Trusting the brand to the lowly ‘twintern’ - U.S. business- msnbc.com

Trusting the brand to the lowly ‘twintern’

Only the kids know social networks? The risk may not be worth the clicks

By Caitlin McDevitt

Most people measure the workday in hours, but for a new crop of employees — interns in charge of their companies' Twitter feeds — the day is measured in tweets. "I try to get in at least 10 posts a day," says Alexa Robinson, 22, who started work as Pizza Hut's first official "twintern" in June. Robinson spends much of the day on the free microblogging service Twitter sending out messages about special promotions, responding to customer complaints, and trolling Twitter for mentions of Pizza Hut.

Because her posts are not monitored by superiors, she has license to tweet freely in real time. Some of her tweets sound like straight sales pitches: "Have you tried our new Tuscani Pasta Pairs? 2 of our delicious pastas and breadsticks starting at $13.99!?" But others are more personal, like this one: "what are you listening to? My ears are craving some tunes to shake off this case of the Mondays after the holiday!"

Trusting the brand to the lowly ‘twintern’ - U.S. business- msnbc.com

Blogged with the Flock Browser