Great article in Business Week about Twitter.

Some people are not sure if Twitter is the next wave.  I learned about Twitter from DK of MediaSnackers.com over a year ago.  DK taught me that Gen Y loves to “snack” on bits and bites of information.  Because Twitter only allows 140 characters, it is attractive to those of us who are time starved and is great for Gen Y who are multi-tasking masters.

TwitterSync is now available on Facebook, so when I Twitter, it now shows up on my Facebook page...so I get the benefit of two appearances for one quick post.  And…a lot of businesses are now using Twitter, so check it out!.

Listen in below to this great Y-Talk interview with Ryan Paugh, one of the founders of BrazenCareerist.com.

Ryan Paugh graduated from Penn State University in 2006 with a Bachelor’s in Journalism. He joined Merck & Co, Inc. in the corporate communications field, where he became interested in workplace issues facing Generation Y. He also took an interest in how social media can impact the way we approach our careers. He founded Employee Evolution with Ryan Healy, where he found an outlet for his curiosities.

Paugh currently lives in Madison, WI and is a co-founder of Brazen Careerist, Inc. His passion is making Brazen Careerist into a community for young professionals to make their voices heard.

Paugh has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press. He speaks to companies, organizations and students about issues affecting Generation Y and how to leverage social media to better your personal and professional lives.

During this interview, we discuss how to use social media to build a business and online network. Great stuff!

If you are between the ages of 20-29 and if you have something to say and blog about and would be interested in learning more about how to get involved in BrazenCareerist.com, just head on over to the site today to sign up!

This presentation is in parts 1-4. From the IDC A/P Panel: “Generation Y and the Emerging Power of User  Generated Content

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Simmons Research, an Experian company, has chronicled the predilections of consumers in its National Consumer Study since 1960, and recently added social media to its survey. That includes social-networking sites, blogs, message boards, podcasts and e-mail. Simmons agreed to slice and dice its volumes of data for Advertising Age to identify social-media consumer profiles. The first five are from its bank of 38 consumer personalities; the others are pulled from demographic data.

SOCIALLY ISOLATED

These people are generally unhappy with their lives and feel alone. Not surprisingly, they fall at average or below average for e-mailing. But that doesn’t mean they eschew social media. In fact, they’re 12% more likely than the average person to use blogs, message boards or social-networking sites. They also post comments on blogs at least twice a month; personal, music, consumer-product and video-game blogs are most visited.

APPROVAL SEEKERS

This group buys what others are buying and likes to follow styles and trends. They use social-networking sites to meet like-minded people, express their views, get music and entertainment recommendations, and keep in touch with family and friends. They rate average in e-mailing friends and co-workers but above average in using e-mail to communicate with their parents. They are 23% more likely to instant message and download music.

HEALTH AND IMAGE LEADERS

This is eager to try health and wellness products, experiment with diets, and spend to look younger. The majority are under 50. They prefer reading blogs over posting comments or creating their own blogs and prefer to read about TV shows, video games, music and art/literature. They also like social-networking sites: More than one-fifth visit them more than twice a month.

SMART GREEN

Clearly they prefer to buy products in recycled packages and eschew products that pollute. They are average users of social networking, blogging and podcasting but slightly above average in message boards. They are older (50-plus) and are most likely to go online for health or financial information. And in the spirit of their eco-friendly attitude toward trees, they’re 23% more likely to send electronic greeting cards.

BRAND-LOYAL

This group shies away from buying unknown brands just for a bargain and prefers to buy brand-name goods. They’re very average social-media users, but some subjects of interest drive them to social media more than the average person: They’re 21% more likely to read environmental blogs and 22% more likely to use professional-networking sites to make new contacts.

STAY-AT-HOME MOMS

They’re 25 to 49 and have at least one child living at home. They use social media for a variety of reasons, including staying in touch and parental guidance. They visit parenting blogs five times more often than average. They’re also active on social networks, blogs and chat forums but tend to stay away from podcasting. They visit blogs once or more a week and create their own blogs at a higher than average rate.

UPSCALE GRAYS

These 50-plus consumers with college degrees and household incomes of more than $100,000 are low-level social-media users. They are almost 40% less likely than the average person to have read blogs, visited chat forums or instant messaged and 70% less likely to have visited a social network in the past month. One of the only places they skewed higher than average were professional networking sites.

FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS

It makes sense that people in the market for a home would look online for information about not only real estate but other products involved in home ownership. But Experian found that this under-35 set also includes very active social networkers, bloggers and message-board users. They also rank high in texting, podcasting and business networking. They use social networks to keep in touch but also to find information.

DIVORCED

Unsurprisingly, both sexes index high for dating sites, but women are more likely to visit social networks than men. Divorced women are also 20% more likely to buy something online, while men are 52% more likely to visit sports sites. Neither is into blogs or chat forums, but women communicate more than average via text message, while men use e-mail 45% more than average to communicate with their children.

This article on Gen Y connecting on Facebook has sparked quite a bit of chatter about online social networking and its uses and potential misuses.

