Millennial has a great advantage and it is being born in the age of the internet, they are not considered as tech savvy, they are tech sophisticated. They are adaptable, idealistic and they are more bold and blunt than baby boomers and Generation X.
On the other hand Baby boomers, has undeniable advantage of experience and tenure mentality, where studies and polls’ results showed that baby boomers stay at the same company for 20 and even 30 years, even if their workplace is not providing them with a sense of fulfillment, and that leads to loyalty and extensive knowledge of hands-on experience
Facebook Head of News Partnerships:
That being said, news about Facebook latest job listing for a new “Head of News Partnerships” amid the fire zone that has been aimed at Facebook for the past few months.
It started snowballing in September when the social media giant has apologized for an error in its video metrics and that they were planning on introducing new metric system that mentioned error has miscalculated how much time on average its users spent watching a video and which has been erroneous for almost two years.
As it turns out there was another metric errors and glitches in their household as well, like Organic reach, analytic for apps; referrals and followers count, posts that disappear, to list a few.
Facebook Under Scrutiny:
It started to get critical for Facebook when accusations were announced that they were helping in steering the result of the American presidential elections by spreading fake news building up to the elections which Facebook CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg posted his thoughts about Facebook and election; written Mark; “Our goal is to show people the content they will find most meaningful, and people want accurate news.” , then less than a week later he posted about their plans and the different aspects they will be working on limiting the spread of misinformation.
Cynicism of the Public:
Which takes us back to the job listing, which shows the extend of how people scrutinizing Facebook.
The applicant will be responsible for being the public-facing voice of Facebook and its role in the news ecosystem and qualifications list that the applicant has to have 20+ years of experience in news and Public speaking, communication and presentation skills.
Minimum of 20+ years in news is a strong statement from Facebook about what it wants in new partnerships role https://t.co/ibAUmrf19v
— Ann Marie Lipinski (@AMLwhere) December 12, 2016
Which displays Facebook’s intentions of seeking a baby boomer who will be responsible of putting out the fires, and not just by posting on Facebook. What does this mean for Facebook and how this move will impact the way they will be communicating with the media and delivering the message through to the public?
Facebook is looking for a new head of news partnerships (must have 20+ years of experience). The bit about 'new technologies' = interesting pic.twitter.com/rg7xlcIXk7
— Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) December 12, 2016
Hiring someone who has this extensive news experience is quite worrisome as they are not as adaptable and social media savvy as younger generations. So this means the candidate will be focused on his/her area of expertise, delivering the information in a sophisticated manner however, isn’t that more reason for the public to be skeptical about the information delivered? Putting in mind the above mentioned candidate will not have the mindset and boldness of a social media savvy.
Is it the right decision to hire a news executive for a social media platform who does not have the social media sophistication?