After reading the article written by Hollies Thomases, as a 22 going on 23 year old- I honestly couldn’t help but be
offended. I would hope that before hiring on someone to handle your company’s social media you would have had them checked out- to make sure that they are in fact mature enough, educated enough in the ways of social media, know how to handle themselves online, etc. At the same time even if the person you hire is qualified in all these ways, I would definitely still suggest there be a training session about what to post, how to respond to disgruntled customers/consumers, as well as making sure the person knows how to write ( a must, duh).
I was also attempting to figure out why Thomases wrote this article, because 23 year olds in general are incompetant on Facebook? Or because friends of hers with businesses are hiring young, fresh out of college students willy nilly because social media scares them.
I feel as though there is a difference between the average college student (who apparently needs the list of what not to do in Thomases’ article) and the recent grad who has extensive professional social media experience who would be a huge benefit to a corporation. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people I know that I would not let anywhere near my corporate Facebook if I saw the way they conducted their own social media accounts- but not all of the people that come to mind are my age. In fact, more than half of the names I have in mind are in fact much older than myself. Even in the textbook “New Rules”, first chapter, it discussed how in fact people of the younger generation are much more careful about what they place on the web than those who have grown up around social media and therefore know the dangers.
In my opinion, most of the issues Thomases has with hiring someone young to handle the business is somewhat of a risk whenever you hire someone. It doesn’t seem intelligent to have someone new, no matter what the age, handle your social media aspect unless they are well versed in not only the goals of the company, but also the image the company displays to their consumers. I resent the idea that simply because of my age I would be portrayed as being immature/having a lack of etiquette/being without professional communication skills- I would like to think that with all of the internship experience I have had, as well as some educational training about the company, I could rival someone who is older (and therefore perceived as being more competent) than myself.
I really like what you have said. It seems like this “problem” is more about age discrimination than an actual issue. I, also, was offended. I felt as if though I am going to be treated like an incompetent goon if I attempt to have a job in social media, solely because I am younger. I am social media savvy. I know what not to say. I have been “hip” to this sort of thing for about five years now. I have had plenty of experience with multitudes of social medias. We are part of the social media generation; we should at least get credit for that!
I completely agree with both of you and I expressed that opinion in my blog post. A person’s age shouldn’t be the only reason he or she is hired for a job. But if a person is qualified, age shouldn’t be a reason he or she isn’t hired, either. There are plenty of competent college graduates who could thrive in a social media job, who don’t need to be monitored and won’t give their friends access to a Facebook or Twitter account. The author of the article really needs to consider what message she is communicating with her audience.
I agree with Stephan. I believe that we are the social media generation. Why would companies and businesses not trust our generation with something that we know much more about than the generation before us?
Social media is like any other responsibility. It shouldn’t be given to someone without experience, but I also believe that interns and young people should be turned away from it just because of a number.
I agree with you completely. I was taken aback by how little confidence this author appeared to have in college graduates. We take classes designed around running social media sites. These classes weren’t offered 5-6 years ago so a 30 year old may be more ‘mature’, but the younger generation knows how to better handle themselves in social media than we’re given credit for.
I really liked how you pointed out that many of the people that you wouldn’t trust managing your social media for a business are in their 30’s, because I feel the same way. Where those of older generations are learning the language of social media, our generation has actually grown with it. Just like with language, when you grow with something you are more familiar with it and are more fluent. This was a very thought provoking post and well informed look at the issue.
Social media employ web- and mobile-based technologies to support interactive dialogue and “introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between organizations, communities, and individuals.