Who Should Control Your Company’s Social Media?
September 12, 2012
By: Simone Jackson
With the increase of social media use for marketing and public relations, many companies are looking to hire people whose sole job would be to control the company’s online content. Should companies hire a recent graduate who knows a lot about social media, but not much about the company itself or a current employee who has worked in the company for some time, but is older and not as experienced with social media?
The article said that the younger generation will not do the best job representing a company on social networks, because of immaturity and not being able to distinguish between what is appropriate on a personal profile and a company profile. As a future graduate and a heavy social media user, I do not believe that theses notions are true in most cases.
Who should your company hire?
There are recent graduates who are not be fit to monitor a company’s social media during any circumstance. However, for the majority of companies, other factors should be considered when determining whether a recent graduate should control social media or not.
1) Who is the company’s target audience?
If your company is a new clothing line for teenage girls, a younger person should be in charge of the online content for the company. But if this is a social media site for AARP, a company should put a more mature person in charge who is able to relate to the audience the company wants to communicate with.
2) How will the particular social media tools be used?
Sometimes organizations have many pages that are designed to target varied audiences. For example, different people should control the BGSU alumni Facebook page and the BGSU Class of 2016 Facebook page. The page that best suits a particular interest, will need to have certain components. Whoever is hired to monitor these pages will need to communicate well with that particular audience, and depending on the page, a younger employee may be more effective.
3) How serious is the organization and the topics it posts online?
I am not saying that some companies are not are serious, only that some companies communicate more serious topics than others.
Back to the teenage fashion and AARP scenario, the teenage clothing company will have a lighter tone in most cases, so the maturity level of the person in charge of the posts does not need to be super high. AARP, on the other hand, communicates important concepts about improving the quality of life to the 50+ audience. Someone who understands concepts concerning this would be the best fit for this organization.
September 15th, 2012 at 12:00 am
I like what you said about targeted audiences and what they may be interested in. I love how BGSU’s Facebook page posts a “Name that Decade” photo because they have likes from all years of graduates who would know and enjoy those decade photos better than a freshman who just came to BG. That’s why having the separate BGSU Class of pages are a great “sub-page” of BGSU. I work for the Student Call Center on-campus and we chat with students on these Class of pages. My supervisor does most of the posts and answering of questions on Facebook. She comes to us for input and things because we, as current students, know more about what incoming freshman want to know and see on the Facebook page than what alumni want on their page. I think it’s very important to mind who you’re putting in charge of different pages.
September 17th, 2012 at 7:13 pm
I agree with your point that companies should consider broader issues when hiring a social media coordinator. I also think that PR professionals in their twenties should not be pigeonholed to only working for businesses that target youthful audiences. It is possible for recent college graduates to understand the corporate culture and audience mentalities of a place like AARP, even though they themselves are not of a retiring age. I believe a candidate should be judged more on his or her experience and portfolio of work, and less his or her age.
September 19th, 2012 at 12:55 am
Simone,
I love how you pointed out the company’s target audience because I didn’t even think to think about that. It would definitely benefit the company to have someone that it is in that certain age group to manage the company, so they know exactly what audience their targeting and what to focus on.
September 19th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
I agree with the fact that their are factors involved when a company decides whether to hand the “keys” to their social media sites to young interns. I think with proper monitoring and approval of the content being posted, the younger generation would do no harm controlling social media.
September 25th, 2012 at 6:05 am
I have learned so much by reading your blog. It always amazes me how much there is to learn like social networking. It is also mind boggling how fast things change.
October 18th, 2012 at 2:29 am
hi!,I lіke уour ωriting very a
lot! share we be in contact extгa approximatelу your post on AOL?
I require an expert in this house to solve my problem.
Maybe that is you! Tаking a look fоrward to peer
you.
October 18th, 2012 at 5:46 am
I support with your point of view, Companies are now hiring social media experts to expose their business and mostly demand on professional writers. Your blog information and inspiration to who are afraid to choose social media platform as their career.
October 19th, 2012 at 1:05 pm
Thanks. I would like to stay in contact with you