Mark Wanczak

I’m 24 years old, which means Facebook is a whole different animal for me than it is for most of the social media experts out there. You guys and gals are an older, more experienced bunch. You’re using Facebook professionally, breaking friend limits and influencing the site’s recent changes. And that’s fantastic. The changes are for the better and I’m not among the 94% who apparently hate the new and improved site.

I love using social media and networking for professional growth. I’ve met really, really great people on Twitter that have led to equally great opportunities. I take my online personal brand very seriously and that’s exactly why no one outside of my offline friends sees my Facebook page.

It’s not that I’m the stereotypical young Facebook user, with hundreds of pictures, all conveying irresponsibility, alcoholism and promiscuity. That’s not me at all. But imagine your college years documented the Web 2.0 way. Imagine everyone has access to those photos and contextualized captions. Would you still have a job? Be married? A U.S. citizen?

Of course, I’m exaggerating, but I think the social media community can be guilty of forgetting the young audience. I think we get caught up in Twitter, which is not used by high school and college student in surprising numbers. We use these networks and applications and assume young people know how to do all this already because we’ve grown up with it. Yes, it may come easier to us, but no, we’re not using it as much as you may think. In fact, hardly any of my friends use Twitter.

I only started using Twitter six months ago, so it’s 100% a professional tool for me. Same with LinkedIn and this blog. But Facebook isn’t for you guys. It’s for my friends to write inappropriate things on my wall, for being tagged in goofy photos. These things happen and I’m not ashamed of them or my friends. My personal brand is not negatively affected by not sharing my Facebook page. I know all about Facebook, have set personal and professional pages, but you just can’t connect with me there.

I’m speaking at the University of Pittsburgh next week as part of a panel on marketing and plan to survey the attending students on their social media aptitude. I’ve seen some of the campaigns these students are putting together for class projects and social media is noticeably ascent.

What would you like to know about this audience? What questions should I be asking?