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June 17, 2009
The intern trap
Would you let a company intern:
- Man your customer service line?
- Be your receptionist?
- Be your spokesperson to the Wall Street Journal?
- Be the main contact for your most talkative customers?
If not, then why do companies put, or think of putting, interns in charge of their social media presence?
"Let's put an intern in charge of our corporate Twitter ID" is heard a bit too often.
Interns can obviously be smart and bright and with the right training, can do things well. But interns are usually temporary; making one the face of your company on social media sites does them, and you, a disservice. Better to assign a longer-term and experienced member of customer service, account management, or technical support in a visible, and increasingly important, social media role.
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I think you have to look at the person not the title. Some executives would be absolutely horrible on Twitter. The same goes for an intern. It really comes down to who the individual person. (Just my opinion)
Stuart brings up a good point, and it rings true for any hiring decision.
I do still agree with Jackie, though I feel like there's more to the statement "Let's put an intern in charge of our corporate Twitter ID." When a C-level exec says this, they're really saying "I don't know jack about computers or the Interwebs. College students grew up with it and have replaced their phones with Twitters.com. I'd rather not be responsible and learn about this, so instead of delegating any real responsibility, I'm just going to make a whimsical decision and entrust Jack Q. Beerdrinker to do it. That way, we'll also even look hip & with it."
OK, maybe a little overdone. But you get the point. I don't think any person that just entrusts an intern with that much social media power understands anything about social media themselves; therefore, there's no reliability or consistency in whom they hire.
Hi Jackie,
Just curious, but what companies do you know that are using their interns to manage their corporate Twitter accounts? I'd be interested to hear more about that, too.
There are a ton of social media activities that are perfectly appropriate for an intern, and I've listed a few of them here:
http://DISRUPTology.com/10-social-media-tasks-for-summer-interns/
I agree with Tyler, though. If an executive entrusts their corporate Twitter account to an intern, it's likely symptomatic of a larger organizational issue.
Hi
Picked up your post in the Rss Feeder.
If I had company interns they would be on customer service for the first few weeks before anything else. That way they would learn what matters to the customer/client before doing anything.
If the Intern is as passionate about the medium and the purpose then there should be no reason why having an Interna on Social media duty is wrong.
Social media is also a team sport when comes to companies, its a collaboration to get the best result.
Just some thoughts I had :)
This is a very interesting article because I am an intern at a company and my main responsibility is monitoring their social network. I have to say it’s a piece of cake for me because this is what I grew up on. Searching for articles, facebook, twitter and etc, I manage all of those. The experience has however given me the ability to learn what they are doing as a company.
Interns really are eager to learn and hope to land a good job they are qualified for. If the intern doesn’t stretch themselves out to learn something other than what they are told to do, that is the interns fault. Ask questions, look at papers, and figure out everything there is to know about the business. If there is no job at the end of the internship, ok but the experience is priceless. Thanks for posting this.
I agree with your post, Jackie. For me it is about competence and company loyalty. I've worked with dozens of interns over the years, and while I love to have interns on the staff, and while many of them have been very sharp, they are just not at the same level as staff with their knowledge of how we do business, what our goals are, etc. And they won't have the same level of loyalty to the brand. In higher education, when we worked with interns from our institution, loyalty typically wasn't an issue, however, their loyalty was different in that it was from a frame of reference of being a student. Working for me, an intern was a member of our team, but not at the same level with my staff with whom I had invested so much time and energy.
Totally agree with your post here. What always shocks me is when a company doesn't quite realize that they are handing over "the keys." They might get 5 or more people to work through a simple tri-fold brochure, but basically let someone post on behalf of the company online - something that Google will see forever. That said, as the C-level crowd at the company starts to understand this, I've seen companies dramatically shift so that key team members become the voices online, instead of the intern.
Great discussion, Jackie. Going through the comments is often just as good as the post! I had to share this post on my Facebook Page today. I think the root of it all is that you want capable and qualified people who understand your organizational culture to represent you online. Don't turn that responsibility over to "just anyone".
I'm on the fence on this one for similar reasons to above posters- you can't base the decision purely on title. Both b/c some people are underqualified and some over regardless of title.
In my personal experiences at larger companies I often felt totally pigeonholed by what my business card said my job was even if I knew I was capable of more. On the reverse, at my own company, I've had interns that I gave tasks to b/c they were available and willing, and they were totally wrong for those tasks. As the manager that's really my fault because having a 22 year old who wants to edit video make sales calls is not a good idea. It was an obvious decision based on convenience that clearly did not work out.
On the other hand, I'm sure some people allow interns to twitter for them because interns may be more suited to the task and are familiar with social media. But, yes, there are going to be lots of situations where its easier to just assign it to the intern because it keeps them busy, and its one less thing on the manager's plate to worry about.
I agree with you Jackie. Interns are generally temporary and are learning the business in hopes of becoming employed full time. While I do have to agree with Stuart that many execs do no justice to the company on twitter but a bright individual that has been with the company and understands all aspects of the business would be a better fit for twitter.
What a ridiculous idea, and what a great way to damage the trust in your brand. I would never let an intern or my child for that matter speak for me or my organization. Full-time employees who have demonstrated their trustworthiness, commitment to the organization, and strong identification with our values and goals, yes. Interns, who are best are still learning what we do and why, No!
I'd agree with this if not for the mere fact that it is hard to transfer the knowledge when a temporary intern leaves the company. I think that an intern can definitely teach other employees a lot about social media (after all, they are likely more experienced just from day to day use than some "veteran" employees). I wouldn't say that interns should be kept from social media, but they should not be relied on for these responsibilities.
