I’m getting too old for this … or am I?

I started my social media career about 14 years ago as a 25-year-old temp in the Boston University Alumni Association. My main focus for the channels I ran was to move fast and be relevant. I made many mistakes, but the mix of lack of experience and oversight — not to mention fear — led to a good amount of success.

Flash forward to today, and I’m 39 years old, still working in social media, and I’ve become the oversight that didn’t exist in my 20s. My career progression is a great thing to see, but there’s one problem: I keep wondering if I’m too old to continue to be successful in this field. 

Is there an age limit for social media success?

I’m not the only one either. One Google search and you’ll see tons of blogs and articles written by my fellow elder social media professionals wondering the same things. Can you keep up with the pace of trends, language, culture and technology as you age?

Even this 13-year-old Forbes article asked, “Should All Social Media Managers Be Under 25?” The answer they gave was ‘no’ because your audience may be older than you realize. This is true but doesn’t address the meat question, and it still makes me feel like there should be an age limit. So, what’s the real answer?

Lessons from Kamala HQ: Moving fast, staying relevant

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post about the Kamala Harris social media team, Kamala HQ. The Post describes them as a team of “feral 25-year-olds” with “minimal approval checks.” They move really fast, are all really young and, to this point, have been really successful. 

While the age of the team is the attention grabber, there are three lines from the article that serve as the framework for how to exist and thrive as a professional in social media no matter your age. 

1. You just gotta trust your people. 

You must build trust, and the only way to do that is by making sure everyone understands your overall mission and goals. 

My assistant director at Penn State, Courtney Witmer, has a concept that she calls “the sidewalk rule.” When walking with her children, she says they can do anything they want as long as they stay on the sidewalk. For a social media team, it means you can do anything you want as long as you stay within the parameters of our mission and goals.

Once you build this trust, you no longer need to depend on so many levels of approval because your team is firmly aware of the guardrails. This puts a premium on efficiency and allows you to adapt faster in a rapidly shifting environment.

2. We are never not watching.

Not all of us are lucky enough to have the resources to staff a team of 13 individuals, but as someone who spent the bulk of his time as a team of one, it is vital that you make time to keep up with the digital landscape. 

Monitoring platforms for brand health and identifying what’s resonating with audiences is just as important as any meeting you could attend. This will help you develop a unique strategy for each social media platform in your portfolio while ensuring you get the most out of each post.

3. Behave like typical TikTok users.

The Harris social media team is a tiny fraction of the 250-person digital team, but they have all been positioned to take advantage of their strengths to speak directly to their primary audience. Five years ago, I was hired to work in the MIT admissions office where I was supposed to find new ways to capture the attention of high school-aged students. At the time, I felt that I was starting to lose touch with that group. So, for the next three years, I put together a team of students with a wide variety of talents and their only objective was to be themselves and speak to our target demographic. Utilize and learn from younger voices whenever possible!

Age is just a number in social media

To put a button on this whole thing, you can never be ‘too old’ to work in social media. Back in 1964, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “the medium is the message,” and nothing has changed during the last 60 years. Know your mission, learn the spaces, develop goals based on what makes each space unique, find a voice, keep learning and you’ll be ready for anything that comes next. 

Now, please excuse me while I take a nap.