At Great Ideas I heard more than one "older" person talk about how when they hire for a position--any position--now they look for someone "young" who knows social media, even if it has nothing to do with that particular position they're filling. The idea is to have someone on staff who knows social media and can help the association get going with their social media efforts.
Here's my question: once they have that "young" person who's a social media whiz on staff and that person gets a robust social media strategy in place, do those people then get promoted to other positions---social media manager or something having to do specifically with social media--or do the associations just thank their lucky stars that they have this admin assistant or intern who can continue to spearhead the social media stuff? And do the junior staffers just enjoy what they're doing so much that they don't care that it's not their real job and continue doing it happily, or do they see it as an opportunity for promotion and at some point get upset that they're not being recognized or compensated for their contributions?
Anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this kind of situation? Seems like social media is starting to take center stage for many associations, based on the number of sessions at meetings and the many people I talked to at the conference, and I can't help but wonder if it's not a little house of cards-y to bring in interns or entry level people to manage what is being recognized more and more as an integral component to so many facets of associations' member offerings: conferences, communication, membership, education, etc.
Why do they assume only a young person gets social media? Yes, a young person on average is more likely to get it than an older person, I'll grant that, but many of us older folks get it as well. I worry about hiring someone who doesn't have the association or marketing chops. There's a lot more to social media/networking than the tools. Of course, the experience of being involved personally in social media is mandatory, but I know a lot more about it now than I did even a year ago, and a lot more about it than many of my younger colleagues. Hire based on skills, experience, and aptitude for learning, not based on age.
Darn, did I come off as an old curmudgeoness there. I assure you that I'm not. I may not be young in age, but definitely still qualify, sometimes, in my mind! ;-)
Dierdre--you're preaching to the choir--and I'm old in age! I have a ton of assoc experience and also sm experience--luckily where I work the notion that only young people know sm doesn't exist. But after attending Great Ideas and just in my general travels, I keep hearing more and more people talk about "young" and "intern" when they talk about sm staffing.
It reminds me of an episode of Mad Men where Coke or some company says they want teenagers designing their campaign or something--some story line about how "kids" think differently and are therefore more creative and come up with more productive ads. If you don't watch that show you should because it ROCKS!
Anyway, this is a sweeping generalization--then again, maybe not since I'm basing it on actual interactions with these people--but older men (I'd say 50+) seem especially wedded to the "young people get sm" thing.
I'm going to be volunteering for a non-profit and the only ones who seem to do SM are high school student volunteers. I'm about to shake that up I guess! ;)
I'm definitely middle-aged (ack, cringe) too -- remember we once tweeted about Poseurs in Gtown. My parents are old, not me, ha! One reason why associations might prefer to hire young people to do SM -- they're a heck of a lot cheaper than us old folks (oops, I said it) who have more experience, and cheap is better when an association thinks it might be doing something risky. Plus if the people doing the hiring aren't involved in SM, they're associating it with young folks, not people their age.
My boyfriend (52) is not at all into SM -- doesn't facebook, nothing. Thinks it's a young person's thing, none of his friends are into it. Thinks it's wild how I'm into it. Haven't convinced him yet to take the leap. But some of my colleagues in the same age bracket are getting into it. It just depends on the person I guess.
Deirdre and Maggie -- You both nailed what I've been going through lately. I have just hired a "young" person who will work with me to develop & implement my associations's SM initiatives -- among other things! What I was looking for in this hire and what my boss (older, female) was looking for were definitely different -- I wanted someone with a basic but solid comms/pr foundation who would help me deploy SM tools to achieve our larger comms goals; my boss was much more focused on the person's SM experience. I weeded through 200 resumes for someone I felt combined both -- at the right salary level! Surprisingly difficult, even in today's market. I believe I found the right person but I know there's going to be a huge learning curve for everyone. Wish me luck!
Hey Dierdre--I totally forgot about our Poseurs tweet! Wish I could forget that time I went home with the bouncer--oops, did I just say that? ;)
ASHA is lucky--if I say so myself ;)--that I'm old but cheap b/c I was home with my kids for 8 years so I had to start back at entry level even though I had lots of experience. But I agree--with SM it's a win-win for employers because entry level people now come with a skill set that, presumably, more seasoned candidates don't have--so they get the expertise and on the cheap.
Joanne--I'm glad you found someone! How old is the person, if you're allowed to say?
Yes, we had that exchange at the peak of my frustration, didn't we?! I believe she is in her mid- to late 20s. Her very early career was not in communications, which explains why she is slightly older than I would have expected to find. This is good; I do prefer to have a bit more workplace experience, even if it's not strictly relevant.
All, I think it's interesting that organizations are focusing on charging a "younger" person with managing the social media (SM) tracking and outreach management. As one thing that I think is terribly difficult about managing SM these days is to be able to respond in a timely and effective manner (especially in a negative or crisis situation). That's where I believe Sr. communicators or managers should be savvy about the new "lightening speed" conversations going on in SM world and how to respond.
I think that companies that go for "young" may be missing something big -- namely the ability and/or desire to realize ROI on social media efforts. Social media is a cool shiny new tool for many associations, but so few talk about strategy and what they are trying to achieve with social media outreach. Is it new members? Member retention? Increased engagement? How do you measure this? How do you track it? I think that few "young" people are thinking about the business strategies behind social media efforts.
I say this being neither young nor old...smack dab in the middle...and as the person in charge of socmed efforts at my org.
Julie--that's a really good point I hadn't thought about. Absolutely the person in charge of SM should be able to act on behalf of the organization when it comes to responding to situations, etc, if that person is going to be held accountable for the success and ROI of the social media strategy. Especially at associations, with their notorious silos, counting on another person in another department may or may not work out as far as passing things--member questions, etc--on for response. You're right about the bar being set super-high with regard to the expectation of instant service/responsiveness associated with SM--the traditional 9-5 "I passed your question on and that person will get back to you when/if he/she decides to" won't fly if you want your SM strategy to be a success. So if the person in charge of SM doesn't have the authority to act yet will have to answer to upper mgmt when the SM efforts fall flat--that's kind of a recipe for failure.
Whether it's a young or old person, I've seen clear value in convincing clients of the value of hiring someone directly to work exclusively towards developing social media outreach & online PR. The Canadian Paralympic Committee has known incredible growth in its online traffic.
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