Livingston

Mar
12
2008

Do You Have a Social Media Intern?

483217163_c527dd3142_o PR, marketing, branding, advertising and social media all play a critical role in business and economics. As PR and marketing roles continue to evolve, combining and using these skills will become more crucial for business growth.

(Picture Credit: Gebuys on Flickr )

In order to build a strong workforce that is savvy in all aspects of good PR and serving the community, we should search for interns that are already social media savvy with strong academic credentials, passion and ambition. This way we have the best and brightest who are not only using social media on a daily basis to communicate with their friends, but are able to apply and learn best practices to effectively use social media in the corporate world.

internsWorking

(Picture Credit: CCV Online)

While intern programs for communications and PR agencies are not nearly as competitive as the banking, financial and legal industries, maybe they should be. Students who already blog are a step ahead by not only engaging in social media networks, but proving their writing skills, networking and establishing a presence on the Web. More importantly, a successful and well developed blog can even kick off a career in PR.

The skills that today’s young people are learning through networking on Facebook and MySpace and writing personal blogs on LiveJournal or Xanga will be instrumental in building a place in tomorrow’s workforce. It’s up to us as early adopters and evangelists to take those skills and teach interns to translate them into business-oriented experience and expertise.

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by Larissa Fair | Blogging, PR, Social Networks |

7 Responses to “Do You Have a Social Media Intern?”

  • Mihaela V (prprof_mv) Says:

    March 12th, 2008 at 10:33 am

    It’s also up to us, educators, to help students learn how to use social media professionally, not just for fun. I try to build social media skills in the various classes I teach at Clemson University, and I know colleagues at other universities (UGA, Auburn, etc.) who do a great job teaching social media & PR.

  • Larissa Fair Says:

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Mihaela - thanks for stopping by. Education does start in the classroom and is also refined by real world experiences, some of which comes from professional internships.

  • Dan Schawbel Says:

    March 12th, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    Original post here. I think it’s important to start collecting social media interns, especially because companies will need more employees in this field.

  • Marianna Hayes Says:

    March 12th, 2008 at 11:38 pm

    We’ve recommended to many of our small business clients that they hire college students and add to their list of duties maintenance of the store’s social networking strategy and marketing program. We help the businesses outline the strategy and program, give the student a list of to-do’s with the flexibility to pour their own style and personality into it, and we monitor from a distance. You are absolutely correct, the result is a student who graduates with a bigger vision for use of social networking technologies and often, excellent writing skills. And of course, the business benefits in obvious ways.

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    March 13th, 2008 at 12:49 am

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  • Larissa Fair Says:

    March 13th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    Thanks for the comments Dan and Marianna -I’m glad that other professionals can see the benefits and the big picture to hiring interns to go above and beyond “smile, dial and file” duties.

  • Staci Says:

    March 13th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    As a student studying PR, I am glad to see that the social media skills I am learning in class are skills that employers are looking for. Before I began my class I had never heard the term “social media� and did not think of using it for PR. I like that I am able to take aspects of my favorite websites (Facebook and blogs) and apply them to PR.

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