Hi Jackie,
This is a particularly interesting post for me because I was originally hired as an intern and was brought in to launch the company's social media efforts. I helped found and manage our blog, (which does quite well in respect to our very niche space), produced youtube videos, produced podcasts, and worked with other forms of social media. Shortly after, I was hired on full time and continue to march at the forefront of our company's social networking.
I think it was smart to start the effort with an intern. First off, there were many naysayers who scoffed at the idea of mixing social media and business in the first place. Second off, I was one of very few there who had any knowledge of these networking sites. Today, however, our social media presence is embraced by those same skeptics. The key is to manage the intern so that all outbound communications are approved before going live. Why not hire someone who has been enjoying social networking sites for personal reasons way before the business world caught on?
This slightly skirts the point of your post, but I absolutely aspire to empower interns to do all of the things on your bulleted list, and more.
Having said that, I don't disagree with your post, which in my mind is a indictment of the standard internship process many of us experience. Most traditional internships are seasonal or part time - barely affording a chance to orient an intern to the business, let alone cross-train them effectively to serve in public-facing or leadership roles.
A lengthier co-operative education or apprentice experience gives interns more time to be effective employees. I wish more schools and businesses would adopt that model.
That revelation offers a possible positive in response to your post. Why limit an intern's service to the SN team to his or her brief stay at the company? A solid SM plan could leverage departing interns as street team members, which would spread the burden of knowledge transfer over time, and also expand brand influence.
Yes, it is scary, potentially unsure territory for intern #1 and #2; they'd surely need to start with a strong skill set and require constant guidance. They certainly could not build your entire SM strategy on their own. But after the start-up investment of your regular guidance, the position would be increasingly empowering for each subsequent intern. And, those internships would be AMAZING for students. That's what every internship should aspire to be.
At two interns a season over two years you would have 16 experienced brand evangelists, some of whom are now moving into the business world as a potentially lifelong advocate of your brand.
(Bias: I come from the co-op discipline, where in each internship I was expected to function as a senior team member and brand expert for six months. It was scary. And awesome.)
Hi Jackie,
I agree with you, Good luck to you.
I agree with Stuart here. Just because they're an intern doesn't mean they shouldn't be given a chance to do something important within the company.
I'm stuck in the middle on this one. I do agree that companies should not undergo the practice of having a constant influx and rotation of interns run their social media. On the other hand, a company could be blessed with a talented intern that could make a difference and do a great job. It IS all about the person. Maybe some execs think that it should be done by a younger more tech savvy person. Who knows? But if you are going to go through the trouble of hiring interns, it would be nice to give them something important to do for a change. Social media is a good way for them to interact with the customers and learn a lot about the company at the same time. It's probably a heck of a lot more rewarding than fetching someone's coffee for 6 months.
Any responsible manager would interview and try out someone to be in charge of their social media network before handing it over all together. Due diligence people!
I think they assume interns and young and hip and just automaticallty know how to work it. Business strategies go out the windos!
Dr. Letitia Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
http://wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1
A lot of companies let interns handle these tasks because they do not take them seriously, and they do not really understand it. Depending on you intern they may be the right people for the job. Don't judge by the title.
I agree with Kate. Our co-op student from last summer (Rochester Institute of Technology's formal work experience program) is now our Director of Digital Marketing. He showed astonishing ability from the start.
Great discussion! I was having a meeting yesterday with the owner of a large organisation. It was a simple coffee and a chat during which they said that they were getting a young person in during the school break to Tweet about their organisation. I had a serious chat to them right there and then about how they needed to develop a Social Media strategy in order to stay ahead of the competition and this School student was definitely not the answer. We meet with them in a week to help define an approach which I am thankful about and I am sure they will be to.
I find something to agree with in all of the above posts, and to a large extent this phenomenon is fueled by the fact we're entering a phase of change in communications the likes of which most if not all of these firms have never seen before.
There are two thoughts in my mind on this. The first that there is a difference between hiring an intern to listen and see how your brand is currently being represented in social media and Twitter and just asking an intern to get on and represent you in social media. The former can be a valuable, cheap exercise in dipping your toe in the water, which also opens senior eyes within the firm as to how the the firm are currently being represented. The latter is a crap-shoot. It might work, might not. Depends on the person and the firm.
The second is that you do need a strategy which is longer term in nature. As someone said to me recently "you can't start a conversation and then just expect to stop it anytime you choose". If you want an intern to start Tweeting for your business, not only must you be sure they are portraying the correct things, but also that you have a plan for when they are no longer with you. Starting and stopping may even be more harmful than a few wrong posts.
Ultimately though people will come to realize how to use Twitter as a tool and Strategies will become commonplace.
Then something else will come along, and it'll start all over again.
Or, if you're Morgan Stanley, you can ask the intern about how his friends use the Internet and then publish it as "research."
I've had more than one company put interns in charge of contacting me either via twitter, friendfeed, facebook or a press release.
Recently I was invited to an event that was pretty off target but looked interesting so I popped an email over asking why they’d invited me.
“I guess you were on some sort of list.” Was the reply.
I stayed home. My best guess is that an actual employee (read: adult) would have told me something about the event and why they were reaching out to mom bloggers.
Everyone answer these two questions:
1) How old are you
2) Do you own a twitter account/know how to use it
This will help shine some light on this matter.
