How to Manage Social Media Interns
Almost every Gen Yer uses Facebook. Scratch that, almost everyone everywhere uses Facebook. But Gen Y especially deserves credit for effectively adapting to new technology (read: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and Pinterest) and using it to land awesome internships. For employers, the value is obvious: hire a student to manage the technology they already spend most of their time engaging with.
Having the knowhow to write a likeable Facebook status is not the same as being tech savvy, however, and employers should be wary of hiring someone because they happen to hail from Gen Y. Social media interns should have an acute interest in online marketing and be on the cutting edge of new technology in addition to being knowledgeable about existing social media trends. Rather than having them simply manage your online presence, use these 5 tips to help them drive your business forward:
- Set KPI’s. Key Performance Indicators are important to share with students from the get go. A social media intern can do a lot of things from customer service to landing PR to developing relationships with new customers. Only you know what the most valuable tasks for them to be working on are, and what goals will be challenging but achievable for them to work towards. Set these up early!
- Teach interns software tools. Your interns may be adept at maneuvering the social media world, but teaching them the specifics of Hootsuite, Google Analytics and Google+ can help maximize their online presence to reach the widest audience possible. Not to mention letting applicants know this is something they will learn on the job at your company will help attract better candidates!
- Get interns familiar with your core company values. It’s easy to write an intern off as a less integral part of a company’s team, but involving them in the office atmosphere is an important step to growing their passion for your brand. When they can see and experience the company culture firsthand they will be able to convey it online.
- Keep your interns to on the cutting edge of new technology. Encourage your interns to continually get new apps and download new social media tools. This will help empower them to be more effective as well as give you insights into what tools are most helpful in the field.
- Focus on quality, not just quantity. Yes, brand promotion is important, but low quality tweets/pins/status updates wont help you, they will hurt you. Have your intern get specific in SEO and keyword optimization to increase the value of the content they’re creating.
(Photo Credit: Mark Smiciklas and mkhmarketing via Compfight)
