand is the source of a promise to your consumer. It’s a foundational piece in your marketing communication and one you do not want to be without.

2.) Customer Interaction: Social Media has carved a niche for itself as the most effective means of Customer Relationship Management. It has provided a dynamic way of keeping in touch with your customers amongst many other things. Besides the obvious point of increasing sales, Social Media like Twitter, Facebook, youtube e.t.c. provide a means for companies to ‘problem-solve’ for their clients, get useful feedback and ultimately get personal with customers.

3.) Helps one learn about the Market: Most companies are always looking for information they can leverage to improve their reach in the Market and what better way to do this than getting on social media networks and listening to what people are saying. With social media, you can also learn about your competition giving you a way of getting one over them.

4.) Find potential Customers: Building a strong presence on social networks can take your sales leads and potential customer numbers to new heights. If for example you manage to get the buzz around twitter about your company, there is no saying how many people will visit your website. Now it’s not everyday a company gets on as a trending topic on Twitter but imagine how your life will change if that happened to your company.

5.) Find the best Candidates to join your team: Social Media is now the new name in the recruiting game! With social networks like Twitter and Facebook, you can find the best talent around anywhere, simple as that.

6.) Your Reach knows no bounds. With social media being such a big hit all around the world, there’s potential for your brand and name to go global. You can establish yourself in other countries and not limit yourself to your country of residence.

Who wouldn’t want any or all of these positives?