OMG! Can only young people do social media? The Levi's Guy thinks so.

At today's Social Media Week panel on "Ushering Your Brand into the Social Era", attitudes towards age were revealed.

The panel included Gareth Hornberger, 23 (according to his Twitter bio and ankle-revealing jeans), who started as a contractor at Levi's two years ago.

Now Levi's Social Media Marketing Manager, a.k.a. The Levi's Guy, he advocated "putting young people at the center" as the solution to the challenges brands face in meeting the competing demands of customer care, marketing, PR and other departments. His advice was to "inject digital natives (who he'd already referred to as 'young people') at the core of the process".

Joanne Wan, a Senior Digital Strategist from Ogilvy Public Relations, added that most people who understand social media are younger. 

Though it can be hard finding the right people for the team, the best predictor of success is the candidate's own social footprint, she contended. While I agree that to understand the social media you have to be active in the space, what about the candidate's experience or achievements on behalf of their clients? Successfully promoting your band on Twitter does not necessarily translate into the ability to develop a stategy to communicate effectively on behalf of a global brand.

Joanne also said that the right personality was required - someone who is willing to say "Hey guy who's 10 years older than me, do you need some help with that?".

Looks like The Levi's Guy is just the right fit then - when the moderator inadvertantly referred to him as Blake Cahill, a fellow panelist and Principal at Banyan Branch, he quickly corrected her, pointing out that there was "about 10 years difference" between the two. I'm sure Blake took it as a compliment; based on his LinkedIn profile The Levi's Guy was off by another 8 or 9 years.

What do you think? Do all brands need a twenty-something at the heart of their social media activity?

Comments

[Barbara Kittridge]

Interesting take on ageism in the social media landscape. Not sure this is solely linked to social media though as it's a wider issue that plagues our industry as a whole. After three debilitating recessions in the industry over the last 20 years, where we saw many seasoned professionals leave or shuffled out the door due to a bad economy we end up with these types of situations.

Let's face it social if you get down to it social media is just a state of mind.

I see many Mom's in their mid forties or mid career marketers embracing social media for both personal and business reasons. Too often we have placed in the hands of the relatively inexperienced too much responsibility and the end product suffers for our clients. We see staff struggle with strategy or just plain old selling ideas into clients. When met with resistance guys like this say = "Well, they just don't get it." I say that's B.S. - it means that you didn't do a good enough job explaining and selling in your ideas. My guess is if you asked him how to monetize and determine the ROI of social media to rationalize any budget investment his jaw would probably drop and he would start to mumble.

Let's be clear social media is just plain old word of mouth on steroids. Sort of like the chat over a cup of coffee between neighbors or catching up with an old friend all that social media has done is to create an environment to host that discussion and share it with a larger audience.

[Mike CJ]

Great comment from Barbara.

And I think companies will make a huge mistake if they believe social media should be run exclusively by young people. Yet it's one I see them making on an almost daily basis.

The fastest growing segment on Facebook is females in the age range 45 to 55.

My message to companies is to forget the medium - anyone can be taught how to use it - and focus on the marketing. If you want to market to twenty somethings then maybe the person doing your social media marketing needs to be a twenty something. But if you want to market to me, you'll stand a much greater chance of success if the person doing so is a peer.

It goes much further though - in order to even begin to market via social media, you need to strike up a real one on one relationship first, unlike using conventional advertising. That becomes much harder if there is a huge disparity in age and outlook between the two parties.

[twitter.com/CandaceKuss]

Hey Devon, OMG indeed. Maybe you can introduce The Levi's Guy to @ScottMonty, the often profiled head of social media at industry leading Ford and (dare I say) middle-aged family man. Or to Frank Eliason, who gained fame as @comcastcares and is now SVP of Social for Citi.

There are many many many other examples of experienced PR, Customer Service, and interactive marketers who are fluent in social spaces. Who know that forums, message boards, and online communities have been around for decades and have learned by experience that social is not new. Digital native is a lazy term imho.

