I came across a post on Twitter that was written by David Spinks. The entry, titled “DEBATE: Don’t Hire a Social Media Intern,” details why you shouldn’t rely on an intern to work on your social media campaigns. While his list is, for the most part, dead-on, I thought I’d take David up on the “DEBATE” portion of his title and outline some ways an intern can help with social media marketing as well as identify some areas that should be off-limits.
List of Intern Do’s and Don’ts
Don’t:
- Rely on an intern to build your social media profiles. If you haven’t yet dipped a toe into the social media pool, don’t have an intern shove you in headfirst and then abandon you when he realizes you can’t swim. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you still won’t know what you’re doing once that intern leaves and takes all of his social media knowledge with him…and that’s in the best-case scenario. At the very worst, you could be giving an intern the keys to your social media ride, only to see him immediately crash it into a tree. Are you going to trust someone who’s only around temporarily and probably isn’t getting paid with the integrity of your brand?
Do:
- Allow your intern to contribute to an already thriving brand. If you’ve already got an established list of profiles and know what you’re doing but need some help consistently updating content and engaging with others, here’s where an intern can step in. You don’t have to have him or her make direct updates and changes if you’re not comfortable assigning such a big responsibility that has close impact to the brand. Instead,you can instruct your intern to create a list of news, ideas and things to blog, Tweet and post about on Facebook and then hand the list over to your main editor or writer.
Don’t:
- Assume your intern is a born brand evangelist. He may have said he was Company XYZ’s biggest fan when you interviewed him for the internship, but don’t assume that to be fact. Just because someone is familiar with your brand, doesn’t mean he’s qualified to speak confidently and in great detail about what your company does.
Do:
- Teach your intern the ropes before sending him out to fight. Better to be safe than sorry — have a mandatory training day where you teach your intern the brand culture and how you want the company publicly portrayed. This is especially important if you decide to entrust your intern with direct updates. You may want to have him “shadow” you for a few days so he sees how the brand is handled before you let him get behind the wheel (if you do at all). Even after training and shadowing, you’ll still want to monitor what he’s doing and act quickly on any slip ups that may occur (he shared a broken link, answered a question incorrectly, etc).
Don’t:
- Allow your interns to create or change any passwords without permission. Be organized and keep track of the logins you’ve created for your interns, and don’t allow them to change them without getting an approval from you first. It’s easy to fall behind and just let your intern take care of a lot of things, but when it comes to profile access and your brand, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Do:
- Change passwords between interns. If you have an intern leave, change any logins he has access to for the next intern or for your staff. You don’t want to forget about the part-time dude who doesn’t work for you any more but still has access to your accounts…especially if you parted on bad terms.
Don’t:
- Overload your intern and expect him to handle everything. Just because it’s free (or cheap) labor doesn’t mean it’ll be any good. Start your intern off with small tasks and don’t throw every social media assignment his way. Figure out what he’s especially interested in. Does he have an active personal Twitter account? See if he’ll bring some knowledge to the company Twitter profile. Don’t overlook your intern’s strengths, and certainly don’t expect him to successfully manage multiple social media profiles. If you don’t have someone in-house full-time to manage them, what makes you think a part-time intern can do the job adequately?
Do:
- Consider giving your intern the spotlight in some way. Victoria’s Secret PINK Twitter account is run by the interns, and they’ve gotten a positive response on both Twitter and Facebook. If you’re a fun company who likes to “think outside the box” (sorry, it’s cliche, I know), consider letting your intern shine in some form or another. One suggestion is to set up an “intern” blog profile and let your intern post a blog entry chronicling things from his perspective. Your intern will likely appreciate the kudos and it will make the internship more fun and rewarding, and your audience will probably find the new point of view to be refreshing and interesting.
What other social media do’s and don’ts can you think of when working with an intern? Drop your comments below! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow 10e20 (and our awesome Charlie avatar) on Twitter!
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20 Responses to “Should You Hire a Social Media Intern?”
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Can't women be interns too?
Of course. The masculine gender is the default gender in writing; hence my usage of "he" over "she."
That is a dated convention. Most writing guides today suggest switching between male and female pronouns or using plurals.
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Probably the biggest "DON'T" of this whole thing is just don't hire a social media intern in the first place. Social media really isn't that hard to get your head around and manage. I know a few people who are or have been Social Media Consultants and it really is a joke of a title. Social Media isn't this huge scary thing – it's just a new way of marketing that is actually simpler and cheaper than anything available before. It's important obviously, but not so difficult that you need to actually hire a 'specialised' Intern. It's such a joke really.
Even if you hire a smart person with strong social media skills, … that while interns should be an important part of social media teams.
I think brands need to really take a step back at who they want to be the voice of their brand. A social voice can really go a long way but brands big and small need to pick that voice wisely.
This post is great to think about, but I also think hiring an intern to represent your business online can be very dangerous. As long as they are regulated, and everything they post is over looked or edited, it could work out. Great post!
Sorry if I offended you. I keep the default as masculine (studied Spanish for a decade and got used to using the masculine gender), but that doesn't mean I'm being sexist, just following standard (and traditional, I suppose) writing rules.
I suppose you're right in that you don't need to specifically hire a "social media" intern, but if you've got an intern who's handling a few social media tasks in addition to other responsibilities, I think the above tips still apply.
I absolutely agree, Nick! Great advice.
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.
The biggest mistake that I see is undirected interns. You have to absolutely have a plan for them, and a structure to what they do, with appropriate accountability. As you mentioned, if you don't have a social media strategy, an intern isn't going to give you one. Stay involved and aware. Remember, at the end of the day, it is your voice (meaning the company) that counts.
Rebecca,
Thanks for taking the time to write out a thorough response. Your thoughts are all on point and well laid out. Interesting reference with Victoria Secret putting the spotlight on their interns. I wonder what kind of issues, if any, they ran into while embracing this.
David
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Absolutely — no free range interns!
I'm thinking they probably have to sign some sort of contract or go through extensive training to ensure they're not going to bungle anything up for the company…
A great post. But i was thinking about , how much responsibilities one gives to the intern's when it comes to managing social media profiles? and how much potential damage they can cause? I personally don't give important work to the interns and make sure that i am closely monitoring them on regular basis.
But all together you have pulled up a great post.
What are the social networks all about if it’s not a personal connection and a relationship? How can we relate to interns we do not know? I tend to go with the opinion of not hiring interns to maintain the social media sites.
It might be useful to hire interns in the early stages as people and companies are developing their social media strategy. But once they get up and going, individuals need to create a relationship and stick with it.
When Seth Godin announced that an intern would be helping him write his blogs, the posts immediately lost some of the credibility.
My two cents.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful guide – the material becomes clear and simple after reading your article:)