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10 Reasons to Hire a 16 Year Old to Run Your Social Media Campaign
July 15, 2013 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Why hire a 16-year-old kid to run your social media campaign?They're a Blank Slate with No Real-world Experience
You will have no problems overcoming cynical attitudes with a young kid in charge of your social media. Everything in the business world is new to them--a first time experience. You will really begin to appreciate this when they ask for thousands of dollars in equipment and services required to “dot he job right.”
They've Never Failed at Anything
Technically, your new staff member has a perfect record. They have never had any setbacks to overcome or learn from. Just think: You’ll be there to witness their first incidence of failure! Think of the teaching opportunities this will provide for you.
They've Never Been Successful at Anything Either
Being unfettered with a track record of success and knowing what works and what doesn’t, your new protege has a clean slate to try anything they can think of. Think of the possible social media programs they can implement, all with your name on them!
They're Innocent of Any Knowledge of Your Industry
Having no background or knowledge of your industry is a powerful advantage for a young person representing you to the world. Imagine the many happy hours you will spend explaining the concept of “outsourcing” and the role of China to them.
They Bring a Refreshing Lack of Pretense to the Company
Bringing in a younger perspective will help to flatten your organization, as your new social media ninja informs your head of engineering that she needs a couple of columns and articles by next Monday and talks to your vice president of sales to provide helpful advice on how he should do his job. Believe me, the heads of these departments will be seeking you out to comment on your hiring skills!
They Provide Wonderful Teaching Opportunities
Because your new social media maven is naive about the world (in a good way of course!), you and your team will have the opportunity to invest countless hours of your time bringing them up to speed.
You and your team members can make up for this investment by working just a little later every day, or perhaps on weekends.
You Can be Proud That You are Providing a Service to Others
As the average millennial keeps a job for just two to three years, you can be confident that your efforts to teach your social media samurai about the world will be of great benefit to some other company down the road; perhaps someone in the same industry, such as a competitor!They've Developed No Bad Sales Habits
With zero sales experience to taint their perceptions, your young social media marketer will not be swayed by “how things are done” in your industry.
...and No Marketing Bad Habits, Too
And with no marketing experience in what works and what doesn’t, your shiny new social media marketer will feel free to try whatever strategies and tactics they like. Because sharing photos and stories of spring break on Facebook is just like promoting a trade show on Facebook, right?
...or Business Experience
Because being able to clearly articulate the return on investment for their social media efforts is overrated anyway. It’s not like it’s something that’s important to you.Seriously, think pretty hard before you hire a kid. They’re cheap and they can design gorgeous social media sites, but there are a few things they may be lacking: They may not know how this translates to the business world (especially your business); they may not be able to sell the importance of social media to your team (and buy-in from your team is going to be pretty important); you are going to spend a lot of time teaching them about business and about your business; and if you’re like most managers, you don’t have much spare time.
Most of all, a lack of experience hurts. Experience is saying, “I’ve seen this before, I know what to do.” You save money hiring a person with little experience in the short term. But you’re not in this for the short term, are you?Bruce Johnston is a sales consultant specializing in social media and especially LinkedIn. He has over 25 years experience in high tech sales and management. He can be reached at brucej@practicalsmm.com or through his profile on LinkedIn.