We live in some interesting times right now. One would argue that for the first time in the history of the American economy, the younger generation has a distinct advantage over the older Executives that still “don’t get it.” If knowledge is power, then you can’t disregard the aspirations, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn that young businesspeople possess. Technology and media has changed so drastically that, in all honesty, only the youthful can keep their finger on the pulse of it. After all, they’re the ones that have been growing into adolescence alongside all of this innovation.
While I do feel that I am still classified as one of the aforementioned, I was shocked to discover that a long-lasting lead for Endagon Innovations quickly turned into “My nephew said he’ll help us out with our web stuff for free. He’s in college and always on Facebook and Twitter anyway, so it just makes sense to keep it in the family and save our money.”
There is so much wrong with this mindset that I didn’t even know where to begin.
Yes, I do acknowledge that there is a ridiculous (and frankly disgusting) amount of young individuals that call themselves “social media gurus” and “SEO professionals,” but 90% of the time, these are the folks that have never serviced another party with said services. They believe they can get away with classifying themselves as such simply due to the fact that they have 2,000 random friends on Facebook and get their own spammy tweets retweeted everyday.
I don’t want you to take this post as a bitter rant, but rather a universal realization that everybody has something to prove. If a company wants to save money on overhead and third party services every month, that’s fine. It makes sense to do so. However, it should not be overlooked that this is just as much of a business decision as was choosing the location of your store. If you end up hurting your brand image because of the lack of experience and professionalism of your nephew in college, it will be very tough to start over.