Organizational Social Media

Imagine that you just landed an amazing communication internship – congratulations! On your first day, your boss and coworkers all smile and welcome you to the office with open arms and a basket of cookies. All seems perfect, until they hand you your first assignment: maintaining the organization’s social media account. Sure, you’ve handled your own Instagram and Facebook posts since middle school, but has college prepared you to take on an organization’s page? From one intern to another, here are three specifics to watch out for when crossing into organizational social media.

1. Branding makes all the difference. When posting for an organization, it becomes essential that everything looks and sounds like the organization itself produced it, says entrepreneur coach Michael Noice. When posting promotions for the 2017 Humanities Symposium events on Instagram, I had to ensure that each post’s wording seemed identical, and that the images had similar filters and styles. Decide what message you want the organization to portray, and then make sure everything aligns with that goal.
2. Track your efforts. Few individuals keep detailed records of audience engagement on their personal posts, however, when working for an organization, you need to produce an evaluation of your efforts. John Foley Jr., CEO of interlinkONE and Grow Socially, says, “While it’s great to share content and see audience interaction, it’s still necessary to track and analyze all of your results.” Create a spreadsheet that describes each of your posts; sets target likes, comments and shares; and records actual interaction figures. This will help show you what kind of posts work and don’t work, and give a holistic picture of audience engagement.
3. Be creative. You probably got this job because you have some creative capacity, so use it. Take an interesting picture, find a new angle of an event to post about. Focus on something that no one else thought of, and present it online in an attention-grabbing way. Chuck Frey, founder of InnovationTools.com, says that “anyone can ‘do’ Twitter or create a Facebook page for your company, product or service. But it takes an inspired creative mindset to dream up unique campaigns that can cut through the dense forest of other messages that barrage everyone today.”

Working with social media can become an amazing part of any internship. Even though organizational accounts don’t function like personal ones, a good deal of flexibility and fun exists within the job description. And, because the job market now requires social media proficiency, learning these skills makes any internship more valuable.  

- Miriam A. Thurber ‘19

Sources

Foley, J. Jr. (2015, October, 15). 5 Tips to Manage Your Organization’s Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/article/5-tips-manage-organizations-social-media/

Frey, C. (n.d.). How Important is Creativity to your Social Media Efforts? Retrieved from http://www.innovationmanagement.se/imtool-articles/how-important-is-creativity-to-your-social-media-efforts/

Noice, M. (2016, July 7). 7 Powerful Ways to Build Your Social Media Brand. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278628