Beth Keserauskis

The “Twintern”

The new buzz word in marketing is the “tw-intern.”  This is where you decide, as an organization, that you want to embark on a new social media technology like Twitter and you’re going to hire an intern for the job, hence the word “tw-intern.”  What I often ask as someone considers putting an intern in charge of their social media strategy is, if your local news affiliate is shows up at your door to do a story on your company for their evening news broadcast, would you put your intern in front of the camera to best represent your brand, company and key message?

I would venture to guess that 9.5 times out of 10, the answer is, “Absolutely not!  Why would I put an intern in front of the news media?”

So then I say, “OK.  Let’s talk about the reach that your local news affiliate has, perhaps it’s 40-60 thousand people who may be watching the news and paying attention to the story.  On the other hand, tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, a blog – any of those technologies – have the potential to reach hundreds of thousands, if not millions or potential customers.”

So, if the news media was able to reach millions of people and you wouldn’t put your intern in front camera, why on earth would you consider putting an intern in front of something with a reach as potentially broad as a social media technology such as Twitter, Facebook, a blog, etc?

Now, I understand that most organizations face a substantial budget crisis and cash flow problem, especially higher education institutions (even more specifically, institutions within the state of Illinois).  However, it is time for us to rethink our overall marketing and advertising strategy and make it much more efficient to include important technologies that are appropriate for your target audience that have a much broader reach than perhaps a television interview, or a story on the front page of your local paper.

Much more to come on this subject!

February 21, 2010 - Posted by Elizabeth Keserauskis | higher education, marketing, social media | branding, marketing, social media, strategy