Melanie
Welcome to the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast for all decision makers and action takers. Take it away, Esther.
Esther
Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Monday Morning Marketing Podcast. Today, it's a little bit different. Today, we're going to to have a bit of fun, maybe. Rant a little? Well, we do that every week, don't we? So the topic of today is Mom, I've Got This. If you can guess what we're going to be talking about, I'm sure it's already clicked by now, just from that title. So we're talking about the fabulous topic of those younger generations who grew up with a tablet, a phone, the Internet without the clicking and the buzzing in the background. Knowing instinctively how to work social media, build a website, and everything else that goes into marketing online these days.
Melanie
I don't know. I think we've got it slightly easier now because we don't have a prompt telling us when we should speak. You know, like you were just saying about the noisy way that we connected onto the internet. No, we don't need to do that.
Esther
No, we don't. But just because somebody grew up with social media platforms existing, doesn't mean that they know how they work. That's true. That's That was the point of my little rant at the start. So this has come about because we keep hearing from people. It's like, oh, it's okay. My son, my nephew, my grandchild can handle that for me because they were born in the digital era. They know how these things work. But is it as easy as that?
Melanie
I think there's this expectation that because these kids have grown up in this particular era, that they have had more intuitive training to online channels. I don't agree with that entirely. I think the way they use those channels is quite different to the way we use them for business. I think because we've gone from... It was actually built, Facebook was built for school communities, so it's always been about community. Whereas the kids, the Gen Zs and Gen A's and Gen Bs and whatever letter we're on right now.
Esther
I think we're on beta right now. Just being born though.
Melanie
They feel it's just a way to connect to their friends and share latest events. It's more of a personal thing, especially the likes of Snapchat, Which can also be used for business. Instagram definitely can be used for both quite comfortably. It's managing expectations, I think.
Esther
Of course. But Facebook, People, the Gen Zs aren't on Facebook unless it's for family things.
Melanie
Unless their parents have put them on there.
Esther
Well, I know. I have friends who when their daughter was born, they opened her Facebook profile because they didn't want somebody else with the same name or whatever. That child is now 14 and has probably never been on Facebook and never will be on Facebook. My kids are 13 and 14. I don't want to look near Facebook because that's for the old people, like their mother. But it was very interesting because we were at an event recently, weren't we, Melanie, where they had a panel of Gen Zs. So you had such a good panel. The people who, we were learning from them as to what they want to see online and what drives their attention. Because at the end of the day, they're in a position now, age-wise, finance-wise, where they have the opportunity to buy online. And we, as a Gen X and a Millennial here on this podcast, I hate being called a Millennial. I'm an elder Millennial verging on the Xs. But we often forget that they can have that purchasing power. And we overlook them as consumers in a lot of cases. But they were very be open and honest by saying, we consume videos.
We want to see the product, see the before, during, after, see the process, see everything that's going on. So it was enlightening that way. But would hiring a Gen Z... Because there was a whole trend as well. Do you remember this? A couple of months ago where Gen Z wrote the script for the different businesses and slay. Having millennials and Gen Xs read this out, it was hilarious. It was marketing genius. But whether the Gen X has actually paid any attention to it or it was just the older folk having a laugh. It's one of those ones where you always need to go to an experienced person person for the strategy, for the layout, for the content, for building a website. Sure, everyone can do it these days. Graphic design, Canva makes that easy. But having a good eye for it and having the knowledge of user experience and the customer journey through a website, that's a completely different ball game.
Melanie
I think even just understanding that social media in isolation isn't enough because they think, Well, I spend all my time on social media, so they don't... It's not a typical thing for them to do Google searches to find stuff. It's not because they don't know how to, because they all know how to. They're shown in school, they're shown by their parents. But it's just, Well, this is what I do. In fact, I've noticed with my own kids now who are 14 and 17, that they're doing voice search more than Google search more than ever.
Esther
Yeah. It is that thing, we can learn from our kids as to what is working for their generation. But it's not enough just in isolation to use one generation's form of communication or search format. You should have all of them covered. And we've talked about this umpteen times at this point. It's episode 281, I think. Might be wrong in that number, but it's up there. We have told you time and time again, your strategy, get your strategy in place, where do your customers hang out? If your customers are Gen Z, having a Facebook page is probably not the answer. Because they're not hanging out there. They're hanging out on TikTok, on Instagram, on Snapchat, like Melanie said. But who knew that would turn into a business? Others have said that Pinterest is no longer classified as a social media platform. Times are changing. Keeping up with them is hard enough when you work directly in the industry. But just having a broad knowledge that these platforms exist or a knowledge that, yeah, a company will need a website or a business will need a website, but not knowing what to build it on, if it's WordPress, what plugins need to be added, if it's GoDaddy, how clunky it's going to be, if it's Squarespace, if it's Webflow, if it's... The options are huge right now. I'm trying to go and pick one out. It would be like going to the pick and mix at the shop, a candy store, and going, I want one of everything. You have to have a deeper knowledge and a working knowledge. It can't just be, oh, I'll do that on the side at my weekends when I'm not busy with my other work.
