Six Reasons Why a 23-Year-Old SHOULD Run Your Social Media

I recently read an article by Hollis Thomases in Inc. entitled, “11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn’t Run Your Social Media.” As a 23-year-old myself, I was quite offended. Many of my peers are already struggling to find jobs, and what right does Ms. Thomases have to promote a stereotype that makes life more difficult for recent college grads?

As a counterpoint to Ms. Thomases’s list, here are my reasons why hiring a 23-year-old to run your social media is not the worst idea in the world.

1. Ms. Thomases’ first reason is that we are not mature enough because we aren’t ready to “settle down.” If one reads the research linked in her article, it is obvious that the study was talking about getting married and having children. If the only way to prove maturity is to get married, then a lot of older, single professionals may be in for a surprise. Maturity and professionalism have nothing to do with marital status.

2. Another worry Ms. Thomases expresses is that we will not be able to separate our own social media profiles from our work ones. She believes that we will accidentally post inappropriate pictures or statuses to our company’s Facebook or Twitter instead of our own, and that our friends or followers will comment tastelessly on company posts. Common sense says to keep our work and personal lives separate, so this is a non-issue.

3. Ms. Thomases also states that “no class can replace on-the-job training.” We didn’t learn how to use social media and the internet from class; we have grown up with it. We’ve never lived without it, unlike older professionals who have had to learn the tools and best practices of social media for business. It’s the difference between a young, lifelong user of social media who can adapt to changes quickly, versus someone who needs to learn something they are unfamiliar with and whose knowledge may run no deeper than information gleaned from a webinar on “The Basics of Using Facebook and Twitter.”

4. Ms. Thomases also fears that we might “not understand [our company’s] business,” simply because of our age. Wouldn’t the same be true for any new hire? One of the responsibilities of new hires is to understand and execute against the goals of the organization. Once again, we are able to learn and adapt faster because of our age.

5. Ms. Thomases says that “social media management can become crisis management.” This is true, but I don’t understand what that has to do with age. In an attempt to show how this can happen, she cites her OWN article about the McDonalds Twitter crisis that occurred early this year. What she fails to realize is that McDonalds director of social media Rick Wion is a seventeen year veteran of the Marketing/ Media field. If I was trying to convince you that recent college grads are a bad choice to run social media, I would not use a case in which the person responsible was quite a bit older than that.

6. Finally, Ms. Thomases states in her last point to “make sure [the recent grad] sets up the social media accounts using company e-mail and shares the passwords with you.” This is a no-brainer for any type of account used by any employee in a company. If only one person, regardless of age or experience, has access to your company’s Facebook or Twitter page, you may be in for some problems in the near future. You should keep a record of all accounts and their respective passwords. This is an issue of procedure, not age.

I feel that it’s very important for professionals in all fields to understand that just because we are younger and new to the business doesn’t mean we aren’t competent enough to work in a professional environment. We may not know everything or understand every bit of jargon that our superiors throw at us, but we are willing and able to learn. In fact, don’t be surprised if we teach our older counterparts a thing or two about social media.