I believe that this is an opportunity to look at how we can actually leverage Facebook to get to answers more quickly. While I understand the concerns about misusing Facebook to share notes for an exam or to exchange test answers, we have to understand that Gen Y knows how to use these tools when Boomers and even some Gen Xers don’t know the first thing about how to use online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Second Life to improve social capital and as a way to enhance learning and development. My perspective on this is that most Boomers are afraid to use these tools (it is easy to be afraid of something you don’t know how to use).

These tools are SO easy to use, and I believe the benefits far outweigh the risks. We just need to open up the discussion and look at how to use these platforms to our advantage. If Senator Obama (who launched his campaign on You Tube and has a strong presence on Facebook) and IBM (who is using Second Life for training and block parties) can find a way to use these tools in an effective way, why can’t everyone else?

Everyone keeps talking about how Obama has leveraged Web 2.0 Technologies better than his opponents. But there’s something else going on. And that is how do people find these videos, podcasts, and blogs. It is not just by going to YouTube.com. Instead, it is based on online word of mouth. Younger folks are forwarding Web addresses in their emails, or leveraging ‘beacons’ on sites like FaceBook. Beacons basically let your friends know what you are doing, such as ‘listening to Podcast of Obama’s speeches. According to Gen Yers, I speak with, they are subscribing less and less to paper based newspapers and reading more online. And it is there friends and coworkers who are using the Web to let them know what to read online. This also impacts the type of info consumed by Gen Yers. Instead of reading what experts think about an event, users just go to a recording the event (after they receive an email from a friend).

Ah- a little tension in the IT department. The old school IT professionals are feeling challenged by the younger web savvy Gen Yers. The older folks are used to developing large enterprise systems and software applications where the development cycles last a lot longer. The Millennials are used to launching and learning and then quickly making changes. They are used to flexible development processes. They look at their creations as something ‘organic’ — something that does not to be perfect when it is out there on the market. They have given the word Beta a whole new meaning. It is now OK to launch with a beta product. In someways, this makes me think of their process as more experiential.

And then there’s the tools Gen Yers use when communicating to their co-workers. Before walking down the hall to talk to a fellow programmer, they would rather send an instant message and start the conversation that way.

I work for a software company, and we are constantly reminding ourselves the importance of technology, processes and people. Surprisingly, managers (IT and in other part of the organizations) forget to address the needs of their employees.

 Here’s a good article about bringing out the best in Gen Y

The article is from CIO magazine… It breaks down tips into the following areas:

1. Management: Share your strategy, but break it down into small comprehensible chunks of information.
2. Training: Spend more $$ upfront during the on-boarding process
3. Check-Ins: Establish frequent meetings with Yers
4. Communication: Don’t be afraid to provide training on h0w to give presentations, etc… especially cause these guys and gals grew up in a virtual world
5. Collaborative situations: Develop teams of people to work together
6. Schedules: Be flexible — have flex-time schedules
7. Technology: Support their interests and habits… allow them to use and pay for them to learn new web-based technologies…

Read the article for more…

I have recently had conversations with Margaret Regan and Sumaya Kazi about how the virtual platform, Second Life, is being used for a variety of training purposes.

When I describe Second Life to my clients, they respond by saying…Oooohhh…sounds odd.  But…as you look more closely at what companies and universities are doing, it really makes sense.  This all reminds me of the Sims Game, and my kids learned a great deal about cause and effect and making life, financial and career choices by playing the game.

So, if you want some ideas on the subject, check out these articles:

Great Article in Wired Mag on Wii and Second Life becoming a Training Simulator

Kapp Notes blog entry

Mauritius: Mauritians pioneer emergency preparedness training in second life

I met with a friend of mine today who is a HR guy at a major Fortune 100 company and he told me that his company is considering a plan to block its employees from using Facebook or Myspace at work. At first, I thought I misheard him. And then he continued by telling me that a recent survey of over 200 companies showed that 50% of businesses currently restrict employee web surfing with automated web filtering systems and that that most businesses expect this number to grow in 2008. Why are they doing this? Publicly, they say that they are worried about viruses, etc. But privately, they will admit that they are worried about their employees’ productivity. They also worry about their liability if an employees does something illegal from work. Man — what are these guys thinking? Talk about frustrating their employees and cutting 0ff their lifeline to new technologies — cutting off Gen Yers and others from the outside world. And what about the trust issue. I remember once sitting in a conference room with Intuit’s CEO, Steve Bennett, when someone asked him why would we ever want our employees posting on the web. His response was ‘hey, why would we hire someone we didn’t trust. Of course, we are going to trust them.’ Limiting someones web access at work is old school. Next thing you know, they will be having metal detectors at the front door and confiscating Blackberry’s, iPhones, and Palm Pilots. With any of those devices, I could go into an office (where no one can look over my shoulder or monitor my PC movements), log on to FaceBook and poke someone.

“As announced at the web 2.0 conference recently in Berlin there’s a new netvibes update in town. Ginger is the new netvibes and is coming to your favorite browser very soon. Just a few days from the private beta launch at Le Web 3 conference in Paris. With Ginger Netvibes will provide content for 100 countries and we will natively support right-to-left languages and will allow users more cool features (I think Gen Y will love this).  The demo shows some Gen Y pop icons (including the Harry Potter gang) on the page. 

Grab the full post here.