Melanie
I also think we need to empower our younger generation. I completely agree with that. But just because they're more familiar with the tools and maybe even the lingo. It doesn't mean they necessarily understand the ethos or the thought processes or the stratagems that we need to explore and bring into play. They just don't have the experience. They may have the knowledge, but they don't have the experience. So just giving it to the young ones to do is great, but they need a bit more experience. They need a bit more support.
Esther
Yeah, support and guidance. And I would even go as far... My kids are still receiving computer information technology, whatever it's called, ICT. And they don't know how to type. They will plink plunk on the keyboard rather than learning the keys where you're supposed to have your thumbs and your fingers and everything else that we were brought up learning, whether that was on a typewriter or on a keyboard.
Melanie
I did RSA typing. Do you know that?
Esther
I did CLAIT, computer literacy and information technology.
Melanie
I did RSA typing first at one school, and then I did CLAIT at another school. We're so old.
Esther
Aren't we? I'm starting to feel old, but my kids will look at me and go, How are you able to type without looking at the keyboard? How are you able to type so quickly? And it's like, they don't get to do that. They learn Photoshop briefly. They learn a tiny bit of coding. But it's all So because it's come so far since we started learning about computers, there's so much that they need to know about that they don't learn anything.
Melanie
Have you seen them with their thumbs, though? On a phone with their thumbs?
Esther
Yeah.
Melanie
Wow.
Esther
Oh, but we were the same. When it was a T9 keyboard, we were the same. Type, type, type, type.
Melanie
Yeah, but it's their thumbs. It's not their forefingers.
Esther
Okay, well, I used my thumbs for a T9 keyboard.
Melanie
Okay. See, we're having a rant about each other now.
Esther
Well, again, different generations, but we have the same knowledge base now of what goes on and what goes into all these things. And we're not not saying that we're the experts in every single platform either. That would be crazy. But we do have a working knowledge of everything that goes on and where your customers will be hanging out and what they will be looking for. Handing Can you hand that over to a teenager, to someone in their early 20s with no working knowledge of it? Hiring somebody, I'm all for hiring the younger people to do these jobs. But hire them on the fact that they use it, consume it, and know how it works. I consume TikTok, but I have not put up a TikTok video, so I don't know how that works and how to use CapCut and everything else. It all just seems too confusing for me. It's like, why should a 30-second video take me three hours to do? That, to me, is madness.
Melanie
Yes, but all video feels confusing to you, doesn't it?
Esther
It does, to be fair. To be fair, even this one, I'm going, I'm glad it's a one and done because-.
Melanie
The other thing to take into account is, even though they may know the technology, maybe they're not afraid to go on video, which a lot of these younger kids aren't, they also don't understand the audience or the language that the audience uses. They may understand calls to action. They'll understand a lot. I do get that. But they just need that more refined information.
Esther
Yeah, Yeah. But that's the same with anybody that you're going to hire. They need to know the ethos, the values, the principles, the mission, the vision statement of the company to know what can and can't be done or said online from that company. But I think a lot of times we just expect people to know these things or ask these things.
Melanie
And they don't.
Esther
They don't. And that's one of the things that then reflects badly on the entire industry.
Melanie
And how to manage a crisis as well. They wouldn't know that either.
Esther
Oh, yes. No, no. The older generations have been built on crises. They have been forged through all the different crises that could possibly, probably exist and are still existing today. But, yeah. So what we What I wanted to say in this podcast was, hire sensibly. Don't just hand it over because of their age, but also don't hand it over in spite of their age. If that makes sense.
Melanie
They may have the confidence and the tech knowledge, but they probably don't have the experience.
Esther
Yes.
Melanie
So you can't assume that because they know what they're doing, they don't know how to do it.
Esther
Exactly.
Melanie
It's my turn to sign off. So thanks so much for listening. I know it was a bit of an odd one this time, but this is something we've been talking about for a while now, and I think it's time we did it. Do think again before you hire a young one, don't assume that they know how to do it, and do offer them the extra support that they need. That's all for now, but we'll be back next week with another podcast. Bye for now.
Esther
Bye-bye.
