What Work to Expect as a Social Media Intern

Coming into my summer internship at a social media agency, I didn’t know what to expect. I had worked in social media before, but never at a specialized, real-life agency. For anyone who doesn’t know what to expect from an internship role in the industry, here is some of the work my fellow interns and I have done at Media A La Carte as part of our social media summer internships!

PR Research

Public Relations are imperative to get the word out about Media A La Carte. The interns created a spreadsheet of writers who cover small business, media start ups, and social media influencers and entrepreneurs. We collected their contact information and formulated pitches about Media A La Carte or information that Media A La Carte could provide that matched each writer’s style.

Canva Graphics

Canva has been the backbone of my summer internship. Canva is very user friendly, but also looks extremely professional. We use Canva to create presentations, reports, and graphics for the company and clients’ social media pages. We’ve built brand kits for each organization, complete with fonts, colors, and logos. The brand kits make templates easier to customize and make it look like the brand created it completely from scratch. Having brand kits has helped us in creating visual hierarchy on our graphics, which we upload to TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Brainstorming Instagram Concepts

• Using Canva, “This or That”, “Trending Tuesdays”, content calendars

At Media À La Carte, the thing that sets your brand apart from competitors is YOU! Social media is always evolving, so we’re constantly brainstorming offerings that Media À La Carte can uniquely provide their audience. We’ve come up with fun, interactive story series to engage Media À La Carte’s Instagram followers. On Tuesdays, we research TikTok trends for “Trending Tuesdays” where Founder + CEO Amandina will unpack a popular trend/audio/filter on the app that small businesses can use. We brainstorm topics for Friday's “This or That.”

Working on Client Accounts

• Writing copy, content calendars, Planoly, Later

Each intern has two client accounts that we log into. We engage with their following and communities. This has taught me a lot about page growth. It’s important to create relationships with one's community on social media, whether that be clients, guests, competitors, similar pages, possible collaborators, etc. We use Media À La Carte’s custom content calendars to plan social media posts for clients. After the content is approved, we use Planoly or Later to schedule the graphics used in each post and write copy for them!

Photoshoot Prep

• Planned out on spreadsheet based on outfits/location/timing

• Wrote out props/what to pack

• Planned branding image spreads

• Went and bought magazines at the shop

One of the most exciting tasks was planning the most recent Media À La Carte branding photoshoot. We created an excel spreadsheet organized by the top of the shoot to the end. We timed the shoot according to outfits. We listed locations, poses, participants, and props, complete with inspiration photos to support the vision. I was highly anticipating the day, but I was intimidated! On the day of the shoot, we piled in our Uber XL and rode to the Soho studio. Immediately, we started organizing outfits on hangers and shoes on tables. We spread out and handled props, quickly passing them to people in photos. When the interns weren’t in the photos, we were curating and creating branding images. These are photos using props like newspapers, wallets, planners, computers, phones, etc. These are used as background images on the website, social media, and presentations. The shoot flowed seamlessly, and we ended up having time to spare at the end. Afterwards, we filmed a few TikToks and celebrated the stress-free day with dinner and drinks.

TikTok Creation

TikTok is a tricky app to master, but that’s why places like Media À La Carte exist! Right now, TikTok is a marketplace for goods and ideas as well as a place to build a community based on shared interests. It’s crucial that brands use TikTok to connect with their audiences and the youth. We curate, pitch, and film TikToks for Media À La Carte’s account. To be successful on the app, consistent posting is important for small businesses and startups. Having three more sets of hands on deck has proven instrumental, as we’ve seen the page grow by hundreds in the past month. The team studies TikTok to catch trends, emulate, and report them, as the algorithm seems to constantly change. We film informative content as well as trendy content so as to entertain and educate our audience.

Blogging

Each week, interns individually pitch three ideas for a blog post to be executed for the next week. It’s usually related to a new aspect of social media. The goal is to write a post in an hour, research excluded. Pitching TikToks and Blogs are usually the hardest, but tools like Answerthepublic.com make it easier to anticipate what people may want to hear about.