Leveraging the Young Professionals Market

8/8/2019 Leveraging the Young Professionals Market

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Leveraging the young professionals market

Strategies for forward looking

companies

Lessons from the Enterprise Technology symposiumKampala, Uganda, October 30th 2010

By Joyce Kyeyune Tonda


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Contents

3 Introduction

4 Technology usage characteristics

a) Social media usage

HOW COMPANIES CAN USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENGAGE, ACQUIRE NEW CUSTOMERS,AND INCREASE REVENUES

b) Telecom networks of choice

WHY BRAND VISIBILITY IS STILL RELEVANT TO CHOICE FOR THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALSMARKET

6 Tips and strategies for reaching the young professionals

a) How they learned about the symposium

WHY PEER PRESSURE IS STILL THE BEST WAY TO REACH PEOPLE

b) Most important benets from the symposium

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS HAVE OTHER INTERESTS BESIDES MUSIC CONCERTS, FASHION SHOWS

AND OTHER ENTERTAINMENT RELATED EVENTS

8 Background to the research report

Technology Solutions customized for East AfricaTechnology magazines | Educational publications | Web content management

Social Media Strategy |Technology events

www.ictcreatives.com


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IntroductionThere is a pronounced gap between the ability of recent graduates to perform workplace tasks and

their impressive academic qualiications...- Technology manager in a leading parastatal

Regardless of the sector you look at, private or government or non-government, there is one common

sentiment- fresh graduates are ill-prepared for the workplace. In an ICT Creatives survey of technology

managers and HR managers in East Africa, it was found that at least 80% of fresh graduates will need

to be trained for at least 6 months before they learn how to apply that knowledge to the workplace.

Consequently, companies steer clear of hiring fresh graduates as they seek to avoid extensive

training costs and when they do hire them, they are often assigned jobs not commensurate with their

qualications.

Why its important to hire fresh graduatesWithout a doubt, innovation in the marketplace is being

driven by young people, graduating from universities and

other institutions of higher learning. Some are self-taught

innovators who hold no technology qualications but

have outstanding technology skills.

In the experience of Enterprise Technology, 95% of the

team is comprised of recent graduates and soon-to-

graduate young professionals. The team is routinely

assigned managerial type responsibilities. The benets are

manifold: they have no or very few encumbrances ; they

have nothing to lose and everything to gain; they are not

yet stuck in the corporate mould so they are very exible;

they are highly motivated even without million dollar

salaries and best of all they have learned to be innovators

- generating creative solutions to everyday problems.

The case for a young professionals symposium

Aware of the workplace skills gap, Enterprise Technology, chose to sponsor a young technology

professionals symposium where seasoned speakers from the private, government and techpreneurship

sector were invited to address participants on job interview skills and how to translate their technology

knowledge into workplace practice. Enterprise Technology will be holding industry specic (telecoms

agriculture, health, NGOs, manufacturing, media etc) symposia throughout 2011.


Social Media Strategy |Technology eventswww.ictcreatives.com

3 | Leveraging the young professionals market: Strategies for forward looking companies


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87.9% of young professionals use Facebook to communicate with peers


Technology usage characteristics

Social Media Usage*

Facebook

87.9%

Twitter17.2%

LinkedIn

20.2% No social

network10.1%

HOW COMPANIES CAN USESOCIAL MEDIA TO ENGAGE,ACQUIRE NEW CUSTOMERS, AND

INCREASE REVENUES

The statistics are telling- theplace most frequented by young

professionals in urban areas, is the

internet and its not about email-its diversied to social medianetworks. The attractiveness

of social media is that it isinexpensive to use, its instant and

works on a 24 hour clock. Youngprofessionals use social mediato inuence each other, create

groups of interest, start discussionsand in many cases heap praiseor scorn against companies theysee working in their interests or

against their interests.

Companies that have a clear,measurable social media

strategy to engage youngprofessionals are going to be

the market leaders of tomorrowbecause they will have builta strong presence and viable

brand within the youngprofessionals who are essentiallygoing to be the decision makerstomorrow. Young professionals

choose in many cases, emotionover logic and social media arethe places where they laugh oare outraged. Is your company

there?

*Note that some participants were on

more than one social media network





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Mobile Telecom network usage*

MTN53.%

UTL

7%

WARID9.09%

ORANGE2.02%

SMILE

2.02%

BHARTI AIRTEL5%

*Note, about 5% of respondents were onSafaricon- which has not been included in

these results with an additional 5% on BhartiAirtel (Tanzania).

