Their has been a lot of talk in recent years with who should be in charge of company’s social media. Many companies put their social media in the hands of communication experts, but some companies put interns in charge of their social media. Although many interns are quite qualified to run social media, others are not.
Social media is much more complicated than many people believe, especially when businesses use it as a means of communication with their customers/audience. Many college graduates have experience with social media due to their growing up with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. What they don’t understand is that social media in the business world is much more different than that on a person level. A business is one offensive, insulting, or abusive tweet away from completely ruining a brands reputation. Should businesses really trust an intern with their entire online brand?
Now although I believe that many interns are not qualified to be trusted with a company’s online brand, their are some out there that are qualified enough right out of college. Should they be discriminated against just because a few other young interns have screwed it up for the rest?
Although I am young, compared to other social media strategists in the industry, I do believe that if I was an intern I should be trusted with the reputation of an online brand. I have proven myself with my own online brand, along with the online brand of a local business. I maintain a professional feed on my own person social media accounts, that in itself is more than many college graduates can say.
It all comes down to a case-to-case basis. I believe trusting interns with social media accounts are like trusting interns with any other subject matter in the business field. The company has to be aware of what they are doing and make sure they know the risks of trusting interns with their online brand.
