FACT: Using social media will help you attract Millennials.

I was invited to speak about social media to the Business and Professional Women's Foundation's National Employer Summit last week, at which they brought together "leading employers and innovative workplace strategists to discuss and learn about pioneering practices".

The summit concentrated on issues of diversity, generational differences, disability issues, and flexible working practices. Interestingly for me, as I gave my little spiel and spoke one by one to four "round tables" of attendees, the questions were not, as I expected (and had been asked to discuss), about how to successfully integrate social media within an organization's internal working practices (like staff IM'ing each other instead of being blocked from it). Instead, a lot of people wanted to know how you manage the "maintenance" of your social media initiatives once you get started - how you allocate staff time, how you know how often to post to a company blog, how you can (or should) maintain "office hours" in a space where people expect immediate responses... but the idea that everyone wants to get into the social space was a given. Just a matter of time.

Which is great!

But something else happened, which really sparked my interest and that of two BPW board members sitting at my last table. We were sitting with a few other people, including the only Millennial in the room - a student from the University of Maryland. I asked my starter question, "Is anyone using social media personally or through your organizations, are you on Facebook or LinkedIn, for example?" and the young woman suddenly got really animated, telling everyone about how they could attract her generation to events like these. She said, instead of a dry brochure with lots of words, post a video! Something with moving pictures. Show us how we can benefit by meeting others like us. Post your event on Facebook! We have short attention spans. Jazz it up! And the killer quote: "If you had only done this kind of thing, there would be 100 Millennials in this room instead of just one."

The two board members were rapt with attention. They said they were having trouble attracting younger people and had not known why, despite "early careerists" being one of their SPECIFIC stakeholder groups. At the end of the session, when the attendees were asked to shout out some takeaways, one of those directors stood up and said she had just had an epiphany, had just seen someone completely come out of their shell and had seen what topic made it happen. And she was going to see how they could learn from that and embrace social media for their organization.

AWESOME.

The whole thing reminded me of a really good session on Young Professionals at the ASAE Marketing and Membership Conference. I dug out my notes:

- do your promotional materials speak to young professionals?
- is it easy to sign up to your events?
- do you offer student discounts?
- do you have photos of younger people on your website?
- do you have any content that is from a young professional's point of view? Anything about issues related to young professionals? Is scientific content consistent with a young professional's level of knowledge?

and...

- it's hard to jump in to networking when you are new to the profession.
- put your leadership and YP's in the same room - sends a message that they are a priority for the organization.
- are your leaders on Facebook? Great way for them to interact directly with YP's.
- try a case study - content (blog, articles etc) about a YP's experience of the organization
- YP's may affiliate before joining - make it easy.
- enforce term limits so new blood can get on committees. Create opportunities for them.

The session handouts are posted on the YAP Facebook site. Of course, I can't do a post on young professionals without mentioning YAP, a project I started with uber-bloggers Lindy Dreyer, Jamie Notter and supercool Millennial Lauren Wolfe. We are also on LinkedIn, @yapstar on Twitter. In case you don't know, YAP (Young Association Professionals) is a network for supporting all young professionals, whether they are young in age or new to association management or just young at heart, and for helping empower YP's to be strategic thinkers and the next generation of association leaders. And, of course, the "social" is just as important as the "network", so there is a support aspect to the group for anyone traveling somewhere they don't know anyone, where they would be able to have a fellow YAPper to show them around or grab a bite with. The group is also a sandbox for experimenting and innovating with social media, and we have lots of fabulous things planned, which will be announced soon. Our next YAPpy hour is July 1 in Arlington. Anyone is welcome.

Technology enables community, community enables engagement.