BMC Communities Banner
Previous Next

IT for Gen Y: Social Media and the Net Generation

June 2009
Alena Hitzemann

- by Alena Hitzemann, Associate Web Editor

 

I have a confession to make: I'm not a huge Michael Jackson fan.

 

Blasphemous, I know. But somehow I kind of missed it... too young, maybe? Thriller did come out the year that I was born. But that doesn't seem to have made a difference to most of my peers, who know all the words to every song and still adore him unconditionally in spite of his later, ahem, quirks. Me, I could probably hum the choruses to 3, maybe 4 songs (you don't want to hear me sing.) That's about it. I don't dislike the music, nor am I particularly judgmental of the man... I guess I've always just been somewhat indifferent.

 

Which is why my reaction to the news of his death yesterday really surprised me.

 

I was innocently browsing CNN.com and came across the initial report that he had been hospitalized for cardiac arrest. It didn't provide much info, so I did a quick Twitter search- and woah. According to the Twitterverse, the man was dead. And it wasn't just one or two or a hundred suspicious-sounding reports, hundreds of thousands of people were talking about it and tweeting the same news. By the time I scanned to the bottom of the search page- maybe 30 seconds?-  the little yellow bar at the top of the page told me that there were 154,386 results since I started searching. Woah again. Suddenly, for some reason, I really really cared about Michael Jackson.

 

So I was completely taken aback and quickly came to the conclusion that the news was true. I felt sad and shocked and somewhat out-of-body... that weird sensation when you know that people will talk about this incident on this day for years to come, and I'll find myself saying, "yeah, you know, I was just working at home, browsing around, and saw the news online..." I don't think it's an exaggeration to compare yesterday's events to the day that Elvis died, especially for my generation. If we're defining Gen Y as the folks born between 1974 and 1983, then our formative years were the '80s- MJ's heyday. For Gen Y, he was THE entertainment icon.

 

But let me repeat: I am a Gen Y anomaly. I'm just not that into the King of Pop. So what was my deal? Why was I suddenly glued to my Twitter feed?

 

I believe it was the buzz. Call it what you will: UGC, mass reporting, power of the people- whatever. What completely engaged me about yesterday's events was the feeling of real-time communication, of worldwide community, of breaking news and breaking free from traditional news outlets. It was electric. It was something that I wanted to be a part of. I even felt a guilty twinge of pride when I was the first person to break the news on my facebook feed. It was this feeling of coming together with people from all over the world, sharing emotions and information as we watched things develop. It was fascinating and incredible and somehow made the loss seem less sad, because we were all going through it together. It was a real example of how the Net Generation finds, consumes and reacts to current events.

 

That's social media. That's the soul of online communities.

 

Don't get me wrong: the tragic human implications of his death, his family and children, completely outweigh any sort of detached analysis on the state of emerging media. My heart is with them. But as Gen Y lost a part of our cultural history, we simultaneously embraced the new roads on our cultural map. I think it's been some pretty amazing synergy.

 

In the spirit of remembering the music, check out this video. RIP MJ.

 

 

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
| More
0 Comments Permalink
Alena Hitzemann

- by Alena Hitzemann, Associate Web Editor

 

Green IT is a hot topic here at BMC. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what it means in the context of our products and solutions... but I think it has something to do with consolidating servers, virtualization, automating systems, using less energy and generally making things more efficient (plus saving some money, of course.) Which is great. I'm all about reducing resources and doing right by good old Mother Earth, and for a lot of our enterprise customers, those changes may be an excellent way to do so.

 

The thing is, though, those are all pretty high level initiatives. Kind of like saying, "if you want to live green, you need to put an entirely new sustainable energy system into your house." It would be awesome to have everything run off of solar and wind, but what can I do in the meantime? What are the little steps in Green IT, the ones equivalent to switching off lights, taking shorter showers, and just putting on a goshdarn sweater in the winter instead of cranking the heat? (That last one is for you, Dad. I've finally learned.)

 

I think social media provides a platform for taking some of those smaller steps. It may not be direct, in the sense that turning off a light turns down your electric bill, but I believe it's relevant all the same. More and more organizations are using social media to drive campaigns that ultimately address the same goals as BMC's Green IT: using less energy and being smarter with our resources.

 

This article offers some great examples. A recent Twitter push by the United Nations Environmental Programme, for instance, resulted in the planting of over 10,000 new trees... one for every tweet that their Twitter account received during a one week period. What an awesome program, right? Talk about easy... shooting off one tweet is definitely easier than cutting short a nice hot shower. The article also mentions Dell's use of Twitter, blog posts and banner ads to promote their World Environment Day contest. The respondent with the best tweet on combatting climate change won $1000 to donate to the NGO of their choice... again, all for taking a few minutes to craft an answer in 140 characters or less.

