Still more reasons you should recruit Gen Y to help you recruit Gen Y

No, the title wasn’t a typo. In past blog posts I’ve strongly hinted that college admissions professionals should get help from student interns and other colleagues who are Millennials, to make the best use of technology as a recruiting tool.

Looks like I’m not the only one. Just four days ago, Sylvia Ann Hewlett wrote a post for the Harvard Business Review with the unambiguous title, “Let Gen Y Teach You Tech.” Among other things, she describes the way Time Warner recruited college students at “Gen Y Mentors.”

And it turns out, these mentors are just waiting for you to ask them for help.

Last week on the Why Gen Why blog, Crystal Olig offers advice to her fellow Millennials on how to cope with Gen Y stereotypes at work. Her first tip: “Educate your more seasoned (ie, old) coworkers.”

Other tips include volunteering to test new technology and applying social networking skills “to make your company look good.”

As she elaborates on these points, one of the first things she mentions is, “Gen Yers are all about teamwork.” In other words, you’ve got a resource of tech-savvy people who are willing–even eager–to help out.

Back in the days of dial-up when I went to college, we had student reps who visited high schools to recruit new applicants. You should give these enthusiastic students the freedom to make your institution’s social media efforts shine–if you’re not doing this already.

This idea seems to be catching on.