Our favorite reality show factory, MTV, is trying to stimulate the economy by providing one giant job to become the official MTV Twitter Jockey (TJ). According to MTV and Zync from American Express (the sponsor that’s helping provide a $100,000 salary), “one lucky candidate will be hired to become a brand-new face and voice for MTV across social media platforms, including MTV.com, to expand the two-way dialog between MTV and its global audience.”

Last week at a networking event, I met Dan Chizzoniti, a recent Boston University graduate interning at NYU Wagner’s Graduate School of Public Service . Dan was handpicked by MTV to be one of the twenty contestants who will compete for this position. The winner will be picked live on MTV on August 8th. I interviewed Dan about his role as Wagner’s Social Media Intern, his thoughts on NYU’s social media presence and his love for NYU dropout Lady Gaga. After the jump, the interview.

How did you get a social media internship with NYU Wagner; what do you do for them?

I found the posting for the social media internship with the Financial Access Initiative (FAI) at NYU by seeing a tweet by @mashable. I went to the Mashable website and applied for the internship.

My responsibilities at my internship include developing a plan to extend FAI’s influence within social media, researching the social media activity of similar nonprofit organizations and obtaining more followers to spread the research FAI conducts.

How can colleges better use Twitter? Does BU do a better/worse/same job as NYU?

I am new to the whole NYU scene so I am not one to judge the different handles, especially since I haven’t been here when all the students are on campus. However, what I love about the major BU handles, @BU_Tweets and @Deanelmore, is the ability to communicate with students. They always ask questions and respond to the answers. If someone complains, they handle the situation right away. They also give plenty of information about the events happening on campus. If NYU does the same, I think they are using Twitter the right way on campus.

[Ed. Note: While some NYU departments have their own Twitter handles (@NYUWasserman and @NYUSternSchool, for example), NYU as a whole does not have a Twitter account.]

Will you ReTweet NYU accounts if you become TJ?

If I retweet an NYU account if I become the first MTV TJ, I would because the information presented was relevant to a topic I am trying to communicate to the public. Therefore, if any of the NYU handles tweeted about how great Lady Gaga’s upcoming album is, then I would definitely retweet it.

Did you know Lady Gaga went to NYU?

I did know that Lady Gaga went to NYU. Why? Because I saw her on an episode of Gossip Girl. I am obsessed with Gossip Girl so it makes sense that is how I received that information.

Should NYU have a TJ competition?

I think NYU having a “TJ-like” competition would be beneficial to the college. If there is a student’s perspective tweeting about events and information happening on campus, it would bring the whole campus into the Twitter world. Plus, it would make the information more relatable to students since a student is delivering it.

Anything else you’d like to add?

There are a few ways to help me win the competition. Everyone must vote on facebook.com/zync saying they believe I should become the first MTV TJ. Voting began July 7th and will end on July 22nd. Everyone should also follow my Twitter account (@danchiz ) and interact with me by @ replying and retweeting what I am saying. This will bring my Tweetlevel score up and help me win the competition. Also, during the voting period, I will complete challenges. You can see my work on the challenges by visiting danchiz.com.

Dan’s full bio can be found on MTV here.