Millennials to universities: “Get out of MySpace!”

Image from MySpace profile: It seemed like a good idea at the time...

We have been researching which technologies can be best used by higher education organizations to reach out to millennials. (The white paper on this topic will be out next month.) While interviewing several millennials for the paper, I was surprised to find sharply-divided opinions about universities and colleges reaching out to millennials on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Some millennials seemed to feel that this was natural, and appropriate. Others felt that a university presence on social networking sites was an invasion of the millennial’s privacy and inappropriate. As one high school student applying to callege said: “OMG, I don’t want my college to see my MySpace page.”

I subsequently ran across this fascinating article from the Guardian’s Education edition (November 5, 2007):

“Businesses are banning social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook — but, to the alarm of students, universities are using them more and more… [A] research exercise carried out by the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc), called the Learner Experience Project, has just revealed, amazingly, that students want to be left alone. Their message to the trendy academics is: ‘Get out of MySpace!’ “

I’m guessing that this dichotomy is going to become an increasingly important issue. Facebook and MySpace are anything but private, and the youthful rantings and flirting of an 18-year old are likely to be embarassing to when the writer is now a 22-year college college graduate old looking for a job. I know that I look up potential candidates on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Google before making a hiring decision.

(Image thanks to m e l t via Flickr.)

Millennial girls’ take on corporate America

Business Week donated some screen space to let a few Millennials give their own take on BW’s Best Global Brands. Some of their comments seem hopelessly shallow (“What Coca Cola means to us: American Pride”), and they openly brag about being as aloof as the most popular girl in high school.

Still, these are the girls of 3iying, a consulting firm that helps brands gain traction with the females of Generation Y. The commentators are aged 17-20, so their substantive comments should carry some weight.

A lot of their insights could help an institution of higher learning market to Millennials. Replace the word “brand” with “university,” and some of their values–leadership, relevance, sincerity–are easily translatable to choice of campus.

I was genuinely surprised by some of their remarks, but on consideration it all made sense. If corporate publications like Business Week are paying attention to Millennials, institutions of higher education need to do so as well.

As one of the 3iying girls put it, “We may inhabit the same planet as older folks, but out perspective is a world away.”

Craiglist founder discusses trust and the millennial

Craig Newmark, founder of the hugely popular site Craigslist, had some telling things to say about millennials in an interview with PRWeek.

The peer-to-peer communications methods – Twittering, blogging, and Facebook – are much more important.

Trust doesn’t come from the top down anymore. That was true in [Mad Men's] Don Draper’s days, but not now. Truth now comes on a peer-to-peer basis, from the bottom up. 

A shiny new website and brochure won’t engender trust and excitement in your university (read: brand). You have to be engaged with the online community, accessible and forthcoming to get the attention of this group.

Try asking your most savvy admissions counselor to setup a blog for your admissions office. Tell that staffer they don’t need to have posts approved. Tell them to be honest, to write about the work they do. Tell them to engage in a conversation with the readers of the blog.

You’ll get instant feedback from your applicant pool on everything from your online application to ways to improve your process from their experience with your competitors.

Start the converstaion and start building trust. Try it, I dare you.

Millennials: The most ethnically diverse in American history

My colleague Thomas Tseng has a fascinating post, “Millennials: Key to Post-ethnic America“, where he observes that while the millennial generation represents the most ethnically diverse group of people in American history,few social commentators actually agree on what this important demographic detail implies for marketing to millennials.

By their sheer numbers, Millennials are already reshaping the nation’s ethnic makeup. Not only do they represent a “baby boomlet” in terms of population size, but according to recent figures from the 2008 Current Population Survey, 44 percent of those born since the beginning of the 80’s belong to some racial or ethnic category other than “non-Hispanic white”.

And what does this mean for marketing?

As a market segment, Millennials represent a precarious consumer. In the marketing world, they are shaking the foundations of advertising and media. Enabled by technology, they are contributing to a fragmented media landscape that grows ever more disparate and porous. Forced to keep up, advertisers question whether they can ever again rely on traditional media to broadcast messages for a lifestyle characterized by instant text messaging, mobile media, and virtual social networking.

Look for a white paper from the team that runs this blog coming shortly on how we can use these technologies in higher education to reach out to this technologically and ethnically diverse population.

Speed, challenge, and more speed

The HR blog “Fistful of Talent” has a post by Millennial Maren Hogan on recruiting.  Even though she’s talking to employers who need to hire Millennials, two of her main points are timely and relevant for admissions officers as well.

One of the first pieces of advice she gives to job recruiters is “Don’t leave me hanging.”

Millennials expect speed. If they’re waiting for a job offer or a letter of acceptance, they don’t want to wait too long. Maren applied for a job and even though she was the employer’s first choice, they didn’t notify her for three months. She had already moved on.

The obvious lesson is to follow up with applicants as quickly as possible, adding internet to all your traditional modes of communication.

Her second suggestion is to offer challenges. You’ve heard it before–Millennials are enthusiastic learners, and they embrace challenge. Maren is talking about employing Millennials, but an institution of higher learning has a lot more to offer here. While your organization’s history and traditions are what make you distinct, be sure to emphasize your orientation towards the future.