 

But I believe the biggest impact that social media can have on the Green movement is increasing awareness. Through this new, global conversation, it becomes So Much Easier to learn about the issues and what you can do to help. Even if the results aren't tangible, like a thousand bucks or a new tree in the ground, every tweet, blog or forum discussion that addresses envrionmental issues raises the volume on the conversation. The conversation then acts as the precursor, the antecedent to the small steps. By reading how others are incorporating Green values into their daily lives- including IT- we can all get ideas and inspiration on making changes ourselves. And those changes, the ones that seem tiny and insignificant, lead to big changes. Enter Green IT in the enterprise.

 

Ok, I'm off my environmental soapbox. What do you think defines "Green IT"? How will social media help shape that definition? How will Green IT continue to evolve?

 

Oh yeah, and if you are interested in the whole Green conversation, check out these guys. Serious enviro-buzz.

 

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
| More
0 Comments Permalink Tags: unep, green_it, twitter, social_media, bmc, dell
Alena Hitzemann

- by Alena Hitzemann, Associate Web Editor

 

(Sorry, Blake, I stole your line.)

 

Last week, the BMC Communities hit a membership milestone: 20,000 registered users. Yay!

 

It's kind of remarkable, if you think about it. 20,000 people have chosen to join and participate in a vendor-based community. That's roughly five times the population of the town where I grew up, and they're all here to discuss IT, business, technology and BMC. The Communities have become a place to ask questions, find answers, talk shop, poke around, learn more, meet people, and maybe even waste a little time. The site has actually lived up to its name: it is a group of people who support and help each other. Like a physical community, it is also constantly evolving, and we hope that it continues to evolve in an innovative, interesting and helpful way.

 

But all of that begs the question: who cares? What is the value of this new number? What does "20,000 registered users" Really Mean?

 

Of course, as a marketing person, I'm not supposed to ask questions like that. 20,000 users Really Means that we have a nice, round, impressive number to put in our powerpoints and impress our superiors. "Have you heard about our Communities Success? Twenty Thousand People!" Its propensity for propaganda may translate to more press, more visits, more page views, more buzz, more funding. All of those things are theoretically good. But with social media (and as I am learning, metrics in general,) the numbers only tell a very small part of the story.

 

Let's say, for example, that only 5% of that 20,000 engages with the site on a regular basis. There aren't many of them, but they're super active. Is that good? Is that bad? Why is it happening, and where is that other 95% hanging out? Or, what if 80% of registered users visit the site often, but just lurk. No interaction, no engagement... but hey, 17,000 people are still hanging out in our sandbox! In both cases we have 20,000 users, but vastly different use cases. Which one is "better"? Which tells the more complete story?

 

The answer, IMHO, is pretty clear in its murkiness: neither is better. Neither is necessarily more complete. Numbers only offer a particular snapshot into behavior and sentiment, and even when matched with other numbers, will only tell the story in one of many possible ways. Ever seen how Fox News and CNN present the very same information? Mmhmm... then you know what I mean.

 

So, all that being said... metrics and numbers are still obviously important and meaningful and necessary. I'm just starting to really grasp the complexities of web metrics, and I will tell you that they are also fascinating. I just hope that as I learn more, I retain my ability to see through the trees of data into the forest of context, and that my understanding of those trees will make my view of the forest all the more clear.

 

And for now? Time to break out the bubbly. Come on... 20,000 users! Woo hoo!

 

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
| More
0 Comments Permalink Tags: metrics, bmc_communities
Anirban Dutta

- by Anirban Dutta, Web Producer

 

I think a great new era of transparency and dialogue has started.

Take for example an organization with its own Communities - this provides a great platform of linking up with people in the organization in ways like never before.

 

I recently joined our own Social networking portal at Yammer. immediately it has opened me to the world of my own organization on a person-person level beyond the confines of a structure. So I can now connect and communicate with my contact as a person rather than a designation.

This certainly is cool and promises a possibility of a bonding at an interpersonal level within the human workforce of the organization, within the realms of the company culture. I don't think the essence of interaction via Social media can be achieved through emails where you always have an algorithm of recipient bureaucracy running in your mind.

 

Just my initial days within our Community at Yammer and I feel its so cool to have updates of what are my colleagues and peers up to.

I can follow them and learn a lot though fun, from experts in my own company who I couldn't have followed so candidly before this. I can discuss, poke, tweet and chat with them after having developed a relationship using this service.

