generation y
Let me first get all of the pleasantries aside: I have enjoyed AgentGenius for some time and it was an exciting pleasure to be invited to be a contributor for the site. You can see my info on the G-Spot, but to summarize, I teach marketing, technology and generational marketing classes to Realtors in Oregon for Chicago Title of Oregon.
Along with marketing and technology, I happen to know quite a bit about Generation Y (which has caused quite a stir around here before). As my Twitter profile says “I am the poster child for generation Y”. I’ll provide more of my slightly different take on my generation later on, but today I want to focus on methods of communication.
In one day, I heard both of these: “Email isn’t my preferred method of contact, so if you didn’t provide a phone number, I may not get back to you” and “If you email me, how soon should I call you back?”
All of these people potentially lost my business. And most other Generation Y people I know.
on their terms
People in Generation Y want to contact you on their terms. It’s why they belong to multiple social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, to name a few. If they want to email you, email them back. If they want to chat online with you, chat back. If they want to poke you, poke back. (I still feel odd about poking people).
Some people may link this to our supposed sense of entitlement. It’s not that, we just value our time more than anything else. Twitter and Google Talk are the most efficient ways for me to keep in touch with my friends, so I use them. Chatting on the phone and driving to meet people are not efficient most of the time, so I avoid them.
easier to convert
I’m not a big fan of Facebook. But I have an account. And a few old friends have found me through the site. They could be potential customers. Friends are easier to convert than strangers.
What it comes down to is being accessible. You have an office so people can visit you. You have a phone so people can call you. You have email so people can email you. Now you need to start considering the new technologies like social networks. You need to at least exist so people can get in touch.
Next time I’ll be covering how to kill two birds with one stone through email marketing.
