The interns shall inherit the earth

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Imagine the scenario. You walk into a crowded bar. A group of potential customers stand in a corner. They’re talking about your company and your competitors. Interestingly, they’re trying to determine which company they should buy from, and each is putting forward solid arguments. The argument seems to be going your way. Perhaps it would be time to for your company to step in and offer its perspective? You can validate any competitive counter claims put forward and have a better offering. But who should talk to them? You need a big hitter. You reach for your phone…and call…the office intern?

Far-fetched? I’m not so sure.

It seems this is a scenario playing out in bulletin boards, forums, and on Facebook Fan Pages. But while most interns that come into my businesses have stronger paper qualifications than I hold, I think this combined with their much vaunted Gen Y bravado still doesn’t really make them ready for the trenches.

So why, would you put your interns into your client engagements? Are those well-paid sales people too busy to actually sell? Are the PR people too tied up with press releases? Are your customer support people still answering 800 number calls? Do “resource limitations” mean that the only people left to offer your customers the advice they’re looking for aren’t drawing salaries?

The answer, I think, is that this is hard. Social media channels are new and largely untested. We’ve spent the best part of a century convincing our executives that a pile of press clippings equals PR success. They’ve been media trained black-and-blue and told to focus on three key messages supported by sanctioned talking points. And now we want them to take part in online conversations with complete strangers who may well be 15 and not actually in the market for a high end sports car.

There’s a leap of faith required here. More accurately, a leap that gives us the latitude to participate and learn. We can prove the conversations are taking place relatively easily. Facebook has more than 400 million active users, and people spend more than 500 billion minutes per month on the social networking platform on average. People are talking online. But we need to make a better case for conversations leading to action. Web analytics is part of the answer. A (relatively) simple report from your product or service’s web landing page can show which web destinations people are coming to you from. A pull down menu at the point of purchase can also qualify the connection between discussion and demand generation. Certainly better measurement is part of the answer.

Ultimately, though, you need the authority to create change. If you genuinely think that online conversations are leading to sales from the wild, then it is time to change your approach and talk to the very people who want to buy from you. But at no point in “join the conversation” does it say “send interns into the conversation.”

So, what to do? I think the first step – once you understand the online conversations – is looking at people’s roles and responsibilities as you prepare to get involved. Train the right people for wider roles, but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. If the conversations concern customer support, then it makes sense for customer support people to prioritize online in parallel to their regular email or phone roles. If the conversations can be classed as pre-sales, then look at those who manage this function and see how to plug them in. Start small and discreet. Learn from your experience. Rinse and repeat.

Sure, let the interns help. But don’t put your brand in the hands of folks who’ve barely finished high school.