Don't blame the 15 year old, blame the bankers....

Recently a 15 year old has made the news for a summer internship at Morgan Stanley. Whilst he hasn’t managed to drag the country into further financial turmoil; he has somehow managed to get CEO’s to read his “paper” on social media.

It’s great to see that his “paper” is being read by senior executives, but that there is such a hoorah about his comments, is a little confusing.

Apparently “teenagers don’t use Twitter” and “online banners are annoying an pointless”. The media savvy just looked over this story whilst the non-media savvy were astonished. Jaws dropped and executives were trying to figure out what this all meant.

It means nothing.......

Social media needs to be strategically implemented like every other form of marketing. Where is your customer base? How are they engaging with your brand? How are you engaging with them? Which tools are going to get you noticed?

Granted the scope of social media is massive, and yes, today’s audience could be tomorrow’s consumer, but if you are 15 you are not concerned with “wealth management”, and so the likelihood of something you say today won’t be remembered in 30 years time.

Social media is all about conversation, and like all good conversation, it is about talking and listening.

The lesson: choose the correct instrument to target your audience.

As Robert Gallagher says “Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead, ought to tell the child to go to bed”.