Infact we already have leaders in the industry communicating through blogs with their organization and receiving feedback.

 

We have the CEO of 1-800 Got Junk? trucking attributing his marketing strategies to the Web and Social media.

Check out his interview by Tom Parish: Using Web and Social Media to Expand Marketing Reach: Brian Scudamore 1-800-Got-Junk?

 

Social media as a marketing tool is definitely a hot possibility every CIO would consider today but what excites me is the possibility of a new corporate culture of communication that is possible through this friendly technology.

Of course we've had company portals and wikis and Instant messaging services but these were all distributed and the communication would be task oriented and precise. With Social media I feel there would be more airy rounds of communication within the organization.

 

A young recruit would find it much easier to find his whereabouts and connect to his new world relying on his facebook instincts, although we'd need a Corporate Social media Senate to orient people to this society. Tuning is an inherent part of any system, and in this case the possibility really excites me - It just makes the work day so much more fun!

 

Write back to add to the possibilities and have fun.

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
| More
0 Comments Permalink Tags: culture, blog, communication, corporate, facebook, blogging, social_media
Alena Hitzemann

- by Alena Hitzemann, Associate Web Editor

 

 

Wow. My colleague Tom Parish tweeted the following today:

 

tparish Facebook Chat: 1 Billion Messages Sent Per Day (fascinating, I had no idea of the volume, huge) http://ff.im/-43xgA

 

 

One billion messages per day. That's so much communication. Makes me wonder what our volume here at BMC is, on MS Communicator, or Skype, or even quick pings over email... or all of the above. Clearly the nature of conversation is changing... how is the IT world going to keep up? How do we evolve with it?

 

(Speaking of Twitter and Tom, I highly recommend following him @tparish. He's a savvy guy. And while you're at it, follow me @IT4GenY. Just getting started but intend to make it worth your while.)

 

 

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
| More
1 Comments Permalink Tags: communication, chat, facebook, @it4geny, twitter, tom_parish
Alena Hitzemann

 

- by Alena Hitzemann, Associate Web Editor

 

A few months ago, when Anirban and I were batting around the idea of a joint blog about being young professionals in IT, I came up with the name “IT for Gen Y: Social Media and the Net Generation.” I was pretty darn proud of it. I’ve never been good with titles and it seemed like one of my better efforts. I was *pretty sure* that we both fell under the “Gen Y” and “Net Generation” umbrellas, we work for an IT organization and we’re interested in how social media fits into the IT world. Check, check, double check.

 

When I sat down to write this morning, I realized that I wasn't entirely sure what “Gen Y” and “Net Generation” actually meant. Hmm. Somehow it seems like understanding the implicit themes of a blog, particularly my own, may engender its success.

 

So I looked it up. According to Wikipedia:

Generation Y, also known as The Millennial Generation, is a term used to describe the demographic cohort following Generation X. Its members are often referred to as "Millennials"[1] or "Echo Boomers"[2]) . There are no precise dates for when Gen Y begins and ends. Most commentators use dates from mid 1980s to early 1990s. Members of Generation Y are primarily the offspring of Generation Jones and the Baby Boom Generation.


 

Wait a second. Mid 1980s? That’s a little late- I’m not that young. This definition puts me in the same bucket as kids still in high school… I can’t be accountable for their actions! No wonder a Google search for “Gen Y” features such laudatory terms as “self-absorbed,” “brash,” “slackers, whiners and praise-junkies.” Kids these days!

 

So I looked up “Net Generation.” This time the definition came from the Boston Globe, and puts the timespan from 1974-1983:

The Net Generation -- for whom social networking via the Internet is a birthright -- are probably too young to characterize adequately. They were in their teens and 20s in the Nineties (1994-2003; not to be confused with the '90s); and they are in their 20s and 30s now, in the Oughts (2004-2013; not to be confused with the '00s).


Not to be confused with the so-called Generation Y or Millennials (pop demography terms that refer to Americans born between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s), Netters aren't the parent-loving, resume-padding, squeaky-clean paragons of virtue we've heard their parents praise to the skies. Like OGXers, who were lumped in with Boomers but never felt part of that generation, Netters are a lost generation; older Netters have been lumped in with PCers (who, to make matters worse, were mistakenly called Xers), and younger Netters have been lumped in with Millennials. This trend stops here!



