#RJInnovation (2012): How to attract and retain YAYA employees

Former Reynolds Fellow Stephanie Padgett, building on the work of another former Reynolds Fellow, Margaret Duffy, is working with top strategic communications students to identify strategies for businesses to effectively interact with Youth and Young Adults (YAYAs). YAYA Connection has worked with various clients to help them develop marketing strategies to engage the YAYA generation, … Continued

Debunking the replacement myth

The tired idea that born-on-the-Web news sites will replace traditional media is wrong-headed, and it’s past time that academic research and news reports reflect that. Jay Rosen, the New York University professor and media critic, calls them “replaceniks,” and it’s an apt term. Rosen is talking about people who insist on evaluating new, born-on-the-web news … Continued

The changing YAYA: A multi-media generation

What is YAYA? YAYA stands for Youth and Young Adult. It is the market of adults 18-26 years old.YAYA is not a generation, but a phase of life. At some point everyone is a YAYA. There are over 29.8 million YAYAs in the United States, which means 10% of the population in the U.S. are … Continued

On their own time

Impatient YAYAs are impatient and hate unproductive processes. They were raised in a world dominated by technology and instant gratification and have no tolerance for delays. Convenient YAYAs do things on their own time, when it is convenient for them. They line between work and home does not really exist and they will do things … Continued

In the know

Power YAYAs find pleasure in telling people what they have learned. Information is power and power is coveted by YAYAs everywhere. YAYAs detest feeling out of the loop and will do whatever it takes to stay in it. Immediate Access YAYAs crave immediate access to all different types of information. They use outside sources like … Continued

Sense of entitlement

YAYAs feel a sense of entitlement when it comes to the job market because they have grown up in a world where they’ve been told they can have it all Instant gratification Contrary to what many people believe, YAYAs are not lazy. They merely grew up in a world of instant gratification and now expect … Continued

Influential

Text messaging revolution In order to keep in touch with YAYAs, other generations have been increasingly joining the text messaging revolution, a revolution YAYAs are responsible for starting. Purchase decision YAYAs have a large influence on the purchasing decisions of other generations. They are the most economically powerful population cohort in history. Overall, researchers estimate … Continued