A lot of companies prefer hiring social media interns to handle a bunch of their social media tasks.
Since social media interns are soon to be college graduates they already have some basic skills to do the job. They just need to learn the practicality of the work. They have a lot of potential and enthusiasm that, when tapped properly, can help businesses save a lot of time and money instead of hiring more experienced resources.
Social media interns too can gain helpful insights and learn new skills from their internship, which will help them in their future jobs.
But, a lot of companies don’t know how to get the maximum possible output from their social media interns. Their roles often remain undefined.
Below I have discussed things that social media interns can (and should) do during their internship. I will also be talking about the kind of compensation they usually get (or deserve), so you can decide your budget accordingly.
Social media interns can plan and execute the content calendars
This is probably the most exciting task you can assign to them. You can ask them to thoroughly study your company’s social media presence, the tone you use, the type of content you post, and the way you engage your audience.
Once they have got an idea of how you want to be projected on various social channels, you can ask your social media interns to come up with content ideas that they believe will suit your brand’s image. You can let them brainstorm with a senior executive a few times, so they can learn from their mistakes and change their approach wherever needed.
When they are fully ready, you can ask them to create and manage your content calendar (under the supervision of a senior executive).
Josh Snead, CEO of Rainwalk Pet Insurance says “One task you can give your social media intern is creating a content calendar. You’ll want to be able to rely on a content calendar so that you don’t have to worry about sharing posts last-minute or scrambling to figure out what content you want to share. Have your intern create a social media calendar for the next several weeks or months, taking into account major holidays and events.”
Social media interns can track your brand’s performance and notify you in case of negative interaction
You can ask them to monitor your brand’s presence on various channels. You can ask them to prepare daily and week’s reports of your brand’s mentions.
They can measure the success rate of the content calendar they followed. They can evaluate the performance of your latest campaign. If they notice any negative emotion/discussion evolving around your brand or a specific campaign, they can inform you on time so your crisis management team can jump into action before it gets too late.
By assigning all these tasks to interns, you can free your senior resources’ time for something more important.
To quickly and correctly track your brand’s performance, the interns will need access to easy-to-use social media monitoring tools such as Notifier. A more expensive, feature-laden tool will overwhelm them.
Social media interns can help you with competition research
It is much safer because even if your intern misses something or does something wrong, it won’t be a problem.
You can provide the names of 4-5 competitors and ask them to prepare a weekly/monthly report of their social media performance. You can ask them to compare their strategies with yours and figure out the areas of improvement(if any). Social media interns can help you figure out what type of content or campaigns work for your competitors, so you can also come up with something similar.
Christen Costa, CEO, Gadget Review says “Social media interns often have great insights to offer – their generation grew up on social media, after all. Leverage their natural inclination toward social media by putting them in charge of auditing how your accounts stack up against your top competitors. You’d be surprised how much they can teach you about optimizing your content to be more appealing to your target audience. They’re also a great go-to for tedious social media tasks that might not be an appropriate use of a more experienced employee’s time, such as looking for influencer partnerships on Instagram or TikTok.”
When guided thoroughly, social media interns can participate in your lead generation campaigns
Since they will be tracking your and your competitors’ campaign closely, they will be able to spot potential leads. If you train them properly, they can even approach the leads too and might end up generating a sale!
James Crawford, Co-founder of Deal Drop says, “I do not usually recommend companies encourage social media interns to start a direct interaction with a lead”. They may not know the best way to approach the lead or respond to their queries. But, if you have trained them adequately, you may take advantage of their time. Keep a track of their lead generation activities though.
How to get the max output from your social media interns
They have come to you to learn new things and acquire new skills. You have hired them because you need someone to handle the easy and not-so-risky part of your social media strategies.
So, do not leave your social media interns hanging with no clue about what to do when they come to the office. It is your responsibility to schedule tasks for them(at least initially) because they don’t know what you want from them. You can prepare a list of their daily/weekly responsibilities and you can have a senior member guide them for a few days.
Give them access to social media monitoring tools because they will obviously need them. Choose a simple tool like Notifier that comes with almost zero learning curve. A complex tool that provides a lot of useless data will confuse them. Plus, Notifier is inexpensive than its competitors, so you won’t mind buying it.
Your interns can use Notifier for generating daily/weekly/monthly performance reports of your company as well as your competitors. They can find out about the latest trends and help you strategize your content accordingly. They can find prospects and pass the leads to your sales team. They can create content from a different perspective.
In short, if you want your social media interns to perform up to your expectations, you need to strategize their work, give them the required training, give them access to a good tool, and guide them during the initial stage.
Adam Rossi, CEO of TotalShield says “Social media interns are great for finding Instagram influencers for potential partnerships, performing competitive audits across platforms, or creating content calendars. Younger interns are often much more immersed in social media culture than older, more experienced employees. Leverage their natural inclination towards social media by giving them (supervised) control over certain aspects of your social media strategy.”
How much money should you pay to your social media interns?
Interns at Facebook get as much as $8000 per month, the highest ever payment paid for internships!
We are not sure how many companies will have that huge budget.
According to Zippia, a recruitment company, the average money that a social media intern makes is about $15 an hour. Interns employed in small companies usually make about $5 an hour whereas those employed in bigger brands earn around $25 to $30 per hour.
So, depending on the volume or the types of work you have for them, you should compensate your interns generously. Also, you may pay them bonuses, if they do an extraordinary job.
Many companies hesitate to pay interns decently because they do not know how to utilize their time. Don’t make that mistake. Before you hire them, decide how you want to utilize their time and finalize their remuneration accordingly.
We hope this blog helps you understand the huge potential social media interns have and how you can use them. If you have any queries or questions, please leave a comment or email us.