Land the Internship Using Social Media Marketing Strategies

The perfect internship or job rarely presents itself to a position-seeking applicant. Even for an applicant with outstanding qualifications, it is unwise to count on being the exception — the sought-after breakout talent. More often, the “perfect” internships are incredibly hard to find and even harder to take from the throng of other gifted and hardworking candidates.

Even lesser qualified applicants who utilize original self-marketing methods can take the cake from natural prodigies who spun their wheels channeling exhausted techniques. From a Return on Investment perspective, it is wasteful to dedicate hours composing a thoughtful cover letter and résumé that hiring agents (or computers) scan in 10 seconds or less. While applicants do need to be exceptionally creative composing their credentials, now the search and application process themselves require imagination and ingenuity.

Instead of spending countless hours searching online resources, imagine an internship tailored to your strengths and prepare a pitch for the employer best suited to you. Used correctly, this tactic works amazingly well. The following social media marketing strategies for the internship hunt and job search can start you on the track toward professional success:

1. Establish your personal brand and find a corresponding niche.
2. Identify your audience(s) and their goals.
3. Present yourself as the solution to your audiences’ goals.

Strategy No. 1: Defining a Personal Brand & Niche
Market what you do best. Know your industry like the back of your hand. Gain experience helping others as consultant on industry-specific topics. (Stay tuned for upcoming post to find out how!)

Strategy No. 2: Identifying Your Audiences’ Goals
Consider your audience the person to whom you must appeal in an interview during your search. In order to appeal to this audience, you must understand them and their goals. This understanding enables you to tailor a relevant and useful solution for your audiences’ goals.

The most effective solutions consider the “Pie of Life.” Remember, the person sitting across from you in an interview is a complex individual with both professional and personal lives. Therefore, solutions that satisfy problems and achieve goals in multiple slices of the interviewer’s Pie of Life are the most appealing to hiring agents. Challenge yourself to map out a Pie of Life over the course of the interview and contrive how your personal brand will become their solution.

Strategy No. 3: Now Presenting … You, the Solution
Once you have identified how to market yourself most effectively, you must create a solution and build a proposal. The key is to create a persuasive tie-in that will attach your audience to your proposal. Marketing and other fields of persuasion most often channel a combination of ethos (emotional and moral sentiments that inform one’s choices and character) and logos (logic and reasoning).

Conclusion
Once you have accepted a job or internship offer, your next step is to follow through with your solution and, by extension, improve the organization. What better way is there to start your career than to deliver a valuable solution to a business? Imagine earning a title and respect in the first week — whether on the first or second try! Who could turn away such a valuable asset at the end of an internship or refuse to write a glowing recommendation?

Applying these social media marketing strategies professionally dramatically improves your chances of securing your perfect internship — and is a great start to your career!