 

Ok, wow. First of all, that’s a lot of generation-jibber-jabber (check out the whole article- it’s intense.) But I do feel vindicated. It makes sense to me that my peers and I fall into a no-man’s-land between the famous Gen X and this newly-defined Gen Y. We understand angst and irony, but we grew up in the ‘90s when things were rosy. We were adults for 9/11, but we’re still idealistic. And from the same article, most applicable to the world of IT:

… it almost goes without saying that Netters take listservs, email and instant messaging, Google and Wikipedia, MySpace and Facebook, YouTube and Flickr for granted. Netters also don't remember life before fast computers and Internet service; they are a wired generation, sometimes accused of addiction to instant gratification. They don't read print newspapers, buy CDs, or rent DVDs, and their collective grasp of the concepts of copyright and intellectual property is shaky, at best.

 

There you have it. The definition I was waiting for. The one that ties together the times in which we grew up with their technological implications. Although I will take issue with the claim that we “don’t remember life before fast computers and internet service.” I certainly do, and I think that’s a key factor in differentiating us from Gen Y: we know what it was like Before.

 

So what does “IT for Gen Y: Social Media and the Net Generation” really mean? I think it’s less about the year we were born and more about where the wired mentality meets traditional business. It’s that intersection that largely defines my job and my interests, and it's that realm that I hope to explore.

 

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.
| More
2 Comments Permalink Tags: boston_globe, net_generation, gen_y, it_for_gen_y, social_media, definitions
Alena Hitzemann

- by Alena Hitzemann, Associate Web Editor

 

What the world needs now… is another blog about social media? Maybe it isn’t as poetic as love, sweet love, but I’d like to think that it’s true. Yes, there are hundreds (thousands?) of similar creations across the blogosphere, but this one is different. And I’ll tell you why.

 

1. Royal Content.

I firmly believe in the adage “Content is King.” I only read blogs with interesting, relevant and unique material, and I assume the same from other readers. Hence, you won’t find any filler here. I’m committed to the process, and will do my best to post often, write well, keep it fresh and add value to the greater social media conversation.

 

2. Double the Fun.

As a joint effort between me and Anirban, “IT for Gen Y” offers twice the insight and interaction of a one-man show. That means double the amount of content, double the linkage, double the young people who are delighted that googling around for interesting stuff is now part of their job description.

 

3. Beautiful Symmetry.

A corollary to #2. Not only can we offer more on our blog, we believe that our content will benefit from our uniquely positioned perspectives. He’s a guy, I’m a girl. He’s in India, I’m in Colorado. He’s got the tech background, mine’s in communications. However, we’re both Gen Yers in an IT world. We’re young, ambitious and social media-savvy. Bring on the comparing and contrasting.

 

4. Fresh Eyes.

As my favorite vocally-challenged poet once said, times, they are a changing. Social media has officially arrived in the building, and the traditional business world is officially scrambling to understand its implications and nuances. But for me? This stuff is second nature. Heck, I was on facebook back in 2004, when it had just expanded beyond its Harvard roots (at Tufts, we were part of the second wave of schools deemed worthy to participate. As if there wasn’t enough Ivy League inferiority floating around.) I see social media through the eyes of intuition. It’s a part of life, an always-exciting, ever-evolving animal… not just the next wave of marketing tactics.

                            

5. Humble Pie.

Yes, we’re the “Net Generation” and we intuitively understand this social media stuff. But being young in the business world has its disadvantages as well. I’m currently cruising up a steep learning curve that covers everything from the intricate structure of corporate marketing to figuring out exactly what our software does. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this challenge is integrating my interest and comfort level with social media into a business environment, specifically IT. It’s a big topic, and one that’s constantly changing. I’ve got a lot to learn and no shame about asking questions.

 

Still not convinced? Tell us what you’re looking for. What makes a blog about social media (or any blog, for that matter) worth reading? What do you want to talk about?

 

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's opinion or position.

| More
1 Comments Permalink Tags: net, blogging, social, media, generation, facebook
Anirban Dutta

Socialise

Posted by Anirban Dutta Jun 10, 2009

- by Anirban Dutta, Web Producer

 

I do not know if we can segment generations - generation present and past? But in today's day and time our species is certainly more social in ways like never before.

 

Technology has built itself up just as it should have and today an Indian bloke can plan a trip to Milan and travel light because he has live and real time input from his Italian mate.

 

Man is a social animal and there is an appetite for recognition in the corner of every human heart - this is the time, blogging, video podcasting, wikis, its been never more favorable to find someone, somewhere in this world of IP addresses who thinks exactly like you do.

 

Extremely excited to start off socialising in our own Community, feels like a stroll in the park, a break from your usual busy day.

The postings in this blog are my own and don't necessarily represent BMC's  opinion or position.
| More
0 Comments Permalink Tags: social, media, blog, socialise

Actions

Popular Blog Posts