Category Archives: Social Media

3 Reasons Social Media Positions Have Nothing to do With Age

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There was an article about a month ago called “Why Every Social Media Manager Should be Under 25.” I was not a fan of that article though fitting well into the criteria - the criteria being I was under 25.

I say this because I think it is a ridiculous idea to assume someone can perform a job simply based on how old they are.

Which brings me to my next item, earlier today Hollis Thomas’s article “11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn’t Run Your Social Media” reached me by way of my boss, oddly enough. His exact response was “Ready, Set, Attack.” He knows how much I hate generalizations.

But, instead of attack I’d rather just prove both points invalid. I don’t think that age has any correlation to how well someone can perform their job, with the exception of basic functions. With the amount of people in this world, there is no reason to generalize based on poor stereo types for less than 20% of a population.

Point number 1:

A comment from Thomas’s article:
Nikhaar Shah · Friday at 12:17pm
Correlating age with wisdom is one of the most common mistakes out there. Not only have I personally worked and enhanced the social media of a Fortune 500 client but I’ve also ensured that they have sustainable growth and fresh ideas even after my team departs. With a 4500% growth in Facebook across all verticals after targeting various channels of the marketing funnel, I was sure doing some work while the author was looking up my age. Not only that, I started my own company when I was 17 - and yes, I just turned 22.

Example 2:

This is Paul, he made a huge mistake when emails between he and a customer went public. What mistake did this 38 year old (pass the age of immaturity) make? Let me show you a line from an email to his company’s customer “son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet” – can we please stop saying that being older makes you automatically wise? Everyone makes mistakes, because you hire a 23 year old does not put you at major risk. And on the flip side, hiring a 45 year old will not make your social media campaign outdated.

Reason 3:

Career advisors are actually telling you to hire millennials (of course I needed to do this plug). What is that I hear? Mouths gaping open? We all aren’t a pile of steaming laziness like our elders may have led you to believe. There are some of us (in fact a larger percent of us) who have worked our buts off to get where we are today. Whether their industry is in social media or cow farming, age shouldn’t matter. The quality of their work should.

By all means, this isn’t saying that every millennial is a hard worker, as proof of poor social media knowledge/usage we all know that to be false. However, the bad seem to have outshone the good, as in most cases. And while there are many of us who have been working in social media, be it an internship or building a brand for ourselves, throughout our high school and college careers we seem to be lumped into the same category as those without any knowledge on the subject.

I suppose the real reason I’m not thrilled about either article is due to the generalizations made about me and my peers. Yes, of course, both throw in that “I don’t mean to attack 23-year-olds specifically. Nor do I believe there are no young people capable of managing a business’s social media responsibilities.” which, if we’re being honest, is worse. It’s basically adding the “No offense, but I can’t stand anything about you.“

I do have one positive thing to say to both articles: awesome job creating very clickable titles. I hope it brings those websites all the hits and comments the editors assumed it would.

Dear Red Sox PR Manager: Take Note

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First off,  have you seen this video?

Number 1: Your social media manager should’ve pointed this out as soon as it went live, and Number 2: you should already be contacting that boy’s parents to set up a meet and greet with your new team member.

This is a great PR opportunity for the Red Sox, not only is it timely but it’s the perfect way to kick off the summer. Plus, who doesn’t love a happy ending?

For those of you who opted to not watch the video, here’s the gist: A young White Sox fan is heartbroken over the recent trade of his favorite player, Brent Lillibridge. The Red Sox being the team who snatched him up.

Obviously, this poor heartbroken boy would like to continue his positive outlook on baseball – I’m sure he would not like to curse the Red Sox for stealing away his favorite player (I realize this is not how trades are made, but we’re talking about a little boy’s mind…so just go with it).

In this situation, here is what I would do:

  • First off, I’d reach out to the boys parents to see if they would be interested in being flown out to Boston for a game and a meet and greet with Brent Lillibridge.
  • Once the parents accepted, I’d have Lillibridge make a video reaching out to the boy inviting him publicly to come see his new home.
  • Assuming the boy accepts, he and his family are flown to see Boston for a game and meet and greet with Lillibridge.
  • Upon arriving, the boy would be outfitted with Red Sox gear. Also a crew would be filming his family experience, which would make a great commercial.
  • After the quick day trip is over, videos go up and the Red Sox look like a heart warming family tradition all over again.

See how wonderful the world of social media is? It’s not all cats and baby memes I swear.

Word to the wise though, you might want to move quick. The White Sox may just steal this opportunity to welcome Youk to town.

True Life: I’m Afraid of Your Smartphone

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I'm afraid of smartphones Hi, My name is Courtney, and I work in the social media field and do not own a smartphone. I don’t even have a plan that can includes data, and my phone might even flip open. And by might I mean it absolutely does. They don’t make this phone anymore…

Even though I may be on the cutting edge when it comes to trends on the Internet, and I could easily make a list of which smartphones you should buy, I have failed to join the millions (if not billions) of you who have one.

