It would be nice to be supported by our industry and for employers to think about Generation Y, without stereotyping us. Having these skills, work experience and a great academic record does not seem to get you anywhere.

This is also relevant to the Australian market, rather than non-Aussie, which will ahve some bearing on their thoughts as well.

I know where you are coming from, and it’s a very fair point to raise, too. Interestingly, the next post in this series, from an agency head, pretty much disagrees with Richard and Di’s take on this. But this introduces another factor: R & D mainly service (I think) in-house roles, rather than agency. Now this DOES raise another differentiating factor.

And so it goes on…

I do know that in the UK, a recent survey of PR & Comms jobs showed that social media skills were cited in over 70% of the job adverts, yet only 6% of the CVs coming in had mentioned any PROFESSIONAL use of social media. Clearly a mis-match between supply and demand is occurring and that always puts a premium on scarce skills. Professionally, we need to be doing more for clients to help them grasp that social media is a key development for stakeholder engagement and a real two-way symmetrical tool at that. There are plenty of black hat users out there, so getting the white hats to use it responsibly, for professional purposes, is something that is important. I’ve started building it into every assignment I set for both graduate and undergraduate students. So, “passing fad”? I don’t think so…

Sophia, there was not a lot wrong with your answer. The tactics are horses for courses. However, I think the default is that we must ALWAYS consider social media as an option, not that we might consider it.

Ultimately, however, employers are, or soon will be, looking for social media experience in a professional communication application context (as opposed to just doing it socially). What that means is that there are very few communication professionals who will be able to get by without social media proactical, hands-on experience. This is especially so for younger practitioners, as the oldies are actually looking to them for help and direction. A nice turn-around, isn’t it?

It’s an opportunity for the Department of Youth – grab it!!

Regarding the risk management point of view, I thought it was spot on. I think we’re in a profession which requires us to be conscious of how we interact, with whom we interact and how that could be perceived. That segues directly to the issue of “separate” online lives — public and private.

How I feel about it emotionally is a different question, but I don’t think we have the option of expecting that they will be kept separate. I certainly would counsel any client not to expect what we might, in our hearts, define as private to be treated as private once it’s online. This is not really that different than business emails, telephone calls and some correspondence.

Once, we were much more casual about more “informal” communication. We have learned that all that is discoverable, in legal terms, and, in media terms, available for revelation. For a long time, my rule of thumb has been, “What would a judge say?”

I’ve been wrestling personally with this. I’m working on a non-fiction book (as yet unrelated to what I do professionally) and it is likely to stir some emotion and controversy. I’ve reserved a URL to get started on a blog on the subject, but thinking through the implications of those controversies is one of my early tasks.