Corporations need Gen Y’ers web knowledge that doesn’t mean they want our honesty baggage.

Corporations like the one that I am employed at need my web knowledge. They do. What can I say? I’m young I get it I grew up with it. It’s built in and preprogrammed. They need it… that does not mean they want what comes along with it. My idea of commerce and communication on the web is one of openness which includes being honest. Openness to a corporation my company included is to abide to all federal laws and in my case to ensure SEC compliance we are SOX compliant(if you don’t know what it means now worries, basically auditors that make sure we don’t cheat stock holders by falsely reporting stats). Just not cheating stock holders to me isn’t my interpretation of communication and openness. And so the balance of power begins to swing…

Corporations want our knowledge of the web world, all the “tricky” things. The myspaces, facebookers, twittercises (yes I have literally heard all three called by such goofy names and worse). These corporations want to know the interwebz on a first name basis or so they think they do.

Wanting a front row seat at a boxing match means your on camera too and cameras can be very extremely unforgiving especially in bad light and for corporations in bad times. In light of Carl Ichann’s recent blog post I would guess that he had a group of PR wizs spin his blog post about his awful battle with Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang recently into a tale of rosie flowers (which is total bs). I bet you he wish he didn’t have people hounding him on that blog about now.

Visibility is something that corporations usually do not want to grant but if they want to survive past Generation X’ers and thrive with the Generation Y crowd and beyond they absolutely must find a balance between Corporate Secrets and Transparency. They are going to have to understand that you have to take the good with the bad. Icahnn is receiving a black eye in is comments right now, but that will eventually subside and he will have taken an emotional bruising (maybe he seems like a hard ass) from it but also a hell of a lot more readers and followers which only strengthens his brand which of course is the goal for all companies. Grow and strengthen the brand and business. The web is an incredible tool to do this!

In saying all of that the part that I know in my Company that get’s all the Executives bent out of shape is when I say the word visibility. It’s important that Corporations understand that for the most part the average consumer doesn’t give a shit about their margins or what their market cap is (which is traditionally understood as visibility). All they care about is how to unbrick their iphone, or save a couple bucks on a new 120HZ LCD. Gen Y’ers (speaking for myself and friends) want answers and what better place to get the answers then the companies who made the problem made the product? We want to avoid customer service lines and hold times. So when I say visibility I’m saying conversations. I don’t mean press releases and board meeting minutes. We don’t care. I’m simply saying converse with the community that you built. If your Apple…maybe say sorry we messed up. Our load balance’s went crazy and we underestimate our Iphone 3g we didn’t realize it would be a juggernaut but we have you…the people to thank.

Daily Web Marketing Update:
The struggle with the visibility monster will undoubtedly continue into the future but for today I got a big win I was able to convince one of the VP’s and the COO to move forward with a blog by simply saying… Trust me we need it. Look at Zappos CEO and Trulia. They rock and are safe but still fun and incredibly informative. They bit and were installing one next week! In terms of corporate time tables that’s lightening fast. One step at a time.