Get your recruits excited about what they’re going to learn and do once they enroll. They’re not only excited by what you offer them, but also by what you expect from them.

Maren Hogan may be a little bit naive when she says her fellow Millennials shouldn’t be asked to do menial drudge work, but she does suggest one final incentive that will work for employers and admissions officers alike: Candy

Community sense of product quality key to marketing to millennial women

The blog lip-sticking (“marketing to women online”) has a great post on specific tips for marketing to millennial women.

A key tip is to remember the power of the pocketbook:

Do remember that they know the power of their pocketbooks. If they don’t feel that a brand understands them or feel it is sexist in any way, “they will fight back economically with their ATM and Amex cards,” said Marian Salzman of Porter Novelli. “They will go where they are appreciated.”

But the most striking finding for me was the importance of evaluating product quality via the community:

Do remember that a poor-quality product will be quickly found out. “Quality matters to them,” said Apollo Management’s Lisa Bernstein. “They’ll network with friends online to find out how a product worked for other people. Their attitude is: Why should I buy your product? Why should you be so lucky to be used by me?”

This generation has grown up being able to use lots of online tools to compare prices, features and reviews for everything from DVDs to digital cameras. So why won’t they take the same approach with your college?

The lessons are clear:

1. Monitor online chatter about your university;
2. Respond to criticisms and negative messages frankly, honestly and succinctly in the medium of the criticism, be it blog, forum or article; and,
3. Remember that you can’t control a negative story from appearing, but you can write your own ending to that story by solving the problem or addressing the complaint like a rock star.

One publicly acknowledged over-the-top fix for a problem goes a long way.

US Army’s tips on recruiting millennials

Lest we think that the topic of how best to recruit millennials is unique to higher education or business, Lieutenant Colonel Jill M. Newman of the United States Army has produced a report on the topic. Called “Leading Generation Y” (308KB, PDF), the “Strategy Research Project” includes sections on defining, recruiting and retaining Generation Y.

From the section on Recruiting:

As the Y Generation grew up sheltered, they want to feel safe. Recruiters are to reinforce that training environments are healthy and safe; that supervision and guidance are inherent in the culture; corrupting influences are protected against; and physical fitness and healthy lifestyle patterns are ingrained in the Army’s day to day practices.

Team-work is inherent in the Army’s culture. The Y generation is connected and influenced by friends and parents like no other generation before them. They value input and collaboration in decision making and task completion. Recruiters are encouraged to stress interchangeable skills and broad participation among recruits; emphasize the teaching of team skills; show recruits in groups – not solo; and demonstrate racial and ethic diversity beyond simple black and white.

Generation Y has been labeled “as one of the most educated generations yet and they love to learn.” Recruiters are encouraged to stress educational opportunities emphasizing math, science and technological achievement. The recruiters should demonstrate a planned future demonstrating how recruits will “keep up” with their civilian peers and be provided with success and long term growth opportunities.

Interestingly, the author notes in the conclusion that the future success of the nation’s Army will be in it’s ability to successfully recruit and retain Generation Y soldiers and recommends that the focus of Army leaders at every level should be the mentoring and development of Generation Y.

Thanks for the link to  millennial blogger Eva Gronowska, a Researcher at Wayne State University,

Recruiting tip: Can you grab their interest?

An ambitious Millennial posted a funny but instructive video on writing a college application essay. What’s significant is that over 10,000 people have viewed it, putting it in the ballpark with the official videos of some colleges and universities.

Does your institution have any content that Millennials are likely to share? A student won’t choose where to pursue their education based on a funny video they watched on YouTube, but such a video might be the deciding factor when all other things are equal.

It can’t hurt to provide something they can bookmark and share with their friends and families, because selecting and applying to college is a group effort for this generation. The risk and the opportunity is that most institutions aren’t doing this.

Spirit of volunteerism pervades millennial ranks

A recent study by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute included some surprising insights into millennials and volunteering:

Millennials have a spirit of volunteerism and a hint of interest in the world around them, but they’re less inclined toward traditional media to keep up with the news, research suggests. A study of more than 260,000 college freshmen released this year by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute found that 66.3% of freshmen surveyed last fall said it is “essential or very important” to help others, the highest percentage to say so in 25 years.

(Source: USA Today)

The surprising result is that millennials have the strongest sense of volunteerism seen in a generation. This presents a great opportunity to tailor your message to draw on this sense of volunteerism. Maybe you can highlight a great volunteer program that students at your school can participate in, or show off an innovative philanthropic effort to which they could become a part.

Make sure that when they think of volunteering in college, they picture your campus in their head.

Universities embrace new tech tools

Business week has published a collection of articles on some of the innovative ways that Universities are changing their teaching strategies by incorporating devices such as iPhones and Flip video cameras into their lesson plans.

This makes sense because students are already comfortable and familiar with these gadgets, and they’ll probably be using and working with similar (or more advanced) devices for the rest of their lives.

But the articles don’t say much about the use of these tools in recruiting. Perhaps admissions officers could learn a little more from the professors?