Reprinted with the author’s permission from {grow}
I’ve recently graduated from college, moved to New York City, and started my job as a professional event planner. As I have immersed myself in this new “young-professional” role, I’ve been noticing some social media trends among my twenty-something peers that you might find surprising. What’s hot? What’s useful? What do we not give a crap about?
Here are some intelligent and good-looking opinions on the platforms that we loathe and love:
Twitter: Among young professionals, Twitter is becoming the holiest of holy. The exclusive and elite. The smart and creative. You can be witty, you can be hip, #YouCanComeUpWithHashtagsThatAreSoBrilliant. And best of all, grandma — who is all over Facebook — doesn’t know about it. Twitter is the world without the politics and drama of Facebook and it is the coolest of the cool right now.
LinkedIn: Every day I receive new notifications from my classmates. FINALLY. Hop on board friends. It’s been a realization for my group that not only is this a tool we need while looking for our jobs, it’s also necessary to keep movin’ on up.
Facebook: No, we’re not leaving Facebook. My generation will never really let go of Facebook. We’ve gone through too much together. Too many photos, too many exes to stalk, too much history together. But we have also trudged through all of the constant change Facebook has put us through and frankly, it’s exhausting.
Among my peers, there are two classes of people on Facebook — those on Twitter and those who aren’t. Those who are “Twitter-less” continue to post their lives, their trials, their tribulations on FB. But those of us on the 140 character machine, bitch openly on Twitter and “family-friendly filter” on Facebook. Twitter is the conversation. Facebook is just a place to archive photos and post lame jokes. We can have Facebook open at work because we’ll never post anything incriminating there. Twitter is where the juicy stuff lives.
Google+: In a word, FAIL. Seriously. We don’t give a crap about our impact on SEO. I joined and built my “circles” and there have only been two updates ever … and one is from my mother saying, “great, something else I need to update. ”
Everything that is cool about Google+ can be found somewhere else and we’re already happy and comfortable with those other platforms.
Now, let’s talk about a hot social media site for the young professional crowd and you probably have never heard of it: OK Cupid.
Yep. A dating site.
But there is something very interesting going on here. Once I got past the initial “creepy” factor of realizing that I’m old enough to be on a dating site, I discovered an exciting new social networking model emerging here. It’s kind of like a combination of Facebook and Twitter for people you don’t know — people who are not currently your friends but who might become your friends, or in Cupid-terms, an “adventure buddy.”
Many of my friends are now spending more time on OK Cupid than Facebook. They are finding it fun to socialize, share restaurant recommendations, chat about music and books, etc. with new people who have similar interests.
Lauren Schaefer is a recent college grad, new NYC resident, and nonprofit event planner with an interest in all things social media. She documents her new journey as a young professional at her blog From the Fifth Floor. Twitter: @leschaef
