Apple Is Warming Up To Social Media
Apple is hiring a social media guru in L.A. Will @Apple finally tweet?
Here’s something you don’t hear often: “Apple is hiring a social media expert.” But it’s true, says 9to5Mac: The notoriously social-shy giant is on the hunt for somebody to head up social media efforts in Los Angeles. It’s strange when you think about it, but the most valuable company in the world does not tweet. It has a YouTube channel, but the comments are turned off. And, of course, its only attempt at launching a social network of its own led the field as the company’s most widely ridiculed move until only recently, when it estimated that surely, literally every single one of its customers is into dad rock.
Presumably, the job’s location means that the new hire will be working for Apple’s Beats subsidiary, which is based in L.A. And Apple does maintain Twitter accounts for and the App Store, but its social media presence doesn’t go too far beyond that. Obviously, that’s about to change. This isn’t the first move Apple has made toward a more social-friendly posture. In August, the company made headlines with the hiring of Musa Tariq, who previously led social for Nike and Burberry. That hire set off a flurry of speculation over what the move means for Apple’s approach to social. To top it off, Apple executives like Tim Cook and Phil Schiller now actively tweet, something Steve Jobs probably would have yelled at them for. According to Fortune, the arrival of the post-Jobs era at Apple has at least something to do with the shift:
…Apple sees itself as being in transition from its old communications model, where a “single narrator” — aka the late Steve Jobs — articulated a “singular narrative” at a time and place of his choosing, to a new model where the company speaks in multiple voices and participates in two-way discussions with its consumers and fans.
To date, Cupertino has done a pretty decent job of selling phones, tablets, and computers without posting iPhone glamour shots to Pinterest or GIFing it up on Tumblr. But evidently, as the company reaches into new markets and bolsters its retail efforts, Apple’s social feeds can’t stay silent forever.
[Photo: Flickr user Jun Seita]
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