Not a day goes by that I do not hear a complaint either about working with younger generations, or trying to reach them. The millennials as they are called are a section of “Generation Y” that are currently in the early stages of our workforce or about to leave school. So many people talk about how they do not have an attention span, they use cell phones alot and they play on the Internet more than they should. We need to face it, this is a brand new form of generation that we have not seen before. So many companies have talked about how their customers are not in this generation so they do not need to know how to reach them. One thing to keep in mind though, these customers are getting older and will soon be part of your customer base. There are also many people, not just millennials who are embracing the new forms of marketing and technology.

So what are all of these forms of new promotion? With all of the new forms of technology, there are many new ways to reach customers. It all depends on who your market really is. One of the keys is to be creative and to diversify where and how you are sending it. With the use of smart phones, restaurants are even marketing themselves with the use of GPS and how long the wait is at the restaurant. Social Networks, blogs, smart phones, internet connected televisions and social media are ways that companies are now reaching their markets. The world is now connected online more than ever before. According to the Harvard Business Review’s Working Knowledge Blog, of the 6.5 billion people in the world, about 1.5 billion have Internet access, more than 300 million have broadband access to the home, and 3 billion have cell phones, a growing number of which offer Internet access. The interesting thing about mobile technology is that many people never let it get more than a couple of feet away from them. I am one of those people.

I am not telling you to go out tomorrow and use social media and wireless technology to reach everyone out there; I just think that every business owner should start trying it. It is definitely here to stay and people are using it. The number of users is also growing every day. Soon it will just not be to reach the millennials, it may be close to everyone.

If you need assistance implementing new strategies into your marketing mix, contact your local SBDC office. They will be more than happy to help your business grow to the next level.

Kyle Hensel is the Area Director of of the Clayton State University SBDC in the Georgia SBDC Network.