Sure, some days I long for ability to tweet a picture with a sepia tone effect giving the illusion that I’m an artist with the camera. I often yearn to check emails if it has been more than half an hour since my last sign in. And don’t even get me started on how many places I would be mayor if I joined foursquare.

I may have gotten laughed out of board rooms, mocked by younger siblings, and often snickered at when pulling out my old faithful. But there is something inside of my that just keeps pulling back, that just keeps my fingers from clicking that “confirm to buy” button online.

Before going there, I should admit there are a few benefits to living in the mobile stone age.

When I’m off from work, I’m off. Coming from a workaholic this is an amazing talent. I’m not getting constant pings that need my attention, no mentions to reply to, and not one comment I need to answer. I’m completely free, well until I turn on my computer and have 30+ unread emails all yelling at me to be answered that one minute.

Although I may ache to find restaurants with the touch of button, and to finally be able to see what those fuzzy black and white squares actually say, I  will continue to wait in the dark until I work up the nerve to give up the freedom of my little, but sturdy, flip phone.

Why your Company Should be on Pinterest

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Most companies are a bit timid to jump into the world of social networking, which I can understand (after all, I do have parents born in the stone age…ones that still think if you upload a picture to your desktop the entire world will see it…but I digress).  If you want to get ahead of the game, increase your sales numbers, and create better costumer relations; then it’s important to be open-minded to what the free world of social networking can offer.

A great way to slowly inch your way into Gen Y’s heart is by joining Pinterest. For those of you who are severely lagging behind, Pinterest is an online scrapbook where users can share DIY projects, different products they like, or favorite quotes/pictures. I know most companies would say “this isn’t for me,” but hear me out.

Within six months,”total same store referral traffic from Pinterest to five speciality apparel retailers rose 389%.” I know you’re thinking…great five stores, what about mine?

The best way for companies to use Pinterest is by first showing interest in costumers, it takes a few minutes to go through and like a users pin. By liking pins that they posted, preferably ones that relate back to your company/product, you’ll start to create a name for yourself.

Also, most users are more likely to find a company not by searching for them, but by having some type of contact with them. Once you make that initial contact, the potential costumers are more likely to check out your pins.

Having a separate board for products is a great way to introduce them, also note that the picture automatically links back to the page where it came from- making it easier for a costumer to buy that product.

In this current economy any type of networking is good- especially when it’s free and has the potential to go viral. Why not try it out, see what you like about it and make it work for your company. Every industry uses social media in a different way in order to benefit their needs, hopefully these tips will help you on that path.

Stay tuned for the next two articles in this series: “Making Facebook Work for You” and “Not Every Tweet is a Good Tweet.”

5 tweets I absolutely hate to see in my newsfeed

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I realize Twitter  is still in it’s experimental phase for most.I also realize that users are always trying to find where they belong in the twitterverse.With that being said, I hate when tweeters use the information network to tell followers about their day:

  • “Just woke up #lazy,“
  • “Great Shower, time for Breakfast.“
  • “Getting in the car.”
  •  ”Damn traffic!“
  • “Safely at the office now time to work.
  • “Breaking from work to tweet“

When I see any tweets like that, it’s an immediate unfollow.

I understand every now and then having a life status update is essential to your every being. And I acknowledge that (especially since I occasionally do that) but…tweeting your every move every 5 minutes is not good social media etiquette. If this is sounding like you please go check out how you should tweet. Whatever you do, your tweets need to change.

Just so you know what mandates an immediate unfollow, here are the 5 tweets I absolutely hate:

1. “OMG It’s Friday friday friday” – Rebecca Black is a joke and so is this update. Join the rest of Twitter and participate in Follow Friday if you want to show how excited you are for the end of the week.

2. “Just took a dump, it was a bad one #hideyokids”- As much as I find bathroom talk hysterical, I’d rather not be up to date on your bowl movements.

3. “INSERT INSPIRATIONAL SAYING HERE”- I’m all for sharing inspiration, but you do not need caps lock to inspire people. Let your phrase do the talking.

4. A string of links to articles without interaction- If you are just posting links to your articles and not communicating with the rest of the Twitter world you’ve got a problem. No one likes a one-sided conversation, especially when you are linking to content you haven’t proven to be a must read.

5. “Is Google + going to steal Mark Zuckerberg’s thunder, discuss”- I realize we have limited use of characters but if you want to start a discussion with your followers just ask a question. The discussion is already implied because it is being posted in a social setting. Please don’t tell me to discuss a topic, because, like when teachers assign chapters to read, I won’t do it and I’ll stop listening.

The most important thing is to be true to yourself, I’ve found that when people try to fit into a certain area their tweets start following into one of these categories. Use Twitter as it is ment to be used, as an information network. Share things with your followers that you find interesting, have conversations with them through out the day. Just make sure you know when to turn it to a private conversation.