Millennials not blogging? Just be patient!

In the Accenture study “New-Generation Workers Want Technology Their Way", one of the discoveries made by Accenture is that young people don't blog. Quote: 

"Blogging is more myth than reality.  Regardless of age, Millennials spend an average of only 30 minutes a week blogging.  This is far less than the time they spend searching for information on the Internet, listening to portable devices, text messaging, instant messaging, communicating on social network sites or interacting in virtual communities."

In my own experience, this low level of blogging reported by the Accenture study is not surprising. Blogs serve specific purposes in enterprises, and young people are usually the least able to fulfill these purposes at the very start of their employment in a company.

Some examples: The primary use of blogs in very large organizations (over 50,000 employees) is to distribute news.  Another major purpose of blogs in many organizations is to share expertise or to track projects. The very new employees are probably not the best positioned to write company news, to be an subject expert or to be running a project.

This is especially true of the young people involved in the Accenture study, some of whom are not yet employed. The study surveyed  "400 U.S. consumers between the ages of 14 to 27. All respondents aged 14-17 have completed at least middle school, and all respondents 18-27 years of age have completed at least high school. All respondents included in the analysis were in school, recently graduated or employed."

One of the participants in the NetStrategy/JMC 2009 Global Intranet Strategies survey reported that in his organization, the young people were very at ease with the idea of blogging, but did not have much to say. The older people on the other hand had a lot to say but were not comfortable with the tool!

I do agree with many of Accenture's conclusions, in particular the following:

“....In order to acquire and retain the best talent, organizations must understand the technologies that the new workforce expects and then find a way to support their employees without compromising enterprise security.”

However, I would not limit that conclusion to the Millennials. I have met many employees who are beyond the age of 27 (!)who feel their organizations are not yet offering them the right tools for the way they want to work.

We tend to get fixated on the word "blog" instead of focusing on the purpose. A blog is the right tool if you have 3 needs that converge:

1. Regular updating or communicating about a subject.
2. Letting other people comment and ask questions.
3. Grouping these exchanges in a fairly structured way (chronological and by category).

I have seen very little generational gap when these needs come together in an enterprise context.

What experiences have you had about blogging and generational differences in your organization?

Comments

[Samuel]

Nice post, Jane! I agree with your take. For you employees I think we do need a modern toolset. The fact that a company has blogs, wiki's, etc. is attractive for them. It doesn't imply they will use them. I think they will start using them when they understand the company a bit more and/or use it to communicate their thoughts with other mostly young colleagues. When talking about millenials I think it's more about the underlying concept of web 2.0: openness, transparency, conversation. These are required more by younger employees than older ones. Tools can help to foster and/or encourage this.