Gen-Y is NOT Your Average Blogger

photo by: new-york-city

Are you surprised? I am not sure that I am. I think the targeted demographic of most blogs is focused on attracting the Internet savvy Gen-Y consumer base, however, eMarketer says the median age of bloggers is a precise 37.6 years old.

Yea, this is 2 straight posts mentioning eMarketer, but the stats and research they provide is awesome. It also lends to topics that make people think. Including me.

Upon reading this I took a look at my RSS Feeds to see who most of the authors were. I took out all the Brazen Bloggers for this study, sorry guys.

I won't go through the whole list but will show some of my favorites and my guess of their generational demographic (and for those bloggers that I make fell old, call me out, it's just a guess)

Brazen Careerist (Career Advice) - Gen-X
Cheezhead (recruiting information and SEO for HR) - Gen-X
Derek Sivers (CD Baby, Music Marketing) - Gen-X
Evolvor Media (Digital Music Marketing) - Gen-Y
Florida Venture Blog (Dan Rua, Florida VC Celebrity) - Gen-X
HypeBot (Digital Music News) - Gen-X
Mashable (All things Social Media) - Mix of Gen-X and Gen-Y
Matt Cuts (Inside the mind of a Google Genius) - Gen-X
Instigator (VC, Entrepreneurship and Social Media) - Gen-X
ProBlogger (Blogging Tips) - Gen-X
Rock For Hunger (Hunger and Homelessness Awareness) - Gen-Y
Scobleizer (Internet Celebrity) - Gen-X
SEO Moz (SEO tips) - Group of young Gen-X'ers
Seth Godin (Marketing Guru) - Gen-X
yPulse (Gen-Y Marketing) - Written by Gen-X with a new Gen-Y assistant writer

Number of Brazen Blogs in my Reader = 8

Assumptions that can be made, which is in no way official, is that Gen-Y may not be ready to lead or give advice for a larger audience. The authorities on the web are the people who have the jobs that Gen-Y wants.

We do not have the experience that most people in those shoes have. The Gen-Y and Millennial leaders who are reaching out with their voice to an influx of people are the ones who either:

• Have worked under a great Gen-X leader
• Work for a great Gen-X leader
• Work with a great Gen-X leader
• Have some great mentors, internships, etc with successful people and business professionals in Gen-X

This is not to say that Millennials do not have a voice that can impact change. It's just that most of this generation is not ready to be a leader. Gen-Y cannot bark out commands, hold crowds, be inspirational with their words, nor lead teams without the experience of working with those that have been there before us.

Yes, the business landscape is changing. Yes, Mark created Facebook at 20 or something close to that. But as a businessman, Facebook is NOT making money. Great ideas do not always equal money in the bank.
Great ideas + a great business strategy + great leaders = possible success.

This is why Gen-X is the median age of a blogger, because they are in a position to teach us something. They are in a position to share their experiences, failures, successes and so on. And we listen. In the eMarketer article it showed that 55% of millennials (ages 13 to 24) surveyed read a blog. We want to know what the leaders of today know so that when our time comes we will be educated and prepared.

Gen-Y will change the world, but Gen-X is changing it right now.

If you are Gen-Y, who are you learning from? Gen-X'ers, who do you want to teach, better yet what can you teach? We want to learn!

-Greg Rollett