Intern's Guide to Success: Social Media

As a second-time intern I know that you are going to be experiencing a lot of firsts when starting and internship. It’s ok to not have all the answers and I’m here to help! This week I’m going to be talking about trusting your intuition when it comes to working on your companies social media and having confidence in your work.

For someone in the communications field, advertising an event can be just as important as the event itself. This semester I was given the opportunity to work on the largest project that I’ve ever done for my internship. Essentially I was told to come up with a social media plan for a big event that my organization puts on every year. I’ve dabbled in social media for their instagram before but I’ve never done something on this scale. This was a really daunting task for me because I was given complete creative freedom. Here’s my advice for people who are new to doing social media:

First, when working on an organization’s social media is to do your research. Get a feel for how they post. Having a firm understanding of the company’s brand and posting style will make it a lot easier when creating an outline for the social media plan.

Next, be creative! Your creativity is what is going to help you stand out when adding your work to your portfolio. I ran into an issue when trying to created graphics for my posts. I have never been properly taught how to use photoshop or any editing tools, so I used my resources. I knew that I could edit my photos using VSCO to give the color effects I wanted. I then used Canva, which is an easy tool for creating things like

Facebook or Instagram flyers. When I showed my supervisor the flyers I had created for a countdown of the event she was thrilled with how how they turned out.

Finally, take pride in your work. Everything that you create is a reflection of you and you should be excited to show off your skills. Having an internship is a great opportunity for your to learn with less pressure. Make sure to always make sure the content you are putting out there is the best it can be!