BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Illinois Corn Marketing Board (ICMB) will offer up to 15 internships next semester to qualified college students and graduate students with an ear for the latest issues affecting corn farmers, and the ability to employ social media to influence consumer opinion.

Provided for by funding from the corn checkoff, the internships are paid positions described as a “significant tool” for the ICMB and checkoff board to interact with the non-farming public, and influence the way they view farming, according to Lindsay Mitchell, ICMB project coordinator.

“I don’t think it’s any secret that if you are not doing business (through) social media, you probably not doing business very well,” she said. “Our major social media effort started about four years ago when myself and (communications assistant) Becky Finfrock joined the corn growers’ organization.

“Her main job was to build the new website, and once that was built, we as a communications team began looking at how we could drive people to our website.”

Illinois Corn’s social media foray began with Facebook and Twitter and now includes YouTube and a special Illinois corn growers’ blog site established by the team. First catering strictly to members of the ICMB and Illinois Corn Growers Assoc. (ICGA), the ICMB communications team quickly adjusted their social media content and direction to apply to those with little or no farm experience.

“We wanted both members, and now non-members and non-farmers, to see our website and our personal media sites as a source of information – especially for people who don’t know anything about the farm.” said Mitchell.

“CornCorps,” ICMB’s official blog site at www.corncorps.wordpress.com was established a couple of years ago to elicit contributions from industry professionals and post information key to Illinois corn growers.

“Some blog posts are targeted specifically to farmers and some are for non-rural people. We now tend to gravitate more towards people who don’t know anything about the farm,” Mitchell explained. “We’re trying to get people to identify with farmers and build their trust.”

ICMB reaches out to the non-farming public to make them aware of their social media sites via partnerships such as one with NASCAR. Illinois Family Farmers gather at events such as NASCAR Nationwide races in Joliet, Ill., to pass out materials promoting their website and social media pages, along with promotional items such as can cozies and t-shirts.

The ICMB funds up to 15 social media internships. Filling the roster with qualified candidates is a top goal of Mitchell and the board for 2012 and beyond. Social media internships are offered every semester and provide Net-savvy students the opportunity to work with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs to publish positive information about farmers, create relationships between producers and non-farmers and motivate farmers to talk about themselves to others.

“If you are an intern hired by us, we will hand you a social media application with a specific goal,” Mitchell said. “What the interns write is up to them; they are on their own as long as it is a positive ag message they are promoting.

“These are independent internships, and we can offer an opportunity to just about any student in any location if they have good writing and communications skills. A lot of our interns do Facebook pages, and we ask them to post one new message per day. We do a lot of different things.”

People with conflicting viewpoints from the ICMB’s are not excluded from consideration as interns “as long as they come with an open mind,” Mitchell added.

An intense one-day training and brainstorming session is at the ICMB office for each semester’s interns before moving forward with blogging and other social media projects. It’s required of interns to show up for the initial interview and training meeting, but other than that, students are pretty much on their own, according to Mitchell.

Another project spring interns can expect to be involved with is videotaping individual board members at their farms, for profiles to be posted online. The purpose is to allow members and the public to better get to know them through 3- to 4-minute videos. Students with strong videotaping and editing backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

ICMB personnel are conducting interviews for spring 2012 interns the first week of January. Summer internship opportunities are available, as are fall internships to those who apply before late July. Those interested in internships should contact Mitchell at the ICMB/ICGA office in Bloomington.

To access ICMB’s social media sites visit www.ilcorn.org and select the “media” tab located on the homepage. From there, click on “social media.”