I was recently helping out with a class on setting up a Twitter account, and we ran into an unexpected snag that made the set-up take considerably longer than it should have.

The first screen, where you choose a user name and set a password, was easy enough. It was the second screen that stopped us cold.

Notice how they want us to select a bunch of people to follow? This was a business Twitter class, and many of the suggestions were unwelcome at best and inappropriate at worst. What’s missing here? Yes, a “Skip” or “Next” option.

Here’s what the screen used to look like:

See how that “NEXT” button was big and easy to spot?

Easy, eh?

Well, when I got home and set up a test account to give me screen grabs for this article, I finally found the “Skip” option. Can you find it? Suggestion. Click on the image to enlarge it. Otherwise, you’ll never find it.

Almost harder than finding “Waldo”

It’s in light gray, with a tiny font, at the bottom left of the screen, just in case you couldn’t find it.

I get why Twitter is doing it. They are making money by selling “Promoted Accounts” to people. I have no problem with them making money by suggesting accounts to follow. But it shouldn’t be difficult to get past the suggested accounts if you’re not interested.

Agree? Disagree?

You know what interns should and shouldn’t do, and I’ve given you some tips on hiring one. Now let’s look at training and monitoring.

Too many people hire a “20 something” and then just let them go. That’s a lot of power to give a young person. I suggest a more moderate approach.

Setting sensible boundaries

Interns don’t have the deep knowledge of your business that you do, so they need training and mentoring in your social media vision. Be sure to set limits on what kinds of communication they are allowed to handle and when they need to bump something up the chain. It’s easy to let them deal with positive comments and compliments on your business, but customer concerns and problems should always be handled by you, the business owner.

You will have to develop your own metrics to track effectiveness and then train your intern in how to monitor them. Some suggested metrics?

• Number of “likes” or “followers”
• Number of comments or mentions
• Number of unique visitors to your website from social media

Those are metrics an intern should be able to monitor and report on.

What if you’re not meeting the goals? Don’t blame the intern. Schedule a meeting to discuss ways to improve.

Interns should NOT build your social media presence. This is important enough that I’m going to repeat it.

Interns should NOT build your social media presence.

You do the building and they do the monitoring. Why? Because you need to have access to all your accounts. I’ve heard too many stories of interns or employees building profiles, tying them to their personal email account and then taking the profile when they leave the company. Don’t let this happen to you.

The same rule applies to passwords. You create them and change all passwords when an intern leaves your employment. Do not give interns access to password recovery questions or change those also when an intern leaves.

Ongoing monitoring

Create some schedule for monitoring your channels (evenings, weekends, whatever). I also think it’s a good idea to create a “dummy” profile or borrow a friend’s profile to comment on your channels and test your intern’s responses. Try posing as a difficult customer to see if your intern respects the limits you’ve placed on him or her.

Definitely have regular meetings to discuss progress, metrics and interesting/important interactions through social media. Be certain that the goals you’ve set are being met.

So that’s it for this series. You should be ready to go out and find that great intern to manage all your social media accounts!

On Monday, I talked about what a social media intern was good at. And what they weren’t. Today I’m going to talk about how to find that great intern.

Let’s start with the characteristics of a successful intern.

The best ones have an active social media presence already, preferably with experience in multiple channels, at least one of which is one you use.

Of course you want someone who is a self-starter, highly motivated and works well with a team. But you know you’ve got a top-notch candidate when you find one with some entrepreneur experience, even if it’s small.

So where do you find this intern? Local university or communty colleges often have ways to post jobs for interns. Don’t forget Craigslist, and if you have college-age kids of your own, ask them to ask their friends. Referrals are always the best.

I suggest you make the position paid, even if it’s a small salary. You’ll attract better candidates. It’s also good to offer a year-long position. This adds consistency to your profile.

Don’t hesitate to “stalk” your applicant on social media. Look for how he/she already represents him/herself. However, the occasional party post on Facebook really isn’t anything to worry about. Don’t completely hold their age against them.

When interviewing, make the applicants pitch themselves. If they can’t sell themselves, how will they ever be able to sell your company? Ask some questions to see if they’ve checked you out. The best ones will have and will offer suggestions to make your social media better.

Now you know what interns can and can’t do, and you have some practical tips on finding one. Tune in on Friday for the last post where I talk about training and monitoring your new intern.

Off you go to advertise for the position!

Did you know that your social media needs will change throughout the life cycle of your business? Think about it. The various social media channels have different audiences and different purposes. So I think it makes sense that your needs would change depending on your business and its stage.

Let’s take a few examples. Facebook is an excellent tool for keeping loyal customers coming back to you. It’s also good for generating referrals. It’s not as good for reaching out to a new audience. Therefore, Facebook doesn’t seem like the best tool for a new business that doesn’t yet have an established client base. However, for a mature business, it can be excellent.

Twitter is good for reaching out to a new audience, which makes it potentially better for a new business than Facebook. However, it takes time to build a following, so again, it might not be the best place to put your time. However, are you getting ready to launch a new product or service line in an established business? Twitter might be a great tool for promoting it.

What about LinkedIn? It’s great for making new contacts, finding strategic partners and using Groups to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Sounds to me like it could be useful at any stage of business.

See how it works? You can look at the audience and nature of a social media channel and decide what it’s most useful for. Then you can look at your stage of business and your needs and map those needs to a channel. Which means that as channels change, and your business needs change, you’re ready with the knowledge to change with them.

Kind of cool? Anyone want to share how social media tools are affecting you in your unique business life cycle?