Archive for the ‘Interns & Internships’ Category
I'm often asked, "What could an intern do for me and my business?", by the entrepreneurs I meet at networking events and speaking engagements I attend. For many of them, the term "internship" brings to mind images of a young college student making copies, digging through filing cabinets, and sending faxes. While this is may be the stereotype, there are many more things an intern can do to help you reach your marketing goals and further their own learning and skill building.
If you have a business, whether it's full time or part time, run out of your home or an external office, an intern can be a great asset to support your marketing efforts. There are lots of things you can hire an intern to do that will help you out and provide a learning experience for her at the same time. Here are seven projects that are great for interns:
1. Managing your database
Every business owner should have a place to keep contact information of the prospects, partners, leads, and vendors they know. Imagine going to a networking event, trade show, or speaking engagement and having someone else to do the data entry of that information into your system. They can also:
- Add contacts to a follow-up or drip marketing sequence
- Schedule time on your calendar to make a follow-up phone call
- Complete regular 'maintenance' on your system by removing old email addresses and add missing fields like zip codes
- Call your contacts to get mailing addresses for thank you notes
- Run reports to check on email open rates and bounces
2. Social networking
Interns know how to use social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter. They can save you a great deal of time by posting and scheduling your status updates, adding or finding new friends, accepting or declining group and event invitations, creating events and inviting guests, uploading photos, keeping your profile up to date, or messaging new friends to encourage them to join your Facebook fan page or email list.
3. Finding reciprocal linking partners
Inbound links are a valuable commodity, and reciprocal linking can get you those links at no cost. But it does take some time to find webmasters of relevant sites who will link to you. Why not get your intern to do it?
4. Managing emails
If reading and answering email from networking partners, prospects, and clients takes you a good deal of time to manage, let your intern help. He can screen the emails that come into your inbox, decide whether it needs action or just to be read, answer the ones you tell them to using a template you write, bring the ones he can't answer to your immediate attention and archive the rest.
5. Running email campaigns
From the nuts and bolts of setting up autoresponders to tracking results, there is much to be learned from an email campaign. Letting your intern work on one will benefit both of you.
6. Setting up shopping carts
A shopping cart is a key component of any Internet marketing site. Allowing your intern to set up shopping carts on new sites will free up your time.
7. Promotion of special events
When you are planning a special event, teleclass, or program launch, it's always nice to have an extra hand. Your intern could handle the promotion aspect of it, freeing you up to do the planning.
If you find you are spending time working "in" your business more than working "on" your business and any of the above tasks keep you from doing the important activities only you can do, hiring an intern is a great way to get help managing the administrative functions of your operation while helping a student get valuable experience at the same time. And that's what I call a win-win.
Deanna Maio, Business Trainer & Coach, teaches business owners simple, powerful processes to stop wasting time and start making more money, and create a business that acts as a vehicle for living the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to increase your income and use your valuable time more wisely, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
