{"id":312,"date":"2009-08-26T23:13:23","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T03:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awgentry.com\/blog\/?p=312"},"modified":"2009-08-26T23:13:23","modified_gmt":"2009-08-27T03:13:23","slug":"tech-savvy-reverse-mentors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/awgentry.com\/weblog\/tech-savvy-reverse-mentors\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech-Savvy Reverse Mentors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image via CrunchBase<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Young adults these days seem like they were born with an iPhone<\/a> in one hand and a Web-surfing laptop in the other, constantly Facebooking and texting. Just idle time-wasters, or tech-savvy business resources?<\/strong> The Harvard Business blog’s post, Let Gen Y Teach You Tech<\/a>, stands solidly on the latter side:<\/p>\n

Once derided as sandboxes for Gen Y slackers, messaging and social networking sites<\/a> are the new soapboxes, organizing centers, town halls and… an increasingly powerful news source….<\/p>\n

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Image via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gen Y (the 70 million-strong demographic dynamo born between 1979 and 1994) is a connected, tech-savvy tribe, comfortable with state-of-the-art communication technology…. 88% [of Baby Boomers] see the Ys as tech-savvy and 40% say they have already asked their younger co-workers to teach them about iTunes<\/a>, text-messaging<\/a> and social networks.Time Warner<\/a> formalized this information exchange with an unusual version of a mentoring program in which the traditional roles of older mentor and younger mentee are reversed. The Digital Reverse Mentoring program<\/a> [link added] <\/em>matches college students from outside the company with senior executives for one-on-one meetings about Web 2.0 applications and the many emerging \u2014 and mutating \u2014 technologies changing the media industry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Image by Getty Images<\/a> via @daylife<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As you’ve probably seen, this has huge implications for the business world<\/strong>. Should your company get a fan page on Facebook<\/a>? Will Twitter be a viable lead-generation system? What social networking sites will be flashes in the pan, and which will endure and\/or change the face of the entire Internet? Bring aboard a smart kid from the younger generation to help with all these newfangled Web gadgets. Don’t just pawn it off on the intern<\/a>, either; embrace all of this throughout your company<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I was born at the front end of Gen Y. Working and consulting now with older businesspeople daily, I can see the generational gap in tech-savviness. I’m also fascinated with the innovations of my contemporaries: companies such as Brandswag<\/a> are building businesses entirely upon social media services, when the industry didn’t even exist a handful of years ago. Now it’s a wide-reaching revolution<\/strong> comparable to the advent of the first business websites. Hop on board to reap the benefits of this exciting medium — and make sure you take a Gen-Y’er along for the ride as an advisor.<\/p>\n

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