The second session at PR Camp Atlanta focused on helping "senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues." The discussion groups were led by pairs of senior and junior (I think they were all 22-year-olds) professionals: Nick Ayres, Home Depot and Corvida Raven, SheGeeks.net; Marilynn Mobley, SVP Edelman and Matt Epstein, Definition 6; Shirley Powell, SVP Turner Broadcasting and Tolu Ogbechie, Prevent Blindness Georgia; and Jenny Schmitt, President of Cloudspark and Lauren Culbertson, Sen. Johnny Isakson.
Suggested discussion questions included:
- Do young professionals look at technology differently?
- How do we tap the expertise of young professionals?
- How do we teach them to think more strategically?
- How much expertise do we need to have ourselves?
- How much can we rely on them to do social media?
Marilynn and Matt's group: The assumption that if you're a 20-something you know everything and reverse if you’re older is not true –- you can’t make age assumptions. Generation has nothing to do with this. “You can’t shake hands with a closed fist.” Internal conflicts are problem – one-on-one mentoring is big. Use young people to bring new info to senior people.
Respect must go both ways: I’m older, you don’t know what you’re talking about/you’re old, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Bring both in from the very beginning.
*This team's biggest takeaway: Find practical everyday ways you can work together—especially mentoring in both directions
Jenny and Lauren's group:
A lot of this boils down to good management: make mistakes without fear, etc. –- basic good management. The team argued that both sides must share what they know: Know the business (older) and know the tactics (younger) – teach each other. In addition they emphasized credibility –- knowing the tools yourself and using yardsticks –- knowing what “success” is in measurement
*Takeaway: the importance of shared learning, teaching and learning from each other
Nick and Corvida's team:
It's all about mentoring and reverse mentoring. Unlike the first team, this group agrees there is some degree of difference between the groups in technology. How do we find the happy medium? Digital natives can't be the only ones doing social media. As a junior person said, We really need to know what we’re trying to do (strategy) before we implement these tactics.
*Reverse mentoring is their one big idea; developing relationships – cultivate on level playing field as in social media space
Shirley and Tolu's team:
Lines between personal/professional blurring. Get older people interested in using social media professionally but getting them to use it personally (example of one exec who loved baseball and got involved in social media sites that way). This group also mentioned reverse mentoring and strategy vs. tools -- to teach Gen Y to think strategically emphasize the bottom line. Also, be sure you're analyzing customers, who you want to reach and reaching them in the best way.
My favorite tip of the day: Try printing out information from social media sites for bosses instead of just sending them links.
*This group's big idea: making it personal, find a personal connection for a senior professional and teach junior pros to think more strategically and less personally
I loved this session particularly because I enjoyed watching Lauren and Tolu, former students of mine, in action. They did Grady proud.
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