As expected some participants used more

than one network

WHY BRAND VISIBILITY IS STILLRELEVANT TO CHOICE FOR

THE YOUNG PROFESSIONALSMARKET

The telecom wars are not anew thing- in spite of the fact

that logic should guide the

choice of network usage, ou

research indicates that young

professionals are not crossingover and we propose tha

visibility of certain brands has

continued to encourage young

professionals to use them.






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Colleagues: 64%

Poster: 19%

Email: 15%

How they learned about the symposium

WHY PEER PRESSURE IS STILL THEBEST WAY TO REACH PEOPLE

Human beings are social peopleregardless of their age. They

inherently want to do the samething that their peers or peer

groups are doing, saying, wearingor driving. Peer pressure has often

been looked at in derogatory

terms, however, it is a two way

sword. Enterprise Technologyused it successfully to convinceyoung professionals to attendthe symposium by encouraging

Rotaract groups to speak to theirmembers about the symposium.

Young inuential team leadersspoke to colleagues who in turnspoke to colleagues. Additionally

40% of the participants paid the

symposium fee on the very dayof the symposium as they weregoing for lectures, intrigued bythe large gathering of their peers.

When used for positive benets,peer pressure can be the

difference between successand failure.

The power of positive peer pressure cannot be underestimatedICT Creatives




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7| Leveraging the young professionals market: Strategies for forward looking companies

How most did you benet?

Job interview demo/workplace skills30 %

Technology information33 %

Entrepreneurship strategies19 %

Other (Certicate,communication skills, etc)9 %

YOUNG PROFESSIONALSHAVE OTHER INTERESTSBESIDES MUSIC CONCERTS,

FASHION SHOWS AND OTHERENTERTAINMENT RELATEDEVENTS

Insufcient credit is given to youngprofessionals about career aspirations- a situation that is further propagatedby companies that equate youth

to entertainment. While youngprofessionals like all other professionalsenjoy entertainment, they are also

hungry for knowledge that will

enhance their professional careers sothat they can become independenand enjoy the satisfaction of starting

up and succeeding at their owventures. Without workplace skillsyoung professionals will use dishonesmeans and undue inuence in place

of merit to get the jobs they need.

Furthermore, the choice of speakerand relevant topics was rated highl

by the participants as they addressedissues unique to young professionacareer growth.




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Background to the research report

Enterprise Technology registered at least 140 participants for the inaugural workplace skillssymposium.

Participants were recorded in a database that included their names, mobile phone numbers,institution, their email addresses and social media platforms used. This invaluable database will be

regularly updated and used to create a young technology professionals jobs database that can beaccessed by employers looking to hire entry level technology graduates.

At the end of the symposium the participants were asked to anonymously complete a survey thatasked various questions as well as required them to rate the symposium and it is on this basis that the

research was generated.

This initiative was further supported by:

Kampala International University : www.kiu.ac.ugNITA-U : www.ict.go.ugCanopy IT Solutions : www.canopy.ug

SecondLife : www.secondlife.co.ugKiBO Foundation : www.kibofoundation.comWebbiz Africa : www.webbizafrica.com

NFT Consult : www.nftconsult.comDial-a-Service : www.das-uganda.comATM Technologies : www.atmplustech.comSoft Solutions

We hope you have found this research useful for your marketing and sales purposes.You can get more details about the symposium on the events twitter page:twitter.com/TechSymposiumUG or visit the Enterprise Technology Facebook page to view a pictorial.

Enterprise Technology develops technology based solutions customized for businesses that want to

use new technology to reach untapped markets in East Africa. Our solutions include the following:

:: Enterprise Technology magazine:: Social media strategy

:: Web content development and management:: Educational technology publications:: Enterprise Technology symposium

Reach usWebsite: www.ictcreatives.comEmail: [email protected]: +256 414 266 423 | Mobile: +256 701 100 516 ; +256 773 092 290

Facebook: Enterprise Technology

LinkedIn: Joyce TondaTwitter: twitter.com/TechnologyEABlog: joycetonda.blogspot.com

Plot 4667, Ggaba Rd, Kansanga, Muva House,Kampala, Uganda

This report has been published by ICT Creatives Ltd.

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Leveraging the Young Professionals Market