With social media matters, is younger always better?

 

With the emergence of Snapchat, Instagram and Vine and a supposed “death” of Twitter & Facebook we are seeing a lot of brands “hiring” young influencers to bring them into the light ages. 

 

While I think Wet Seal’s latest move: http://adage.com/article/digital/build-a-brand-snapchat-hire-a-16-year/291124/ is intriguing and worked very well for their channel’s awareness, I do have to throw out some words of caution. 

 

Remember the time when companies wanted to save money by letting their interns run social media? Like with anything else, you get what you pay for. What’s even more troubling, with this platform, the opportunity to “go viral” is magnified, making it a higher spotlight for both good and bad. 

 

By now, most brands have figured out that there is a fine balance between a technology savant and an experienced communicator and most are investing in quality talent. With so much talk being focused on kids leaving Facebook for Snapchat, it seems like the trend of hiring very young might come back.  

 

I don’t believe age should have anything to do with it, as there are many young professionals with fantastic experience, and that being the key word. 

 

In one of my earlier posts I talked about good judgement being the absolute most important quality in good social people. Curious to see what will happen if that isn’t properly vetted and the floodgates of Snapchat open doors to the philosophy of the younger the better. 

 

Thoughts?