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The Importance of Social Media Jobs

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Image extracted from: The Humanity Exchange

Social Media has dramatically changed the marketing landscape, and the ways we interact both with each other and with the organizations and brands in our lives.  For better or worse Facebook and Twitter and Linkedin are here to stay.  Everyone has a blog, and along with getting real time news updates, you’re going to be inundated with posts of what people are eating for lunch, and spam comments from marketers who have pegged you as their target demographic.

I’m a big fan of social media.  It’s how I connect with a large part of my world.  I’ve learned A LOT from both creating content, and from interacting with others on line.  Here at Coro Pittsburgh, we use social media everyday, and it has been crucial in staying connected to our alumni, and the Pittsburgh community we are committed to transforming.  When social media is done well, and there are plenty or organizations doing it well, it creates a valuable way of interacting with a group you may not have much contact with otherwise.

Especially for non-profits, social media is an obvious answer.  What?  We can reach hundreds and thousands of people with our mission, and it’s free? Sign us up! And that becomes part of a problem.  If it’s free, is it really worth it?  Should we bother with social media, or is it a waste of time for our already over-stretched employees? Should we have social media jobs?  If someone’s spending all this time on facebook and twitter, how can they be working?  This question is more and more often met with the answer, I know, we’ll hire an intern to do it!

In a lot of ways, hiring an intern to manage your social media makes a lot of sense.  They get this stuff!  They’re tech savvy, they can create facebook profiles in their sleep, they tweet all the time, social media jobs should be a dream for them.

Except that then you start running into the bigger problem of entrusting the management of your brand, your reputation, and your mission, to someone with potentially very little professional experience, who is part-time, new to your organization, and doesn’t have the commitment or buy-in of a full time employee.

Take for instance, the recent debacle Marc Jacobs ran into with having an intern manage their twitter account.  The intern, apparently not the right fit for the company, got fed up with the job, took their anger to public on Marc Jacobs twitter account, and fired off a few inflammatory tweets as part of their very public resignation.  You can read about it here.

Image extracted from: Fashintern.com

Granted, most of us don’t, and never will have the brand recognition of Marc Jacobs.  But that doesn’t mean that we should take social media jobs any less seriously.  Your social media should not be managed solely by an intern.  If there are no full time employees willing or able to be involved with your social media marketing strategy, then perhaps it’s not a strategic media outlet for your organization right now.

This isn’t to say that interns can’t be involved.  Interns are smart, and creative, and are coming into your organization with a fresh perspective.  Of course they should be involved.  Our interns produce content for all of our social media accounts.  Especially if they are interested in social media jobs and marketing, this is a fantastic learning opportunity for them to gain hands on experience that they can reference later in their careers.  But our interns are monitored.  Their content is edited before it is posted, and at the end of the day, full time staff is responsible for what’s representing Coro Pittsburgh online.

The fact is, that social media management is a real job.  Yes it’s kind of goofy that a working professional is paid to “tweet”, but your brand and reputation are too valuable to not do it yourself.  Social media is part of marketing now, and should be recognized as a valuable tool, and not a waste of time to be pawned off on an intern.

Employer Workshop with Personalized Pathways 11/09

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RIC logo
The Regional Internship Center and Personalized Pathways present:

Navigating the Workplace Kitchen

Tuesday, November 9th, 2PM-5PM

Beinhaur Funeral Home Community Room
2828 Washington Rd, McMurray, PA 15317

Being healthy plays a huge role in employee productivity, company turnover, and insurance premiums. Personalized Pathways provides the tools for businesses and organizations that will help eliminate or reduce stress, provide healthy outlets, and enhance the overall environment. The RIC provides the tools for employers to create healthy internships.

For more information on Lindsey Smith and Personalized Pathways – CLICK HERE

A wonderful salad created by Lindsey Smith

Spinach, strawberries, walnuts.

Internships and Community Service

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The Regional Internship Center (RIC) of South Western PA seeks to generate and promote internship opportunities within our region.  Our website opens the communication channels between employers, students and post-secondary institutions.  We empower users of the RIC to be guest writers  for our blog as they can present their perspectives on relevant issues that effect many of us.  The RIC constantly seeks the input of employers and internship seekers during our workshops and internship fairs because we know the collective workforce development experience presented in numerous ways is a valuable resource. We seek to find new ways to collect information relevant to our audience and guest writing is another method for us to give voice to those that work with interns or who are interns.

