No longer can we expect, as business owners, that by sending out a single message to the masses that we are going to capture the attention of everyone. To be effective in our advertising and our branding, we’re going to have to look deeper and learn more about the various generations that are appearing on the human landscape if we are ever going to become effective communicators.

We now live amongst a diverse arrangement of new and different generations where change is happening by the second. And in order to be on the cutting edge of all things marketing, small business owners will need to be more and more aware of the changing demographics and learn how to best communicate with the ever growing field of different buyers who are joining the market place every single hour.

So let’s take a brief look at Generation Y. After the Generation X’s came the Generation Y’s. They were born between 1980 to 1994 inclusive.

Mark McCrindle of McCrindle Research states in his white paper ‘New Generations At Work: Attracting, Recruiting, Retraining & Training Generation Y’, that ‘there have been many attempts to give alternative labels to Generation Y from the trendy ‘Millenials’ and the ‘Dot.Com generation’, to the more disparaging acronym KIPPERS (Kids In Parents Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings). But the global label that has stuck is Generation Y.’

So, how do we as business owners, who want to sell our products and our services to the Y generation, position ourselves to effectively use social media networks to do just that?

In a recent article posted at Search Engine Watch states that Generation Y’s believe that they notice advertisements, but also believe that they are unaffected by it.

It reported that:

• 62% of Gen Y’s have visited a brand or fan page on a social network, but only 48% have joined.
• 84% noticed ads on social networks, 74 percent say they click infrequently/never (36% saying they don’t click on ads at all).
• Only 19% say they find ads on social networks relevant.
• 51% say they’d prefer a separate social network to manage their brand interactions.

So does that mean that it is going to be a total waste of our time to advertise via social networks? Well I think that we need to recognize that branding is just as an important in the sales cycle as anything else.

But here’s some other helpful information supplied by Scott Monty where he records what Millenials really care about on social networks:

• Getting news or product updates (67%)
• Having access to promotions (64%)
• Viewing or downloading music or videos (41%)
• Submitting opinions (36%)
• Connecting with other consumers (33%)

So here are a few tips: Provide exclusive information about your products and services that can only be made available on these networks. Set up a fan base, or your own social group where people can hang out online; a place where they can learn more and receive great offers. Make it relevant, make it valuable and go with the flow of social media interaction. Don’t be invasive – be subtly persuasive as you engage your potential customers.