By Charles Gray
As a writer for The Vinyl District, It's been really nice enjoying the perks- getting to go to shows, big festivals, and meeting some artists whose work I enjoy are all icing on the cake.
But not everything is going someplace fun or meeting someone cool. There's also a little bit of grunt work involved. One way in which the position has the intern contribute sans writing articles is 'social media' time. In this time the intern sits at a computer for a block of time and makes sure that The Vinyl District is quickly and accurately cataloged for its posts in it's social media extensions.
When a post on The Vinyl District goes up, it is up to the intern to post that article on Facebook and Twitter so that people who frequent these social media outlets can access it. Although it easy task, it is not mindless.
When spreading an article, the intern is tasked with creating a lead for the Facebook/Twitter post describing the post in a way that is alluring to a social media diet. This is to say that along with the article link, a one to three sentence synopsis of the article needs to accompany it that is both clear and alluring. Additionally, the post needs to plug into all of the artists/venues/publications/ etc that the article discusses.
For example, if I am posting an article about a ticket giveaway for Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, I need to be sure to tag both the band and the venue in the post. One easy mistake to make is false tags- there are many twitters and Facebook accounts that may claim to be the official social media outlet for any given entity, but that's not always the case. Authenticity needs to be to ensure an accurate tagging.
The obvious pay off for the work is as simple as your editors won't be displeased with you and you're able to keep a gig that has many perks. The latent function is that it teaches the importance of digesting an article quickly to making an enticing lead, and accurately tag all official brands involved- Creating quality summaries and solidifying relationships with contacts.
As a writer for The Vinyl District, It's been really nice enjoying the perks- getting to go to shows, big festivals, and meeting some artists whose work I enjoy are all icing on the cake.
But not everything is going someplace fun or meeting someone cool. There's also a little bit of grunt work involved. One way in which the position has the intern contribute sans writing articles is 'social media' time. In this time the intern sits at a computer for a block of time and makes sure that The Vinyl District is quickly and accurately cataloged for its posts in it's social media extensions.
When a post on The Vinyl District goes up, it is up to the intern to post that article on Facebook and Twitter so that people who frequent these social media outlets can access it. Although it easy task, it is not mindless.
When spreading an article, the intern is tasked with creating a lead for the Facebook/Twitter post describing the post in a way that is alluring to a social media diet. This is to say that along with the article link, a one to three sentence synopsis of the article needs to accompany it that is both clear and alluring. Additionally, the post needs to plug into all of the artists/venues/publications/ etc that the article discusses.
For example, if I am posting an article about a ticket giveaway for Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, I need to be sure to tag both the band and the venue in the post. One easy mistake to make is false tags- there are many twitters and Facebook accounts that may claim to be the official social media outlet for any given entity, but that's not always the case. Authenticity needs to be to ensure an accurate tagging.
The obvious pay off for the work is as simple as your editors won't be displeased with you and you're able to keep a gig that has many perks. The latent function is that it teaches the importance of digesting an article quickly to making an enticing lead, and accurately tag all official brands involved- Creating quality summaries and solidifying relationships with contacts.