How to get virtual interns for web design, marketing and SEO, blogging, research, social media site updates?

[Eric]

I am a small business owner in the real estate brokerage field. I have watched several webinars and such promoting small business owners' use of interns to help grow their business in areas such as research, direct sales, web development, SEO, marketing research, business automation, and so much more. I have seen a lot of stories of people pulling off a good internship program within their offices - but all were larger operators than I. We own several properties, do property management, have a full service real estate brokerage, offer discount brokerage services, property preservation (for bank-owned homes), do a lot of property valuations (Broker Price Opinions), and list a lot of foreclosures from government entities and several natioanl mortgage loan servicers.

Recruiting has been very difficult since we are so busy all the time - finding a good staff person is hard to do - and when I do I can't help but feel like I put too much on their plate... and its short lived.

I tend to work 14 hours a day and would like to cut it back a bit - I do a lot of the marketing, media, and print design work - especially online marketingn and social media updates in the evenings and after hours... I do a lot of file auditing and book keeping in these late hours too...

According to a few people who are trying to selll how-to books and forms - they have had a lot of success getting connections with various vocational and state colleges around the country that will offer their student various unpaid and paid internship positions - virtually...

Anyone have any experience with this? Pitfalls? Success stories? There is no shortage of work to be done here - and I'd love to be able to teach some of the things we do here as investors and real estate marketing professionals to the next generation - and learn from them some of the newer emerging stategies and technologies as well...

Ideas? Legal concerns? Process to work with college staff? What do I need to know to be successful at offering up an internship position?

[Steve]

How about elance? Just bid for the work and it will get done.

Here's an article on Virtual Internships that may be helpful.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424...81314.html

I think it's like anything else- if you find a good person then it will work. If you don't then it won't. Simply as that. Just advertise like you normally would for the job and see if you can get a top candidate. Look for students straight out of school.

[Dreama]

Check out how we help small business owners find, hire and manage interns.
We cover it all. Where to find your intern, how to make sure you are hiring the right intern, what to do once the intern comes on board, making sure the internship is successful for both you and the intern, making sure you follow all legal compliance issues when necessary...everything from A-Z.
http://www.internships.com
Internships are a win-win for both the employer and employee if done right.

[Javier Jones]

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take care