MORE: How are women of Generation Y using social media differently than women over 40?
MA: A colleague of mine who is in her late 50s has a mentor. She is a very senior executive and she has a millennial, someone in her 20s, who is a high-potential worker. They meet, have coffee, she gets technology advice and she gives this younger woman career advice. She’s learned how to set up Facebook page. They’ve discussed should she be on Twitter? iPhone or Blackberry? Should I blog? They set up an RSS reader for her, so she could get all the relevant news.
The thing I thought was fabulous was that the woman was not afraid to ask for help. She was confident enough to admit this is new to her. And she asked for help and she has fun with it. She doesn’t take it too seriously.
MORE: What else can women over 40 learn from younger generations?
MA: The biggest difference that I see is that digital natives, Gen. y-ers are just completely comfortable in the social media world. They have a fluency with new technology. I think that’s wonderful from a gender perspective because traditionally, our stereotypes are that women are scared of technology. Women always have to get their husbands to program the DVD or the VCR, the husband has to fix everything. And what we see now, especially with younger women, is that they embrace technology. Women are more active in social media than men. So that’s a wonderful thing that older women can learn. Don’t leave it to the men. That’s my big point.
MORE: Let’s say you decided to use Twitter for business purposes. What would you do?
MM: The first thing is to make friends. Who is Tweeting in your field? Who do you absolutely have to know? Use key words, do a lot of searches, check out the blogs of people in your field because people usually have their Twitter profile on their blog. Build a list and then follow these people. It’s really important, to make friends and promote and re-Tweet other peoples’ work. A great way to get started in Twitter is to re-Tweet relevant stuff from people. As you start Tweeting, they’re like to reciprocate. Twitter is such a reciprocal environment.
