Lanie’s 6-Step Guide to Your Dream Social Media Internship

Ever seen a viral TikTok of a social media intern having a blast with their coworkers and thought, "I want that for me"? If so, you've probably already started hyperfocusing on finding the perfect social media internships for you. That’s great!

But let's be real: turning that dream into reality takes more than just wishful scrolling and searching. That is why our own social media intern, Lanie Kotler, is sharing her six-step guide to help you turn that internship dream into a reality.

Meet Lanie

Aside from being Fresh Prints’ social media genius, this Wake Forest Communication and Media Studies major juggles a killer blog (check out her style inspo here). She’s also one of our OG student creators for the FP x Creators lookbook. We're so lucky to have her on board!

Lanie is also the merch coordinator for her Kappa Delta chapter—she’s basically the queen of making her sisters look snatched with the cutest sorority merch. She's a total Pinterest pro, turning her creative vision into reality. 

So, how did Lanie establish herself as our social media queen and how can you establish yourself like she did? Here are her top tips:

Step 1: Scope Out Your Options and Prepare

Starting from scratch with zero clue of what’s out there is totally overwhelming and paralyzing. Maybe it’s the anxiety talking, too. Take a deep breath and focus on a goal. 

Maybe it’s finding what kind of job suits you. Or gaining experience that matches the strengths you want to showcase on your CV.

Lanie was all about finding a summer internship to boost her resume. With fashion and digital marketing as her strengths, she hunted down every job posting on LinkedIn and Indeed for opportunities that matched. 

Don't limit yourself to advertising or marketing agencies; there's a whole world of opportunities out there. Like Lanie, you can start looking into companies that do their social media efforts in-house, too. 

Step 2: Prepare Your Resume

Don’t overcomplicate it. Just include your education, work experience, leadership roles, and skills, and you should be all good. Keep it clean and professional with a one-page, black-and-white format, and consistent fonts—it’s little things like these that’ll show your attention to detail.

Make sure everything's up to date and highlight all your skills—yes, even that random volunteer work counts!

Pro tip from Lanie: tap into your college's career office for expert advice to level up your resume.

Step 3: Become a Social Media Baddie

Ever wondered how some people always seem to be one step ahead on TikTok? They totally know the secret sauce but that took a lot of legwork. They’ve got it down by keeping track of their engagement metrics and seeing what others are doing to go viral—this is exactly what makes social media interns and pros the goat.

 Lanie’s tip is to be super aware of what's happening online. She constantly builds an archive of high-engagement posts, breaking down their format and figuring out what makes them viral. 

When Lanie started working for FP, she legit spent a whole week obsessed with Pinterest, trying to crack the code on the perfect pin. She got deep into keywords, image styles, and even the best times to post. You could do the same with platforms your industry vibes with, like how B2B companies own LinkedIn and fashion brands serve on Instagram.

Step 4: Vibe with the Right People

Networking doesn’t always mean having 500+ LinkedIn connections. Lanie started with just us. After our Brand Manager, Casey, chose her for an exclusive chance to try out our design tool before launch, she realized curating brand imagery through social media was the type of work she wanted.

Lanie contacted Casey to figure out if FP had an internship opportunity around this kind of task. Since Casey already knew how strong Lanie’s Pinterest game was, they worked through an internship for her, even if we didn’t have a social media intern position. Now we do!

Moral of the story? Don’t let a missing job posting stop you from creating your own lane. 

Step 5: Apply, Apply, Apply

It’s a crazy time for social media jobs—tons of openings, but also a ton of competition. A polished personal feed isn’t enough to stand out anymore. Your resume might list your skills, but a social media portfolio shows what you can do.

Lanie’s graphic design friends inspired her to showcase her social media skills through an online platform. It started as a basic PDF doc but leveled up to an entire website. She included her FP designs and the sales she’s made to really make it pop. 

Sending your own social media portfolio along with your resume and cover letter will seriously impress your future employer.

Step 6: Slay That Interview

While Lanie didn’t go through the normal hiring route with us, she still experienced the normal internship application process with other companies. During the sorority rush, Lanie faced various girls, each with a unique personality, who were trying to impress her. She used this experience to prepare for interviews with different people each time, hearing them out to gauge how to answer and how genuine they were.

You don’t need to rush for a sorority to gain this skill, though. Even something like figuring out how to engage the entire class for your next class report can train your instincts on speaking up and adjusting based on how other people engage with you.

There you have it, Lanie's spill on landing that dream internship. At the end of the day, it’s all about keeping it 100 and owning your grind. Good luck!