As part of the RIC’s 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program, the Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC) hosted one of our high school student-interns, Gayle Rabare. Akiesha Gilcrist supervised her during the summer at the BGC and kindly accepted Gayle’s request to participate in our blog. She writes  little bit about her personal experience working as an internship coordinator for the BCG. Her engagement and passion for working with and for the community may serve as an inspiration to students that may be interested in getting involved within their own community.

Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation

My name is Akiesha Gilcrist and I am a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications & Rhetoric and Political Science, along with a minor in Legal Studies. In approximately two and a half weeks, I will be entering University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law (Class of 2013) with the intent of serving my community in Family and/or Criminal law.

To me, nothing is more important than giving back to the community to which one belongs. I am a firm believer in the importance of continuous education from a young age. Although it is not my sole concentration, my main focus working within the community is assisting children and youth. I believe they need the most guidance concerning education and life in general. I am dedicated to this line of work as I possess the passion and drive to help programs/organizations like these to succeed.

Currently, I am working with the BGC and East Side Neighborhood Employment Center (ENEC). With the BGC, I work alongside 12 other Internship Coordinators/Supervisors in case managing approximately 140 youth in Pittsburgh’s Summer Youth Employment Program. My duties in this position include managing case work, , conducting site visits and providing any other assistance youth may need in their endeavors. With the ENEC, I am a teacher for the Healthy Smart Program being held this summer at Peabody High School’s Summer Dreamers Academy. My duties include teaching Pittsburgh Public School Students a curriculum based on building healthy habits and forming healthy decision-making practices.

Both of these positions have allowed me to assist programs that I truly believe in, as well as expand my own leadership and communication skills. Furthermore, working in and around the community prepares me for my future interactions as a lawyer with, and for, the community. Case managing and teaching Pittsburgh youth, ranging from ages 11 to 21, has opened my eyes to the issues youth and their families are facing on a daily basis. I am very appreciative of the opportunity I was given this summer with the BGC and ENEC.

Volunteering for the Oil Spill

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As we all know, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in late April has been not only catastrophic to our economy, but more importantly, absolutely devastating to our environment. While hundreds of thousands of gallons still remain in the water, the oil continues to make its way closer to the Alma Roberts, who has recently volunteered to assist with the oil spill recovery effort, receieved a letter from Audubon’s Oil Spill Response Team that explains more in-depth how to go about volunteering. Check out the actual letter here to learn more about the entire process!

Dear Volunteer,

We want to once again thank you for volunteering to assist with the Gulf Oil Spill recovery effort. The response we have received has been both gratifying and inspiring – over 9,000 people have registered as potential volunteers since Friday afternoon. We will be sending frequent updates as the situation develops to keep you informed about our efforts and, in particular, the volunteer mobilization effort.

It is important to remember that when a catastrophic oil spill happens, the company responsible for the release must lead the emergency response, in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal and state agencies. To protect wildlife, the environment, and people, our volunteer efforts must be coordinated and managed so as not to create chaos and more damage. We all want our efforts to be safe and effective.

Our staff is in close contact with three entities: Tri-state Bird Rescue and Research, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Joint Incident Command. Those who have signed up with wildlife certifications and/or HAZMAT training will be called on first to assist in the recovery of oiled or injured wildlife. You will hear from us as the need arises.

We have received many inquiries about training opportunities.

We understand that you are eager to help as soon as possible, and again ask for your patience as the need for a volunteer response emerges. Coordination is essential to ensure an effective response to the oil spill—to protect the safety of all volunteers and to make sure that good intentions do not inadvertently cause additional harm. We anticipate opportunities for volunteers without specific wildlife rescue training and experience to help, whether by answering phones, collecting and analyzing data, handling other critical tasks, or in more direct rescue efforts.

We have also received many inquiries about donating supplies such as dish detergent and towels. Currently, those supplies are not being directly accepted for this oiled wildlife rescue effort. Sending them will slow down the wildlife response. If we learn that those supplies are needed, we will be sure to pass that information along. Please consider making a monetary donation to the recovery effort instead.

We are very grateful to you — we need your energy and dedication as the long job of restoration gets underway. Audubon has been working to restore healthy Gulf habitat since long before this crisis began, and we will be there for the long haul. With your help, we will make a difference.

Sincerely yours,

Audubon’s Oil Spill Response Team