I just got back from Inman Connect in San Francisco and I had my first real "I am getting old moment" ever.
In case you missed the event, let me wrap it up for you in two words: social media. Ok, I thought- I work for a dot com that embraces social media, I blog, I subscribe to feeds, I am part of a social media group here on Active Rain, I have a handheld email devise- I am with it. Then I went out to lunch with a co-worker who is 25.... I suddenly knew how my mom must feel when I talk about my iPod. Here is how the conversation went:
Young Whipper Snapper- "I feel so out of it today because I haven't been able to check my Facebook account".
Me- "Why in the world would you need to check that daily".
YWS - "I don't know what any of my friends are doing".
Me- "Wouldn't they email or call you if they were doing something important that involved you".
YWS- "Sara, MY generation doesn't email". Insert roll of eyes here from YWS.
Ok, hold up a minute buddy. I am only 7 years older than you and not totally obsolete yet. I got thinking that 7 years doesn't seem like a lot. But the big difference is that 7 years ago this guy was in college and when Facebook got its start and really exploded. He came of age not knowing life without it. It only recently made its way into the hands of us in the working force when they made some adjustments to their business model.
If you want to reach this Generation Y, Facebook is a great place to start. Because so few people 30 years and older are just getting used to the idea, there is definitely a first mover's advantage by figuring out how the system works.
So in my quest to 'hang with the young folk' I spent a lot of time on the site today. I even "poked" someone and "posted to a wall" and now have 23 friends (which might actually be more than I really had in high school...). There were all kinds of groups available to join and of course many opportunities to start your own. I don't have great advise yet on how to leverage all the tools on Facebook, but I can tell you that you should be there ready to communicate with the next wave of home buyers because, as I was so bluntly told, "they don't email".
So I am going to go get my progressive lenses back on, play around more with the social media sites of today, and afterwards go smear anti-aging cream all over my face as I get prepared for the next conference. I don't want to be mistaken for one of those old Gen Xers again!
Like what you're reading? Then subscribe to my blog and be notified when I post something new.
Connect with me on:
LOL!! Now I feel old!
I actually did have a facebook account and yesterday received my first lead from it!
Sara - Hilarious! I know exactly how you feel, I've only been out of college for 4 years now and I already feel totally obsolete! In my family/friends circle, there are people 5-7 years younger than me(not much at all!) that don't e-mail each other but instead just check each other's MySpace's -- everything they do revolves around MySpace or Facebook or whatever...I'm not old so why do I feel it?
I've always considered myself pretty "techy" but I guess not. These are the young adults moving into that age where some of them will make their first real estate purchase, we should be getting in on it before we really are old!
Yes I remember back in the day when I felt old around you! You guys were always off to Taco Bell and so very energetic. Hope all is well with you.