Generational Communication

How do you communicate with your grandparents, your parents, your friends, your children?  Do you even stop to think about the various ways you reach out to each of these generational groups?  Probably you don’t.  You either use what you’re comfortaCble with or sadly, you don’t interact much at all.

But when you’re in a business environment, dealing with different generations, is not something you can take for granted.  One style does not fit all.  You will have to learn to vary your approach and the method of communication you use to match the person or group you want to reach.

Many companies are taking to the Internet to connect with their customers, prospects and business associates via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (just 3 of the many, many social media outlets).  For computer savvy generations this is probably the preferred method of communication.  However there are still lots of workers who are not comfortable with technology of any kind and they definitely won’t find you or your message on any type of social media. 

And to take this even farther, many of these same workers aren’t really comfortable with mobile technology either and may still be using regular old cell phones with no data plans – so no text messages are going to reach them.

Considering all of these factors, how do we stay in touch with everyone out there?

Let’s look at the results of a recent survey “Connecting Generations” done by AARP and Microsoft.

Age

13 - 17
18 - 25
39 - 58
59 - 75

E-Mail

36%
46%
56%
60%

Text

64%
62%
40%
19%

For more information on the survey, click on the link below:

Survey Results

I’m sure you find nothing surprising about the results shown above.  What this does emphasize is the need to remember to use the preferred method of communication of the person receiving the message.  And don’t forget, some people may actually prefer to be contacted by telephone or plain old fashioned snail mail.