Consider these stats:

1. The first website came online in 1990.  The internet, so to speak, was born that year.
2. 1990 is right in the middle of the Millennial generation, defined as people born from about 1982 to 2000.

Today, with the ubiquity of internet connectivity, it’s easy to feel like the technology has been with us all along.  But only now do we have the first generation of people who “grew-up” with the internet.

For Generation X and Baby Boomers that came before, college degrees and career choices happened before the impact of the internet.  And oh, if only that course in Feminist Issues in 19th Century Literature or Business 101:  How to Maintain a Hand-written Ledger were more applicable today…

So here’s the rub.  The experience we Gen Xers have over Millennials is – at times – obsolete.  You may have been in business for 30 years, but the internet has only existed at all for 26.

As a digital marketing agency, we sometimes deal with experienced business people who have a hard time handing off marketing tasks to younger marketing executives.  There is a bias:  how can anyone in their 20’s know as much about business marketing as me?  I’ve been doing this since before this person was even born!

This is costly obstinacy.   That “kid” may be dressed in jeans and a funky ball cap, but the internet is ingrained into his lifestyle.  Roles reverse: older, more “experienced” nobles of marketing days past need to listen younger voices living technology’s cutting edge.  They understand the implications of connection and reach.

However, this doesn’t mean you take on the role of used-up fuddy duddy.  Your experience counts – a lot.   It’s up to you to understand the worldview and biases of the people you seek to influence.  Nobody knows better than you the essence of your company, the value you offer, or the people you seek to delight.

But when it comes to website design, search marketing, mobile marketing, social media, and other rapidly phasing aspects of digital marketing, there is absolutely no shame in taking advice from someone young enough to be your grandchild.  Particularly if those ages are in your target audience.

Moreover, it’s important to realize how customer-centric business is in the digital age.  It’s often noted today that what customers say about a brand has much more impact than what the brand says about itself.  A vital part of marketing is parleying a positive customer experience into online marketing collateral.  Digital information access and communication modes render business-centric advertising competitively weak.  Customer support – and how it’s amplified online – are essential in modern marketing.

Of course you may as versed in social media, SEO, YouTube, and the music of Taylor Swift as any 20 something.  If you’re serious about online marketing for your SMB, all the better.

But Millennials and Generation Z, Boomlets (or whatever they want to be called) that comes next are cohorts born into an online society.  They have a perspective on it’s impact Gen Xers and Baby Boomers will never have.  They’ve never known some of the barriers we built between our businesses and the customer experience.

The internet itself is just getting started.  It’s a world of malleability, flexibility, uncertainty, and transition.  No matter your age, the future promises a world where adaptability is more important than rigid strategy.  It’s a world where preconceptions about age, background, race, gender, or lifestyle are increasingly meaningless.

If you’re working with a marketing consultant and they talk about how to use technology to tie into the customer experience and build your brand, listen to them – no matter what generation they’re apart of.