Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Business Communications and Promotion in the Era of Social Media

For the past two weeks, I have settled into my internship position at Tru, Inc., which is a start-up based in Natick, MA that produces functional performance supplements. As an intern, I am the head of Social Media Operations in regards to the outreach and management of social media influencers!

What are social media influencers?

Here at Tru, all employees value real people doing awesome things, whether it be at the office, the gym, or at home. That’s why I love using social media influencers in my project- they are real people doing real life things, with the exception being that they typically have a large following that are inspired by their creative posts that showcase their lives.

  Some Background:

Social media campaigning allows companies to reach their consumers in an authentic and personal way, as it shows consumers that the people they trust and admire believe in a product. In addition to this, social media has been the largest breakthrough in communications in the 21st century, and utilizing it for marketing has proven to serve as an advantage. In 2018, for example, there were 33 million “cord-cutters” in the United States that no longer use cable to access their media and video services in exchange for online streaming and content (read more here)! This is highly impactful for the marketing sphere, as it means that many Americans are no longer receiving their media from the traditional routes of television advertisements.

  What this Means for My Position at Tru:

As Tru, Inc. begins to scale up, I know that we need to be reaching a larger audience and creating greater product awareness to let the world know the benefits of the all-natural performance enhancing ingredients in Tru! The first step in this process is to find influencers that match our audience: health-conscious, everyday people doing awesome things in their daily life, whether it be in gym, the office, or at home. I then reach out to our influencers using influencer promotion platforms to keep in constant communication with them and ensure that the products that they received are up to our quality standard. I then ask our influencers to create organic, creative posts! We ask all of our influencers to keep it real and authentic, letting our audience know the awesome benefits of our products and how they help them be the best version of themselves! As a result, social media influencers have become not only the way to promote your business, but the main outlet to boost your business performance and product awareness.

Social Media Influencers as a Means to Better Business Communications:

Within the past two weeks, this project has already proven to push me out of my comfort zone in terms of communicating with others in a business context. I am more confident in planning, negotiating, and managing within the context of influencer communication. Each person is different in their communication style, however, by being concise and direct with your intentions and expectations,-as well as friendly- it is likely that you will have success with relaying your message.