It’s summer and many businesses are inclined to bring interns onboard for a couple of reasons. For starters, you may be swamped trying to keep up with your social media marketing, so the idea of bringing on someone for the summer is probably looking pretty appealing, and rightfully so. Secondly, interns are often eager and full of ideas, and they need the experience more than they need a large salary. While this seems like it would be a win/win and it certainly can be in some instances, there are some issues to consider.
The first issue is that when you look at the potential of a summer intern, you are likely are thinking about all the time and energy you could use for other aspects of your business. If you had a summer intern doing all of your social media marketing imagine all you could accomplish! This is likely true…eventually. The problem is that in order for your summer intern to be good at the work they are doing, they need to be onboarded just like any other productive and valued employee. They need to know the ins and outs of your business, your marketing plan, and your brand identity.
It is also important that the content that they are creating and posting is in line with your previous posts and that the intern knows your company vision and branding well enough to create content that has genuine voice and style fitting of your brand. This is, of course, a time-consuming endeavor.
As with any new hire, you also need to take the time to create a concrete list of expectations and goals which also takes time and planning. By skipping this step, your intern will likely be frustrated because they don’t know what they are supposed to do, and you will be frustrated because you want them to be productive.
One of the best aspects of hiring a social media intern for the summer is the fact that they often offer fresh new perspectives. They will be able to present ideas to you that you probably never would have considered. They also likely have a fresh grasp on ways to make a splash on Instagram and Snapchat. In addition, they can help you to try out new strategies that you might have been wanting to try but weren’t sure how. Give them the reins, and they will be able to test out some different tactics and platforms. But, this isn’t without its set of risks. Potential negative posts or posts that could cause a negative reaction based on your customer demographic could be something you have to look out for.
While having someone take over the social media strategy for the summer sounds downright luxurious, having a summer intern do the job is great for the short term but will likely leave a big hole for you to fill once the summer is over. And the time and energy you put into training the new hire is now out the window after a few short months, and you will likely need to once again take over the social media plan or need to hire a full-time employee to do the job.
Obviously, there are some very positive aspects to hiring an intern, but it comes with its set of problems too. One option that would be a winning solution for now and for later is to hire a marketing firm to handle your marketing plan and strategy for you year around. The team at Anneomaly Digital has it all. It is our job to: learn the ins and outs of your business; help you develop a social media strategy that is just right for your business; stay on top of marketing techniques, tools, measurements and platforms; create content that looks and sounds like you, and ultimately, convince consumers that your services/products are exactly what they need. While an intern would likely be great for the short term, Anneomaly Digital’s team will be there for you summer, fall, winter, and spring to handle all your marketing needs and to help your business thrive.