Teenager Hiring Social Media NO-NO

As a one man band sometimes it is temping to hire cheap help for your Social Media when you just can not fit another hour in your week.

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.

Many business owners decide to hire someone to manage their social media for them and honestly this one of the best things you can do for yourself to take control of your time. A Social Media person is usually responsible for all aspects of social media – and sometimes content marketing as well.

Tasks and responsibilities can include:

• Coming up with new content to share on social media

• Regularly creating new blog posts

• Managing the company’s online community

• Answering questions/responding to comments

• Monitoring relevant conversations on social media

Often times, the social media manager will also be responsible for higher-level tasks like defining goals and tracking KPIs, coming up with a social media strategy, managing the company’s online reputation, etc.

Get a hint where I am going with this? This is not a job for the faint heart if you want to have done properly! It isn’t cheap to hire a dedicated, experienced social media manager. According to PayScale.com, the average annual salary for a social media manager is around $47,000…and this doesn’t include benefits and bonuses! BUT WAIT we are getting ahead of ourselves, that is full time and if you are reading this you are not quite there yet.

We all pinch corners that is what a good owner does, make the money work for you the best possible way, but this can backfire as well. To get around this, some business owners decide to hire an internet-savvy teen to manage their accounts, sounds great right? . After all, they know how social media works, they live on the damn things right?

Sometimes it’s a relative who’s great with computers, or a local high school student who’s always on social media. In any case, they tend to have one thing in common: they’re CHEAP!

The old quote, we get what we pay for.

Tip: 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, this doesn’t make them business or marketing experts.

THEY ARE IN SCHOOL NOT RUNNING A BUSINESS!

The difference social media for business is HUGHLY different than using it as an personally.

A real social media manager knows 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

These are skills that just don’t develop without lots of business experience and training!

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.

Getting someone familiar with your company to represent your brand online is an investment of your time and money. Hire someone who’s willing to commit to the job for at least a year, or you could be back right back at the beginning!

A social media manager must be able to handle social media problems like a pro! The dream is to have everything going well, however, if things start to go sideways and at one time or another things always do, you need someone in there who knows exactly what to do, what to say, and how to react.

A few years ago this hilariously Tweet made the rounds on Social Media! 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.

Highly doubtful an inexperienced teen could have come up with such a direct, clever and humorous response to the situation!

Your social media manager needs to be on top of industry and platform changes

Is your social media manager should monitor what’s happening in your industry. To follow industry sites, attend workshops, etc.? Pay attention to major shifts on platforms. Know which ones your audience is most likely to be on and to stay on top of changes, new rules, policies or guidelines.

Face it most teenagers do not have that kind of attention span, we are luck if we can pry the phone out of their hands!

Teenagers do not the necessary life filters in place yet to manage your social media.

Your social media manager is the face and voice of your brand online. This is a HUGE responsibility!

What if a disgruntled customer makes a particularly mean or rude remark? Even as Adults we can flip out or get stressed to the max. An experienced social media managers faces this all times, and know exactly how to respond to diffuse the situation. A teens, well more likely to respond quickly and without thinking tings through.

We all know what goes on the Net tends to stay around even after the original post or pic is been removed from a site. The impact of an unprofessional post or comment can impact your business for a very long time!

Bottom Line

I hope this has convinced you that hiring a teen to manage your social media just is not a wise decision. The benefits (namely, the low cost) don’t even come close to outweighing the risks.

Hire quality if you can not go with quantity, hiring someone more experienced for even just an hour or two a week pays for it self.

Have you ever hired a teenager to manage your social media? How did it work out for you? Share below!

#socialmedia #businessprofile #blogging