As the
owner of a busy company, social media can become just one more thing you have
to fit in.
This is
why many business owners decide to hire someone to manage their social media
for them. This person is usually responsible for all aspects of social media –
and sometimes content marketing as well. Their tasks and responsibilities may
include:
·
Regularly creating new
blog posts
·
Managing the company’s
online community
·
Coming up with new
content to share on social media
·
Monitoring relevant
conversations on social media
·
Answering
questions/responding to comments
Often,
the social media manager will also be responsible for higher-level tasks like
coming up with a social media strategy and getting your business in front of
your target audience.
Not
surprisingly then, it isn’t cheap to hire a dedicated, experienced social media
manager. According to PayScale.com, the average annual salary for a full-time social media manager
is around $47,000…and this doesn’t include benefits and bonuses!
In
order to cut costs, some business owners decide to hire an internet-savvy teenager
to manage their accounts. After all, they are on their phones all the time and know
how social media works, right? Sometimes it’s a nephew who’s great with
computers, or a local high school student who’s a whiz with social media. In
any case, they tend to have one thing in common: they’re CHEAP! But, as in all
areas of life, we often get what we pay for. Webgirl Technology has identified
4 major reasons not to hire a teenager:
1.
Social
media experience doesn’t equal business or marketing experience.
While
many teens are great at knowing the ins and outs of various social media
platforms or how to change the background on an iPhone, this doesn’t make them
business or marketing experts.Using
social media for business purposes is FAR different than using it as an
individual user!
An
experienced social media manager will know how to:
·
Use social media to meet
specific business goals
·
Use the business-related
functions of different platforms (analytics, social ads, etc.)
·
Monitor the ROI of social
media campaigns
·
Optimize accounts/posts
for SEO
·
Target specific
demographics
Let’s
take a look at the scenario below. This
is an actual exchange between myself and a client:
Client: I’d like to hire you
for some consulting. I’d like to have my
16 year old there as well. He’s always
on his phone tweeting and using social media.
Webgirl: Does your teenager help you run your business?
Client: No
Webgirl: Do they know your brand?
Client: No
Webgirl: Do they introduce you
to business prospects?
Client: No
Webgirl: Do they go to your
meetings and meet your customers?
Client: No
Given the answers to the exchange above does this sound like
someone you would hire to represent your business? Managing a Facebook Business page is much
different than having a personal Facebook account.
This holds true for every single social media platform: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and
more.
Social
Media marketing skills require lots of business experience and training.
2.
Consistency
is key with social media management.
Fully
understanding how a brand works and what it stands for can take a long time.
For this reason, anyone you hire to run your social media should be willing to
commit for the long term.
So,
what happens when your teenage social media manager graduates high school or
wants to take the summer off to hang out with friends?
Training
someone to represent your brand online is a big investment of time and money.
Hire someone who’s willing to commit to the job for at least a few years, or
you could be back to square one sooner than you’d like.
3.
A
social media manager must be able to handle social media crises like a professional.
When
everything’s going well, a teen may be able to competently handle basic social
media tasks. However, if things start to go sideways, you need someone in there
who knows exactly what to do, what to say, and how to react.
Take
this well-known social media snafu as an example: A Red Cross employee
accidentally posted a personal tweet from to the organization’s official
Twitter account. It read:
“Ryan
found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer… when we drink
we do it right #gettngslizzerd”
Fortunately,
Red Cross didn’t miss a beat.
One has
to wonder if an inexperienced teen could have come up with such a direct,
clever and humorous response!
4.
Your
social media manager needs to be on top of industry and platform changes.
Social
media management isn’t just about posting random updates on Facebook or
Twitter. What you post and how you post it can be greatly impacted by changes
in your industry and in the individual platforms you use.
Is your
teenage social media manager likely to monitor what’s happening in your
industry? To follow industry sites, attend workshops, etc.? Is he or she likely
to pay attention to major shifts on platforms? To know which ones your audience
is most likely to be on? To stay on top of changes, new rules, policies or
guidelines?
Your
social media manager is the face and voice of your brand online. This is a HUGE
responsibility! An inexperienced teen is
far more likely to behave or respond in ways that aren’t flattering to your
brand.
For
instance, what if a disgruntled customer makes a particularly mean or rude
remark? An experienced social media manager will have faced this many times
before, and will know exactly how to respond to diffuse the situation. A teen,
however, may be more likely to respond quickly and without the appropriate
level of professionalism.
And
since social media posts have a way of sticking around – even if you delete
them – the impact of an unprofessional post or comment can impact your business
for a very long time! We hope this information has convinced you that hiring a
teenager to manage your social media just isn’t a great choice. The benefits
(namely, the low cost) don’t even come close to outweighing the risks.
If you
are interested in learning how to manage your social media, subscribe to our Facebook events and attend a
workshop.
