I regularly extol the virtue of interns.
Having been an intern myself, I know how much I learned from simply being in a professional environment.
Benefits flow both way.
For the intern, it’s a great opportunity to grow and develop real world skills.
For the business or brand hiring interns, it’s an excellent opportunity to pre-screen potential future staff and get work done at the same time.
I routinely recommend interns, for both the free labor (yeah, I said it) and the inherent skill set today’s interns bring to the table.
Back in the day, interns were simply young people you took under your wing.
It was more of a mentor/mentee type relationship.
You were the sage, they the sponges soaking up knowledge at your feet.
They interned specifically because they wanted to know what you knew.
Experience the real world.
Build their resumes.
And hopefully land a paying gig after college if they played their cards right.
Interns could type, make copies, get coffee.
All the grunt stuff that secretaries executive assistants were for.
Interns of today, however, provide far more valuable than interns of old.
Why, you ask?
Social media, that’s why.
Eff typing and making copies.
These kids today know social media like the backs of their hands.
They routinely Facebook, YouTube, Tweet, Instagram, Snapchat and Vine in their sleep.
They tweet, post, like, share, and favorite more times before their sugar-laced breakfasts, than you have in the past year.
They engage more forms of social media than you and I even know exist.
More so you, than I, but I digress.
They’ve got time on their hands and spend an inordinate amount of it on social media.
Their mobile devices are virtual extensions of their fingers.
Have you ever seen kids texting without looking at their screens?
Or speed texting?
Unlike my generation, these kids are growing up with the technology that still baffles most of us.
Of you, rather.
My point is that today’s interns are bring a lot more to the companies with work for in this new technological and social media landscape.
They get it.
Inherently.
The understand the nuances of social media, as no two platforms are alike.
There is a distinction between Facebook and Twitter.
YouTube and Vimeo.
Snapchat and Vine.
Instagram and Pinterest.
For some organizations, the whole social media learning curve can be steep.
But virtually every brand has an online and social media presence.
I won’t beat you upside the head now about it, because I know that you know you need it.
More importantly, you need people who know it.
The ability to sustain that presence turn upon whether you have people within your organization, with an intimate understanding of the inner workings of each platform.
And bodies.
To sustain a successful online and social media presence, you’re going to need the bodies to throw at it.
As my friend James Andrews put it, you’ll need a social media command center.
And while you could pay a social media expert to man the helm of all your social profiles, you’ll get far more bang for your (free) buck with (social media savvy/connected) interns.
Cats I’ve turned on to the importance of social media – and social media interns, are killing it.
I’m talking followers and likes in the tens of thousands (peep Free Angela on Facebook).
So sleep if you want, but if you’re really interested in turning your social media around, get you some interns.
I mean who else is willing to work for Doritos and a reference?
Posted with Blogsy
Stephen Chukumba 