It is increasingly clear that nonprofits are finding ways of using social media to connect with existing supporters and to attract young people.
The younger generation is already there, so nonprofits who haven't begun using social media are playing catch-up and experimenting with all the different platforms, from Facebook and Myspace to Twitter and Flickr.
Who are these young people? Allison H. Fine, social entrepreneur and author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, devotes a chapter to describing what she calls the "Net-Gen." This generation is also called the Millennials, and Generation Y.
Whatever the term, the generation is made up of people born since 1980, and is the first generation to grow up with digital technology. For the rest of us, digital is our second or third language but for the Net-Gen, it is their first and only.
These young people are already here or are knocking on our doors as our donors, volunteers and employees. We better try to understand them. Ms Fine, in her book, delineates the following characteristics of Net-Genners:
- This generation is very large...surpassing even the numbers of baby boomers, that storied generation that is even yet the "pig in the python." Baby boomers numbered 78 million people. The Net-Gen is 79 million people strong.
- While the baby boomers went through the Vietnam War, the Women's Movement, and the Civil Rights Movement, Net-Genners have been through the great corporate scandals of our times and the terrorism of 9/11. They face diminishing government support as social programs such as social security wane, and health care and pensions face massive change.
- Net-Genners are tolerant, the first generation to really not have to think about race, ethnicity or sexual preference. They are accustomed to being around people of all colors and persuasions.
- Net-Genners volunteer their time and talent. They grew up with community service programs in their schools. They have learned to highlight their volunteer work on college applications.
- Net-Genners are technology savvy. They possess an innate comfort with all things digital. They are used to accessible information and they share it easily. They have an array of tech tools and means for communicating with one another, organizing social events, and working together. They make their own media. All of this tech wizardry is cheap and becoming cheaper so that it is used by all income groups and equally by young men and women.
- They are connected to a lot of people. File sharing has prepared them to expect openness. They do not understand "proprietary" information or secrecy of any kind.
- Net-Genners expect communication ... they expect their emails to be answered. One anecdote from Momentum is of a teen who told the author that she can tell someone who "gets" this new online culture from someone who is clueless. Those who get it answer her email within the hour. People or companies or nonprofits that don't get it either don't answer at all or take a long time.
- This group of young people does not like or understand hierarchy and bureaucracy. It is, indeed, spirit crushing for them. They expect transparency and honesty. They are used to public sharing of virtually everything on their blogs and their Facebook/Myspace profiles.
- Net-Genners dislike and tune out traditional news media. They are more likely to use their internet enabled cellphones, websites, blogs, and e-mail lists than to watch the network news. They want two-way communication, not the old one-way communication of advertising and traditional media. They wish to be engaged, not talked at.
Net-Genners are likely to be episodic contributors to causes and they will be reluctant to fill out membership applications or give too much personal information to organizations. They are leery of spam and spyware. They are also not brand loyal, but align themselves with organizations within a particular context and then move on to others when their interests and needs change. They desire not only openness but authenticity. They will judge organizations and pass those judgments on to their massive networks.
In the words of Allison Fine in Momentum:
The Net-Gen is plugged in, moving at Internet speed, and open-minded because they are coming into contact with so much information and so many different people from different places. The world is truly open to them and for them. The Net-Gen is ready to make social change happen. Are activist organizations [nonprofits] ready for them?
Resource for this article:
Momentum: Igniting Social change in the Connected Age, Allison H. Fine, Jossey-Bass, 2006.
