11:04 PM
Caroline Bender
On August 10, 2012,
Inc.com posted an article entitled “11
Reasons a 23-Year-old Shouldn’t Run Your Social Media.” (Because they might start
sentences with numerals... was not one of the reasons.) Author Hollis Thomases questions their
maturity with your brand and their grace under fire, among other things. This got one of our student body very hot and
bothered. She also happens to be a
social media manager under-30.
Contributing Author,
Natalie Keener
Hire a 23-year-old to manage your social media, because no
one else will do it.
I rarely defend Millennials. If we were to generalize, as
Hollis Thomases did, we could say most Millennials are over educated and under
qualified, with helicopter parents and a clingy yet apathetic nature that is
just…annoying.
I get that. There are few times I will go up to bat for my
generation.
But social media is one area that some (not all) of us twenty-somethings
are capable of, if not completely proficient in. I can’t help but laugh at the
term “proficient” here because I firmly believe there is nothing difficult
about Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc. People can be
“proficient” in Hebrew or calculus. Facebook? It’s like standing in a room full
of strangers and not having a nervous
breakdown.
If you’re able to engage even one other human in conversation with
the slightest bit of charm or wit, your Facebook friends will thank you, and better
yet, your consumers/clients/funders will learn to love you.
Here are a few reasons why you should hire a 23-year-old to
manage your social media presence, if you happen to stumble across one and are
too afraid to ford the proverbial Facebook river alone:
1.
They know other 23-year-olds
Depending on your strategy and goals, you may or may not need a swarm of
young people. But is a crowd ever a bad thing?
2.
They speak the language
When I was first asked to direct a social media campaign, the higher ups
wanted to have a talk about “the plan.” This session involved questions like
“how often will you tweet?” “who will you follow?” “what will you say?” I’m all
about goals and objectives, but 23-year-olds don’t think to themselves Now is a good time to update my Facebook
status! Our lives are no longer offline/online/off Facebook/on Facebook. It
is a constant, mostly mindless activity. And for this reason, yes, you will
need to direct/supervise your social media manager. But would that change if
the person were 40? I would hope you’re directing your brand’s reputation on
every platform, not just social media. Twenty three year olds grew up on
Facebook. We were in high school when it expanded beyond college-only users. We
were on Myspace in middle school and Livejournal in elementary school. Yep, we
were blogging as 4th graders. Get used to it.
3.
They’re teachable
If you’re strategizing and
directing your messaging, you’re
teaching your staff how to talk about the people/customers/clients you serve
and what you do for them. If not, then a 23-year-old social media manager can’t
help or hurt your brand because it’s a mess to begin with. To continue
generalizing, Millennials need leadership and structure. And feedback. They are
the generation who got rewards for just
showing up. So imagine the positive feedback required when they actually do
something right. But they’re eager to please and grateful to work. Just give
them a chance.
4.
They might have to steward your brand’s future
Like it or not, you’re going to retire/die/move on someday. You and the
other 60-year-olds. And these young whippersnappers are going to start becoming
old whippersnappers and the next generation of apathetic, shallow youngsters
with overbearing parents will come along. And the Millennials will have to
guide and teach and move up into big, scary roles. What then? Did you take the
time to mentor them, to instill in them the resolve to steward your brand’s
messaging and reputation? What kind of online legacy are you planning to leave?
5.
They know more than you’d expect
When
I was asked to be a social media manager, I was 23. I was a few months out of
grad school. I did it because I never said no to anything and I knew it
wouldn’t be hard. As time went on, people started asking me questions about it.
My boss asked me something about effective social media strategies, and I cited
a study I’d read. Then I cited a study I’d conducted and published. I hadn’t
flaunted that at my interview or even my first few months of work, because it
was pretty irrelevant until that point in time. But I studied mass
communications, and social media was a big part of it. Anyone who studied public
relations, marketing, advertising, mass media, English, creative writing,
social sciences, humanities, etc., after 2008 knows about social media and its
impact on the [fill in the blank] industry.
Social media is not an art, but it
is a language. And odds are, if you're 23, you speak the language. Not every conversation is carefully crafted
with Marketing 101 in mind, but at least 23-year-olds are HAVING the conversation.
We're not afraid, we're not intimidated, and we're not inhibited by different
formats and media. We grew up speaking this language. Just give us a chance.
