Gen-Y Bloggers vs. Reality

This is almost a follow up from the post on interviewing Gen-Y candidates last week. I had 3 of my new employees in the conference room and we conducted a beginner’s training for the services Rollett Marketing offers.

After the initial welcome, greetings and introductions I jumped right into it. Problem was that I assumed my Gen-Y counterparts knew about blogging, RSS feeds, Facebook opening up its backend, even basic SEO. How wrong I was.

None had written a blog post before. Only one was on both Myspace and Facebook and they thought RSS was the acronym for “Really (that) sounds stupid.”

Being in the new Brazen Careerist Blogger community, I take for granted the things that I use everyday, from Open Social, to Google controlling my mail, calendar, search, RSS feeds and blogging platform, to opening a new Social Networking account everyday for the last 6 months (not totally true but it sure feels like it).

Then came Twitter. Am I a bad teacher or do folks in the real world just not get it? Heck, come to find out that some Gen-Y bloggers are just getting it. (Welcome to Twitter Meg Roberts)

Sometimes I think I am way ahead of the curve. At FOWA Miami I felt like I was way behind. In talking with friends, colleagues and my new co-workers I am truly finding out that Social Media has really not hit the masses despite constant attention from mainstream media.

Sure we all use Pirate’s vs. Ninja’s and get countless other requests from Facebook every morning, but we have no idea where they came from or that we can create them from our dorm room.

As people become educated or intrigued in Social Media, it is up to us, the pioneers, the daily users and kids who might just know what’s going on to help, teach and explore this medium with other users. I am confident that the 3 people that I am training will be amazed at this new world that is opening up to them. There is such a great advantage to using this technology, not only for networking and playing Scrabulous but for learning about ourselves and taking control over our careers and lifestyle. And heck, if you throw up some AdSense you can make a few bucks in the process.

So, Gen-Y bloggers, what do you think? Are you experiencing some of the same things in your career, your start-up and even from mom? I’d love to find out!

Greg Rollett - Twitter me folks, I love a good laugh