Take care who handles your social media work (courtesy _Nezemnaya_ on Flickr CC)Some food for thought:

One of the most retweeted items from the May 2010 PRSA Travel and Tourism conference in Aspen, Colorado was this tweet from @CoTravelGirl:

“One of the most frequent phrase[s] at #travelprsa: ‘Don’t give your social media program to your intern.'”

And yet, one young person who excels in Web communication for a city government tweeted in response:

“unless the youngest person is the best for the job…”

So, you don’t give social media responsibilities to the young person except when you should give them to the young person.

Bottom line: your organization’s best Web communicator may not be the person you expect, but if you want an effective presence in social media, you must be willing to train and use the right individual for the job.

Also ask this harsh question: if your marketing and communications person can’t handle the social Web, what does that mean for your organization, and for that person’s career?