Gen X Driving Social Networking at Work – Not Gen Y, Citrix Online Study Finds

• Global survey conducted by Forrester Consulting reveals a divide in how generations and nationalities in U.S., UK, France, Germany and Australia communicate and collaborate in business
• Gen Y’s use of social and collaboration technology lags older workers
• In-person meetings are still popular – particularly with Americans – but unsatisfactory
• Significant rise in use of collaborative technologies, but the human touch is important

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – October 19, 2010 – A report commissioned by Citrix Online, a division of Citrix Systems, Inc., surprisingly revealed that Gen X workers – and not those in the younger Gen Y generation – make up the majority of those who use social networking for business, followed closely by Boomers aged 55 and older. According to the data, Gen Y’s use of collaborative technology also lagged others. The survey, conducted by Forrester Consulting, provides a snapshot of how the global workforce communicates as work becomes more distributed and usage of collaboration technologies increases. It reveals a highly-dispersed workforce still favoring meetings, but increasingly using tools such as social networking and video chat to communicate and collaborate.

Key Findings
The study asked information workers of all ages in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia about their business communication habits.

Gen Y does not have the monopoly on technology use and social tools during the work day. Meanwhile, the older generation is getting with the program.

• Gen Y is least likely to share information via text message (26%, compared to 47% of those aged 55+), and least likely to use video conferencing, video chat and web conferencing tools.
• Gen Y uses social networking the least frequently (40% of Gen Y workers who use social media for business do so daily, compared to 50% of those aged 55+).
• Older Boomers (55+) have increased their business use of social media 79% in the past year.

The younger you are, the less you value meetings – and pay attention.

• Gen Y is least likely to think meetings are efficient. Only 29% of Gen Y workers think meetings used to decide on a course of action are very efficient, compared to 45% of Older Boomers.
• Gen Y is least likely to pay attention in meetings and barely half (51%) believe it’s very important to do so in meetings to decide a course of action.

Americans have more meetings – and pay more attention.

• 90% meet in person to communicate and build relationships, more than any other nationality.
• Of those, 51% meet daily, compared to a mere 31% of French.
• 75% of Americans believe it’s very important to pay attention in meetings to decide on a course of action, compared to 50% of the French.

The in-person meeting is alive and well, but not necessarily effective.

• 84% of all respondents have in-person meetings, but meetings often don’t achieve their goals.
• Only 45% are very satisfied that planning meetings achieve the task in hand, and only 30% believe such meetings to be very efficient.
• Across all categories of meetings for designated tasks (e.g. review of documents, plan projects or initiatives, decision on a course of action), less than half of respondents believe those meetings are very efficient.

In an era of multitasking, it’s still considered rude in a meeting.

• 83% believe that side conversations are unacceptable during a meeting, and 77% frown on those doing other work on a computer or smartphone.

We still like to look each other in the eye.

• Germans like to see others during meetings (75%), while Americans find it less important (55%) though they have the most in-person meetings.
• 79% of those aged 55 and over think it’s important, compared to 65% of Gen Y.
• Why? To read body language, say 78%.

Usage among users of collaborative technologies is rising fast.

• 64% of those who use social networking tools in business use them more than last year. Video chat, team document-sharing sites and web conferencing also experienced significant increases in usage, with 56%, 55% and 52% respectively.

“We know from our own experience that the workforce is more dispersed and mobile than ever, and that people are increasingly turning to technology to help them collaborate with colleagues and customers many miles away. With this research, we aimed to discover exactly how business communication is changing because of new workstyles and tools,” said Bernardo de Albergaria, vice president and general manager, global marketing and ecommerce at Citrix Online.

“One thing is clear: the human touch is incredibly important: the desire to see each other and interact on a personal level is not going away any time soon. There is some tension with the findings between the way people actually work and the communication methods they think are most effective – a sign that things are in flux. Despite admitting that in-person meetings are often inefficient and don’t achieve their goals, workers still seem to like them. That’s probably because people are hard-wired to see people and read body language. This points to a real opportunity for virtual collaboration technologies, specifically video conferencing, to further complement the need for personal interaction, while reducing the inefficiencies of face-to-face meetings.”

Methodology
Forrester Consulting conducted an online survey in September 2010 of 797 information workers evenly split between the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Information worker is defined as anyone who uses a computer for work. Respondents were of all ages (Gen Y: 18-30; Gen X: 31-44; Younger Boomers: 45-54; Older Boomers: 55+) and from various industries.

Social media is still the Wild West to some extent, and a lot of us are still figuring out the rules. One thing is clear: Social media is here to stay.

Therefore, your social-media manager or director is a critical and strategic hire who will be responsible for formulating and executing your strategy, as well as educating your whole organization and aligning it with that strategy.

Below are the seven killer virtues of a social-media leader. There are certainly more, but not all are deal makers.

1. Passion

Passion for the job is an important characteristic of any employee, but it’s fundamental for a social-media manager. Many public relations and marketing folks use social media, but they aren’t passionate about it.

Social media goes 24/7, so you need someone who can live and breathe it without burning out. A good social-media manager will have the drive of a sales representative but has a light touch that influences people without appearing to “sell” to them.

2. Credibility

Social media is not a silo. You need to balance technical skill with business acumen. Research the candidate’s professional credibility in your particular industry.

The social-media manager will become one of the “faces” of your company, so you need someone with a broad business background and a grasp of marketing, sales, operations, P&L, product management, business process, and customer relationship management.

3. Strategy

Because social media is fun, many people can get caught up in using it without a clear purpose. If a social-media program is implemented companywide, it can become a big time investment.

Therefore, it’s vital that the social-media director provide leadership for senior management as well, ensuring that they buy in to the program and understand its goals. Strategic, big-picture thinking coupled with a willingness for shirtsleeves implementation is a must.

4. Service-orientation

Because social-media managers are the face of a company, they need to be relentlessly committed to helping people in social channels. Customer service should be part of that person’s DNA. Customer interaction is not a bother; rather, it’s something to enjoy, it’s the new marketing.

Customers, partners, prospects, and analysts will need help and advice around the clock, which puts the social-media manager in a unique position of acting as an advocate for the company and brand, as well as the community.

As an advocate for the community, the social-media director helps the company design better products and services, leading to happier and more-loyal customers. And when the products and services are better, the social-media director can evangelize on the company’s behalf in a more natural way.

5. Risk-tolerance

The social landscape is changing at breakneck speed. The social-media leader must be comfortable with constant change and course correction.

Because many social efforts are in uncharted territory, the perfect social-media manager will be the proverbial self-starter, a true pioneer, unafraid to head into the darkness.

The social-media leader can’t wait for directions from the boss, since the boss may not know as much about social media. And if there’s a failure, the social-media leader must dust off and start all over again.

6. Decisiveness

It seems as if there’s a new social-media product every other day. Social-media practitioners must keep their tool set full of sharp new tools, but they need the wisdom and experience to recognize which trends have lasting power and which are ephemeral.

It’s also crucial that they commit to social-media programs and stay with them long enough to evaluate their success or failure, yet be willing to jettison what isn’t working.

7. Action hero(ine)

As noted earlier, change is the only constant in the social-media world. To say that the social populace expects real-time action is an obvious statement.

Although creating quality content is important, it’s equally important to avoid “analysis paralysis” or get caught in an endless loop of approvals.

If you wait to publish a blog post or tweet, it will be yesterday’s news tomorrow. The social-media director must strike the right balance between perfection and action, with action being paramount.