As a UGA PR student and the PR/social media intern for a local nonprofit in Athens, Ga., I can definitely say this is a GREAT topic! I manage my the organizations online sites, including their website, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr, and it is no easy task.

At first, I struggled with getting other employees to stop making sporadic posts that often duplicated mine. Now I have the problem of obtaining needed information at all.

Because I am not in the office everyday, I do not know the daily topics that should be posted, and I am constantly asking for more details on the organization’s activities. Unlike my personal social media accounts, I must post comments that represent the entire organization’s viewpoints and attitude on a subject—-difficult to do when I only work with one or two other employees, and do not often see the “big picture.”

I suggest that employers give social media interns a full briefing on the company’s goals and attitude of using Facebook or Twitter, as well as educate all employees on why social media may be important to the organization. This keeps everyone on the same page, and opens up internal communication between employees and interns, allowing for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Also, compiling a weekly report of topics needing to be covered gives interns the freedom of creating posts, while giving them a starting point. Doing this after staff meetings allows all of the departments to pitch-in ideas.

I hope you find this inside information useful. Thank you for addressing an important issue as students seek summer internships!

You’ll notice that when you search today for a company, product, etc., social sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. are at the top of the list on the results page. That’s do to their overall clout and viral nature. So, if you post something to your page or channel or stream that people enjoy, there’s a chance it could spread like wildfire through the social media space through sharing, retweeting, Digg-ing, and so on. This effect has a direct impact on increasing the inbound links to your site, which of course, has huge impact on your search rankings.

To sum up: Buzz generates citations, citations generate links, links generate rankings, top rankings = good SEO (from @digeratti)

Thanks so much for the feedback! Those are terrific comments for both students and professionals alike to note. I will refer back to these ideas when I write my follow-up blog entry on this topic. Thanks again, MB

In Web 2.0 where college students, in particular, PRSSA students are savvy social media users – we still require direction from employers and internship supervisors. Once the initial excitement of managing an online communication outlet settles, an effective strategy should be implemented on a daily or weekly basis with review from the supervisor. On site supervisors, do not have to play the “watch dog” role but monitoring the clarity, tone and accuracy of online messages is helpful. When interns embark on an organizational lead role like a social media manager, supervisors should offer support and constructive feedback to create a healthier learning experience which also creates room for creativity and stronger reception from their audience.