Handling issues in the real world is actually quite an edge when things heat up online. The Ogilvy PR person should know that. She may want to have a word with @jbell99, one of the most respected people in social marketing.

At my agency, we advise clients that the right Community Manager is one that naturally exhibits the same personality and values of the brand itself. Age has nothing to do with it. I also think the CEO of a company is by default the chief Community Manager, whether they tweet like @BBYCEO or not. It is an on and offline job.

I suspect Levis is trying too hard to attract a younger demo. Am not sure that their social strategy should ignore the fact that their jeans are bought by people over 25.

[Russ_dean]

Hiring a younger guy may be the best decision for one brand, but let's remember that (like Levi's themselves) one size doesn't fit all. I gravitated to social media from IT and now handle social media for a growing brand at 35 years old. As Mike stated, its common knowledge that 45-55 year old women are the fastest growing demographic on Facebook and that only 11% of 18-24 year olds use Twitter (source: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/social-media-by-demographic/?wide=1). I think there's a right tool for every job and companies shouldn't be so quick to assume that because a person is young, they know what their doing. Hire the same way you would for any other job...qualifications.

@russ_dean
Gen X and proud of it.

[Daretoeatapeach]

Nice comments, all.

As one of the more popular DJs on the music social network Blip.fm (39,000 followers+ at http://blip.fm/daretoeatapeach) I think the Levi's Guy's claims are malarky. I am over thirty and the other users I know who are in the top-ten are also well over thirty. Moreover some study last year showed that the average age of Twitter users to be well over thirty (sorry, no time to look up the source link).

However, I do think that "cater to the youth" can be secret code for "only do this if you get people who know how it works." Despite their many years of marketing experience, if you get someone to run a Twitter feed that speaks with a corporate voice, doesn't interact with users and basically just throws down a bunch of advertising, that's going to be a failure, regardless of how good they are at doing this in "meat-space."

PS, found this post via HARO. ;)

[Peter Leeds]

While more "under 30's" surfers are familiar with social media, it does not make them more effective at it.

As long as members of your team commit to staying on top of the latest technological leaps, and taking advantage of social media opportunities, then you should do just as well regardless of age.

In fact, there are advantages to the wisdom and patience that comes with (greater) maturity.

It's like the old fable:

Baby bull says, "hey dad, let's run down there and kiss one of them cows!"

Daddy bull says, "no son, let's walk down there and kiss them all."

[Robert Bravery]

Younger people have a lot of energy and a lot of new ideas. Sometimes that frightens us oldies.

Older people have tons of experience, hey look at me, I'm 45, and still feel like 28. Well there abouts.

Younger people perhaps don't have that many commitments and responsibilities. While I would love to spend more time on the net, on Twitter etc, I have a family, wife and kids. Who to me at the moment are more important than Social media and a career.

[Brad Fallon]

The value of social media is in the conversation. A few of us grew up to be comfortable writing into the void--but far more grew up to become talkers. We learn more and say more when we're in conversation.
In the "real" world, writing is meant to be read, thought about, and maybe even acted upon; not evaluated by one person and dumped into the recycling bin. Legal briefs go to the judge, financial analysis goes to lenders, etc.

[Ecommerce]

Social media site is very helpful in someways in online business. It could help gain customers and visitors in your site.

[playmobil]

For me I can say that lots of younger population was born together with the developing technology. They already knew much things in the internet world as young as a 4 years old. Maybe that was the reason why younger generation excel in development of business with the help of internet. By It doesn't mean that older one was set aside.

[Fancy Dress]

Its only because the youth are the ones who have so much time and attention for these that's why you tend to ask these but, why not? its free for anyone.

[custom packaging]

Your experience molded you. Carry on and move on.

[Timeline Application Developer]

Daniel Levis Brings Forbidden Copywriting Secrets, Web Marketing spouting hip phrases like so like oh my god

[Survey Monkey]

Maybe that was the reason why younger generation excel in development of business with the help of internet

[Allen Carlos]

Social networking website is very beneficial in someways in internet business. It could help gain clients and guests in your website.