Adding students to your social media team is a brilliant strategy that more and more schools and districts are implementing. It’s a win-win idea! You get more engaging, creative content for your social media channels, and young people gain valuable experience in communications and storytelling.
Yet getting a student internship program off the ground can be daunting, and I’d be lying if I said it’s always easy. I launched a program at my hometown school district of New Auburn in Wisconsin and it’s definitely had its ups and downs, so I have some real-world experience to share in today’s article. Let’s discuss why and how you can empower student voices through a social media internship at your school!
Do you wish you could take #SocialSchool4EDU with you wherever you go? With the Mastering Social Media for Schools podcast, you can! Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, today.
Benefits of Student Interns
I was nervous about starting the New Auburn social media intern program because I didn’t have it all figured out when I began. I was worried that I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but you know what? I’m still glad that I just jumped in!
Here are just a few reasons why it’s beneficial for your school (and your students!) to offer this type of internship program:
- Time: As a school communicator, you don’t have enough hours in a day. Student interns can take some of that heavy lift off your plate and help you capture and create meaningful stories. Kids have time to help you tell stories from the school!
- Talent: Young people have so many untapped talents that you can help nurture and bring to life! Giving them this outlet will grow their confidence and skills.
- Bandwidth: There are events and stories happening in your district that you can’t capture on your own. Student interns can help fill that gap.
- Growth: When you introduce student interns to your social media team, I can almost guarantee that your accounts will see growth – especially on Instagram. Kids like hearing from other kids, and this added authenticity will grow your follower base.
- Perspective: Students provide a unique perspective that we, as adults, cannot always understand. Let them tell stories from their own vantage point!
- Career: Providing hands-on social media management and storytelling experience will open doors for your students. There are so many career opportunities in communications, and this internship could be a vital first step!
Structure of Student Internships
You can implement a student internship program for your social media team in several ways. I’ve seen schools take this in many different directions, with similar goals and outcomes in mind. These include:
- Instagram Takeovers
- Social Media Club
- Internship (paid or unpaid)
- Class for credit
- Yearbook or other club
- Part of a journalism or marketing class
Case Study Alert: Learn how a social media intern program can take shape by listening to this podcast episode with special guest Ryan Foran. He works at Arcadia Unified School District in California, which is now in its 8th year using social media student interns. More on his program, later in this blog!
How to Find Your Social Media Interns
I recommend opening up this internship opportunity to all students at your middle and/or high school. Don’t just pick that stereotypical student who you think will be a great fit – consider all applicants!
Students who make great interns can be any high school grade level and have a variety of interests, including writing, video production, and photography.
Start by creating a description for your internship and crafting an application. Create a flyer like this one to advertise the opportunity. Check out the application I used at New Auburn, too!
Sit down and interview each applicant, which is a great experience for the students. Here are the questions I asked during my interviews:
- Why are you interested in becoming a social media intern?
- What stories deserve to be told about our school, student life, or other subjects?
- If it came down to me selecting you or another student as an intern, why should I choose you?
- What do you hope to learn? What skills do you want to develop?
- Let’s say you make an error with a post – for example – misspell something on a story. What would you do?
Once you’ve interviewed and selected your intern(s), I recommend having them sign an expectations agreement for the internship. Here’s the one I used at New Auburn.
Case Study Alert: Christine Paik led a 3-person communications team for Poway Unified School District in California, where she also ran a popular student intern program. In my podcast interview with her, we talked about how she selected students for the internships and the powerful stories they tell.
Components of the Social Media Internship
With your new student intern(s) under your wing, it’s time to start teaching them the ropes! I recommend meeting with your interns weekly because they will need continuous support to get started and be successful.
As much as we think students understand social media because most use it every day, posting on behalf of the school or district is different. I’ve found that giving them weekly assignments or stories to cover is helpful, especially in the beginning. The magic of the mini microphones can really help encourage video interviews from your team of interns.
Topics you can cover with your interns during training and your check-in meetings can include:
- Expectations of the internship
- Engagement – how reach is impacted by likes, comments, and shares of the stories they share
- Photography tips and tricks
- Video editing skills
- How to create Instagram Reels
- How to conduct an interview
In running the internship program at New Auburn, I learned that it’s best to start small (1-2 students) and meet more frequently at the beginning of the internship. I strive to provide clear deadlines and not assume they know everything.
Case Study Alert: Arcadia Unified School District calls its program the Digital Communications Internship (DCI). Check out the DCI flyer, here!
The DCI participants meet with their advisor every week and collaborate through Facebook. They don’t meet during vacations or finals, and every semester restarts a new internship period. Student interns at DCI must re-apply every semester, go through an interview, and have a 30-day probationary period with required participation.
If you work at a public school district and would like to collaborate with other school communications professionals about internships, check out this program.
Content Ideas for Social Media Interns
Once your interns are ready to start posting on social media, you’ll need to get the ball rolling with some content ideas. Start by pulling up the Athletics and Activities calendar(s) and assign events for student interns to cover.
Other content/event ideas:
- Academic night
- First day of school
- Homecoming
- Day in the life
- Question of the week
- Graduation
- Sports features
- Staff features
- Senior feature
Get inspired by some of these student-created post examples!
St. Coleman Catholic School, FL
Portage Community School District, WI
The Colton Joint Unified School District, CA
Ready to Launch Your Social Media Internship?
I can’t wait to hear about your new internship program! Shoot me a DM on Facebook or Twitter and let me know how things are going, and share any success stories you’ve had.
If you’re looking for just one more helpful resource, check out this free PDF download. I hope it helps you get your program off the ground!
