Multi-Generation

Baby Boomers vs. Gen Y

I interviewed my mother, who is a member of the Older Boomers.  She is a freelance writer for online news publications, so she probably has spent more time online than most in her generation.  She largely uses the Internet for research, shopping and emailing but has come to recognize the growing popularity of social media.  She has started two blogs focused on her interests and has joined Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn only to promote her blogs.  She does acknowledge and appreciate the success that businesses and non-profit organizations are having with social media but is not actively involved and engaged in online discussions and communications, although she does enjoy seeking to understand social media and find her place in it.  She rarely uses these platforms for personal reasons, except to research her interests, but she does like the capability to connect with family, mostly children and grandchildren, to stay updated on their lives and see pictures.  This is a big difference with her generation and mine, in that younger generations tend to utilize social media for more personal reasons, such as entertainment and communicating with family and friends.

Although she may be more active online than many of her fellow Boomers, there is one main difference between her views and those of a younger generation, such as Gen Y.  Regarding the ability for endless online conversations, the games, various apps and all-around flashy gimmicks, she believes there is just too much available and too much connecting on a personal level through social media.  Her belief is that much of the interacting and gimmicks available are really unnecessary but thinks maybe the younger generations find it all “fun.”  I believe this stems back to the fact that younger generations are more casual, both personally and professionally, and older generations are more formal in how they conduct themselves and in all their exchanges with the outside world.  An example of this is the online language barrier.  ‘Lol,’ ‘omg,’ and other Internet slang have found their way into much of the communication and marketing conducted online now.  Sometimes these terms have shown up in the workplace as well.  The ‘casual versus formal’ clash is evident in both manners and methods and can severely affect the way people of all ages come together in the workplace and online. This, in my opinion, presents the biggest challenge for businesses that are looking to appeal to all age groups in their marketing. 

It appears that a social media campaign by any company will have to contain multiple components to appeal to varying generations. While a younger age group, such as Gen Y, might respond positively to mobile text marketing or a QR code that takes them to a mobile website, the Boomer generation would appear to react more favorably to an email campaign or would be more likely to join discussion groups. The content would have to vary as well. While pictures and video would most likely prove successful for all generations, Boomers will definitely be looking for straightforward and uncomplicated information. And I believe younger generations would respond to gimmicks, such as "freebies" in a call to action, as well as casual conversations through platforms such as Twitter.