Converting Millennials Into Company Loyalists

Memo To Your CEO – Let Them Blog 

Millennials, aged 18-29, are our most confident and connected generation. So connected, in fact, that 83% of Millennials sleep with their cell phone next to their bed while 75% have social networking profiles. 

How can companies harness this connected, educated, and confident generation?

Hire them as bloggers.  Better yet, companies should consider blogging as part of a management development path. Here are some reasons why:

1. Ownership – Millennials are entrepreneurial, with many intending to start their own companies. However, if they are brought into a company and asked to write (create) about a product or service in their own words, it offers them a different sort of (and a bit safer form of) ownership. 
2. Mentorship – Content review by a senior subject matter specialist is part of any corporate blog publishing process. It seems natural to weave a mentor-mentee relationship into this review process that would continue on even after the blogger moves into a different role. 
3. Expertise – Writing about a company’s products and services will, by default, increase a blogger’s knowledge base. As the amount of content created by a blogger increases, so does his or her expertise in a particular area. As a blogger moves through the corporate ranks they will travel with their accumulated knowledge base and, more importantly, they will be able to transfer this knowledge base to their colleagues and be valued as an expert.
4. Search Results – Companies with active blogs draw 6.9 times more organic search traffic and 1.12 times more referral traffic than those companies who don’t blog at all. Your blogging team will benefit your company’s bottom line. 
5. Management Development – It’s pretty powerful to have a core of connected millennial bloggers in your company that are simultaneously creating great content, building their expertise in your products and services, being mentored by senior members of your staff, AND increasing your website traffic. That’s value. 

Does your company blog? Do you have a blogging or inbound marketing department? Any blogging success stories to share?