Age and Social Media

For my entrepreneurship class, we were told to read an article and several responses regarding the appropriate age for social media managers. The author of the initial article argues that 25 is the appropriate age for social media managers to be hired, seeing as though this generation grew up and is constantly imbedded in the digital age. I was biased while reading the article, seeing as though I am currently 19 and would love for students just out of college to have a better chance at getting jobs. However, after my personal experiences with social media as well as several points brought up in response to her article, I see one major conflict which is the main reason why I disagree with everything that she is saying. There is a major difference between social networking for personal and social reasons and social networking for business.

This summer, I worked at a small local retail store that sold women's clothing and accessories. Seeing as though I was the youngest one working for the company, they asked me if I would be willing to update their Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest and to get more people interested in their products. I very eagerly took the job, seeing as though I spend probably about a minimum 60% of my time while I'm awake on these sites. However I really struggled getting people to view the things I was talking about, as well as respond and communicate with our company online. I didn't quite know what to post that would catch people's attention. This really showed me that even though I have an incredibly extensive knowledge of these social media sites, I don't know how to use them in ways that would be beneficial for a business.

So finally, in response to Cathryn Sloane's article, I believe that social media managers need to have an extensive amount of well rounded experience. They need to know what forms of communication work, and what don't work, and they need to have had the time to work through their theories and see what makes people really get involved on businesses social networking sites. As much as I'd love a job that requires me to be on Facebook all day as soon as I'm out of college, companies should look for more experienced individuals in order to show their product to the public.