Is Twitter a Job Qualification?

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Neal on July 23, 2009 at 12:53am

The big misconception is that because young people have grown up around computers and, more specifically, social media, then surely they must be a good hire if a company intends on staking its ground in the world of social media. While that is true, it is also true that most of those same young people have only been engaged as social users, not brand representatives.

Brands, remember that your name is on the line. An inexperienced intern or new hire who has a knack for getting attention on twitter is now communicating your message to a worldwide audience. You might as well say that each tweet is like a mini press release, so make sure the person delivering it is someone that you feel understands your business, brand, and message.

Pizza Hut has done a fine job at putting this practice to work. 22 year old Alexa Robinson, the Pizza Hut Twintern, does more than just keep followers posted on great deals and menu items from Pizza Hut. She also keeps a keen eye on pop culture news, off-the-wall stories or anything else quirky and fun that she thinks would be of interest to loyal Pizza Hut fans.

The story can go extremely wrong too. Just take a look at how much trouble can 140 characters really stir up? In London, a twittering intern for home-furnishings retailer Habitat got in big trouble after he sent out misleading tweets that included commonly searched words related to the protests in Iran. You can imagine the crisis management situation Habitat found themselves in.

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Permalink Reply by Kyle Lacy on July 23, 2009 at 6:53am

That is freaking well said, Shawn. I couldn't have said it better myself. We will leave it at that.

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Permalink Reply by Pat Coyle on July 23, 2009 at 8:58am

Seems to me that one of the central challenges / opportunities of Social Media including Twitter is that employees ARE representing their employers, whether on purpose, or not...so because people young and old are more digitally social, there needs to be attention paid to training and awareness...teach employees the good, bad and ugly fruit the seeds they are sewing online...that said, it also seems to me that the only way someone becomes effective in commercial social media is through personal experience...and all companies should be looking for ways to leverage social media...and employees are better positioned to represent their brands than agencies or consultants...so....is Twitter a job qualification? Yes, especially if the person can demonstrate that he or she has learned to build a following (online reputation) in a professional / mature manner...in fact, a person's reputation and relationships are valuable to any company...employers like to hire friends of their best workers as they tend to be good workers too...and when they find new workers through social networks, it's a lot cheaper for the employer. That's just one of the ways an employee brings real value to a company...value for which the employee isn't always compensated. So, to turn it around, folks looking for jobs might want to "sell" themselves using their Twitter experience if this experience demonstrates the valuable personal network they've developed.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Bowe on July 25, 2009 at 1:12pm

Understanding branding, understanding how to build or modify a brand, and an existing personal online reputation are only tangentially related. I understand hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, race engine operation, and how my heart works. Can I build or modify any of those? Nope. Understanding how something works and being able to manipulate are not the same. Think of the problems of a bad personal reputation on line that can be built from someone who uses social media very well for personal attacks. They have reputation and they have built a personal brand, but they may not have done it intentionally and they might not know or understand why it happened. Can that same person build a corporate brand? Not necessarily, and especially not if the target of the company is not the new hire. The new hire has to understand the dynamics of the target and be able to build credibility in that target, not in his or her own circle. Having 10,000 Twitter followers is better than having 1000 only if the 10,000 are the right followers and are moved to action. I'd rather have 1000 Twitter followers buying my product and telling their friends about it face to face, than 10,000 followers who are trying to build a big list and don't tell anyone about me and don't buy my offering. Quality over quantity remains important to business success.

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Permalink Reply by Nila Nealy on July 23, 2009 at 9:41am

I just watched some interesting videos last week under the heading "Personal Branding Wars: Does Your Company Already Claim a Stake in ...?" An attorney answers the question, noting that precedence is being set as we go because so much of this is new. However, if part of your job is to operate a Twitter account for your company, she says they technically own your followers list and account under the rules of work for hire. I'll let you watch and make your own interpretation.

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Permalink Reply by Robby Slaughter on July 23, 2009 at 6:50pm

Twitter is not a job qualification, no more than knowing how to use the Dual Pitch option on a 1960's era IBM Selectric II typewriter.

We need to stop obsessing over whether candidates are familiar with the specific technology of a specific vendor-of-the-moment. Instead, we should care whether or not the people we hire are genuinely smart, truly innovative and have a solid understanding of key technical concepts.

I'm not impressed by whether or not a potential employee is on Twitter. Rather, I want to know what they think about the future of relationships in the network age. This is far more telling than whether or not they have signed up for a particular service. Unless you are hiring for the endorsement, hire for brains.

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Permalink Reply by PK Koduri on July 24, 2009 at 9:21am

Robby - I have to say you are Indy's own Tom Peters. Straight from the gut no sugar coating!

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Permalink Reply by Robby Slaughter on July 25, 2009 at 4:16pm

Thanks, PK!

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Permalink Reply by Suzi Shapiro on July 25, 2009 at 9:41pm

I'm with you, Robby.

I am not as concerned that people can use a specific tool, but do they understand how to pick the tool for the job and then do the job well. Twitter may be the thing of the moment, but things change.

I remember well the mutiny in a research course where I required the use of e-mail. (This was about 1995 or so.) The students didn't want to use it, thought they would never use it, and could not see how they might use it.

I am more concerned about that attitude than whether one can use Twitter, Facebook, or whatever comes next.

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Permalink Reply by Shawn Neal on July 27, 2009 at 2:22pm

I think that we have to look at social media for what it is. It is a tool. If you are Pizza Hut, Dell, etc., then it makes sense to bring individuals in to focus on this specific area. The point here, I think, is that if you have someone that you will be charging with that task, make sure that they are not only tech savvy, but Brand Management savvy as well. A business needs to be very aware of how their social media efforts will be managed- if not, then you might want to take down my name and number for crisis management. Overall, no, I don't feel that employers should look at SM as a determining factor unless you intend on putting that individual in a position of social media management.

As for measurements of success, I think social media is very measurable. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is even be more measurable than some other, more traditional methods.

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Permalink Reply by Tricia Meyer on July 24, 2009 at 2:06pm

One of my friends works for a company in their HR department. Part of her job right now is actually training the recruiters in the company how to use Twitter. She often tells me that some of them just aren't "getting it." Given that it is going to become a part of their new hiring and marketing strategies, I am guessing that she would rather hire HR staff who already know how to use Twitter than to have to train them. There are different techniques involved in different social media. I don't think just knowing how to sign up for a Twitter account really helps you. But knowing how to get people to retweet your posts is a valuable job qualification for companies who hope to use Twitter to spread their brand virally.

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on July 24, 2009 at 2:47pm

The people I have seen who don't get Twitter or social media in general are usually resistant to learning it.

That's not always true, but the ones who just close their eyes, shake their heads, and wave their hands in front of their face, saying, "I just don't get Twitter. I don't see the point" tend to take this point of view toward technology, like computers and indoor plumbing. They also make me want to shake them.

While Twitter might not be a job qualification, I think having the personality to try new things and the mental capacity to at least understand a simple tool like Twitter is. The interview question I would ask would be whether they use it and then watch their reaction. If they say no, and do the head shaking, hand waving thing, they don't move on to the next round.

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