Am I Too Old For Social Media?

Just a few days ago I was looking in the mirror and I noticed a few grey hairs starting to stream through.  It got me to thinking, am I getting too old to efficiently engage and connect in Social Media?

If you believe the media stories, Social Media - especially networks like Facebook and Twitter - are targeted for the younger generation, dominated by the younger generation and if you want a great “social media guy” then you should look young.

Now by no means would I consider myself to be old, I’m just past 30 and I feel as if my best years are to come.  In fact I think my skill set, my life experience and my business knowledge perfectly position me for social media success.

The problem is, though, business owners are making decisions on whom to use as their “social media expert” based on age.  I couldn’t think of a more ridiculous way of making a hiring decision. 

My mum and dad grew up in a time where they witnessed the first person to walk on the moon. This doesn’t mean they should automatically qualify as the next Astronaut.

In fact my mom is terrified of heights so I doubt that she’d make a very good Astronaut at all.  But the business logic being used by businesses these days when making decisions on their social media hires would suggest this is the trend.

Let’s get real - when hiring someone for a position or engaging a company to provide you with services, age really shouldn’t be an influencing factor.  You should be making decisions based on experience, skills, training, results - all the factors that indicate you’re more likely to succeed in your decision.

Don’t get me wrong - there are some great young entrepreneurs (you’ve just got to look at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to realize that) but that doesn’t automatically mean that ALL young people are great.

You see, there’s been a stereotype created around the kind of people who are great on social media.  Personally, being a great user of social media doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great marketer on social media.

These are two completely different concepts, which come from two completely different ball parks.  Smarten up business owners, make decisions based on sound knowledge, skills and results, not on age.

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