Why an intern should not create your social media strategy

People are talking about your brand online, the conversations are happening (with or without you) on forums, blogs, Twitter, your Facebook community page, etc. They have praise, criticism, suggestions, and concerns, and they want to be heard.

The days of one way communication where companies broadcast a message and hope it sticks are over. So if your reputation online is important to you (and it should be) why would you let an intern manage it?

Just because an intern knows how to post photos on Facebook, upload a video to YouTube, or tweet from their phone does not mean they know how to use social media in a strategic manner.

Here are a few reasons that a social media specialist will be a better choice over an intern:

1. A specialist that is a full-time employee is more vested in the company and its success than an intern. An internship typically ends, and while an intern will want a great recommendation at  the end of the position, if they mess something up (e.g. you get sued for posting something), they don’t have to stick around for the fall out.

2. Interns leave (as stated above), so what one interns starts another intern may not continue. And worse, having your strategy change every semester isn’t a good way to build a brand or consistent experience.

3. It is highly unlikely that an intern knows how to properly post content. Let me illustrate, your creative team makes a great new video. The intern posts the video, fails to tag it (because most people do), titles it something clever and the description isn’t clear as to what the video is about. Who will find it? YouTube may be the second largest search engine, but if no one sees your killer new video, what was the point?

4. Knowing how to create a company page on Facebook does not qualify a person to know how to strategically use it. If a customer has a complaint or question, do you really want an intern handling that delicate situation for all your other customers to see? Or worse, what if they accidentally post something they shouldn’t (I have seen it happen). My point is, even if you delete a mistake, that may not stop someone from taking a screen shot and spreading it around the internet.

There are another dozen reasons why you should not trust your online presence to an intern, I could go on, but I hope the point has been made. Of course there is a chance that you will meet a rock star intern that won’t screw up the social media, communicate with customers well and actually do something good for your brand, but unless you hire that intern there are no guarantees you will be so lucky next semester.

If you are going to do something, do it right!