To Outsource Or Not Outsource - That Is The Social Media Question...

Should your company consider outsourced social media?

Understandably, there’s a bit of a debate out there about using an external company to manage your company’s social media. Everyone wants to make life easier, so could outsourcing your social media provide a welcome solution and additional flexibility when managing your company’s social media presence?

If social media isn’t at the forefront of your digital marketing strategy then outsourcing won’t really be on your agenda but if you want to ramp up your online presence and compete with other businesses then maybe you should consider investing more in social media as part of your overall marketing strategy. Perhaps start off in-house and spend some time creating and posting engaging content about what you do. Give it a go, make some mistakes and learn what works for you. If in a few weeks or months your social media profile takes off and it’s too hard to handle internally, there is always the option to consider outsourcing.

With outsourcing your social media, there’s always going to be an element of risk involved. Use the wrong agency and it could have disastrous consequences for your business, but at the same time, outsourcing to the right company will allow you the freedom to get on with doing your job and give you peace of mind that your social media presence and brand reputation is being well looked after.

To help you decide for yourself and to give a little insight into the different aspects of outsourcing, we’ve outlined a few advantages and disadvantages below:

Advantages of outsourcing your social media:

   
1. Time
More time for you!  You probably don’t have enough time in the day as it is never mind get involved in managing your social media and online marketing activities. Outsourcing your content creation and the management of your social media platforms will give you more time to do what you need to do. When it comes to your online activities, you can look across it and think strategically, rather than wasting your time and energy getting your hands dirty making it happen. Let someone else worry about that!

2. Cost Outsourcing your social media management may cost you less! If you have a small team, outsourcing may be one of the only ways to make things happen. After all, you may already outsource your PR, design, web etc, to professionals who are entirely focused on these tasks. The same ethos applies to social media! If you are part of a larger team or department you may have access to a larger budget, but the temptation might be to build your own team in-house. This works for some whereas for others the peace of mind and reduced cost of outsourcing may outweigh this. A third scenario we often come across with clients is where they might even have their own digital team and rely on a few favoured agencies to stimulate their strategy or alternatively they may see outsourcing particular elements as an efficient way to get someone else to do the heavy lifting.

3. Results

• Return on investment from your social media - Finding the right social media partner who understands your company and what it is trying to achieve will allow you to see real dividends. A well versed digital marketing/social media agency will have the right expertise and experience to help you accomplish the objectives you set out to achieve.

• Experience - when you go online you open the doors to a whole host of variables! Who knows what’s going to come at you from the ether! A good agency will most probably have already faced a number of these scenarios in the course of their work and even if they haven’t, they should have the expertise to deal with things in an objective and strategic manner and to avoid things blowing up into something that doesn’t really need to become a row!

• Responsive - managing your own social media is often a lot harder than outsourcing to an agency. Agencies are born to serve and if they don’t they die - simple! This means your agency of choice should be on the ball and helping you to respond with exceptional timelines and thereby impress all of your customers and prospects.

• Objectivity - negative comments will crop up from time to time and when they do it can be difficult to remain impartial and keep your distance. A good agency will provide you with this distance and a sense of objectivity to respond appropriately and not flame your audience, Have a look at this fail to see what we mean! http://cheezburger.com/76549.

• Analytics - the right agency should have done all this before and will have their own tried and tested ways to measure success. They should be able to provide you with all your essential stats in their sleep, whereas it might take a new in-house team months to get their own systems and processes bedded down.

4. Beautiful Content Another real benefit of outsourcing is the opportunity to build beautiful content that links back into your strategy and deliver on the aims and objectives you want to achieve. Your social media partner will help guide you through the creation of your content calendar and once agreed will develop your voice through the building of well structured and executed content such as blogs and social media posts. Tasking your agency in this way will bring great efficiencies as you build up a repository of great content all scheduled to go at pre determined times. Yes, we really do advocate having a least a full month of content ready in advance so that you're not chasing your tail everyday of the week! This will also free you and your team up to remain responsive to things as and when they happen!

Disadvantages of outsourcing your social media:

1. Knowledge How can you write about my area of expertise? You’re right, no one outside your company is going to know what you do as well as you do! However, working with an external agency that listens to your brief, scopes out the task (such as a blog post) for your approval before they get started and then provide you with a draft that you will hopefully only need to make a few minor amendments to will really pay dividends. A lack of knowledge could also lead to dull or superficial blogs but again we would argue that a social media partner should be a quick learner and understand what makes a good story for your audience.

2. Mistakes No one outside your company will ever care as much as you do and therefore could make a number of mistakes. Yes, an agency may make the odd mistake at the start due to their lack of knowledge but they should be quick learners and the mistakes should disappear quite quickly if they’re any good! Agencies also understand the way the world works and if they mess up, they could be out the door. It is therefore in every good agencies interest to care about their client’s work even more than their own! At the end of the day an agency is only as good as their reputation - they can’t afford to keep getting it wrong! We would advocate the need for both parties to build trust and to see each other as being on the same team.

3. Cost These agencies know how to charge - ‘it will cost me a fortune to outsource!’. Cost is often a thorny issue, however, our ethos is that our clients need to be happy with the service they have paid for and we need to be happy with the price we have been paid to deliver their service. We're not out to screw anyone but we always find that by sitting down with a new client and listening to their aspirations and their fears we can come up with something that works for everyone. We wouldn’t dream of second guessing your budget so all we would ask is that you give us the opportunity to sit down and chat and to tell us what you’re looking for. We can then give you an indication of what it will cost.

So what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us now for a no obligation chat. If you’re local we can come to see you and of course you’re more than welcome to visit us. Alternatively we are always happy to jump on a Skype call if you’re that bit further away.

Summary 

The advantages and disadvantages above are just a few of the situations you should consider if you’re thinking of outsourcing your social media. Essentially, it comes down to the aims and objectives you want to achieve. Every company’s social media needs are different and regardless of your size you should still have a strategy!

If you are considering moving from an internal to external social media resource you should ask yourself a couple of questions before taking the plunge. This will give you an indication if they are right for you and your business. Here are a few to get you started:

• What experience do they have?
• Have they any industry experience and if not, how do they propose to manage your work?
• Can they demonstrate return on your investment?
• How many staff will be working on your account?
• How many clients do they currently have?
• What results can they demonstrate?
• How do they charge for their services?
• Are they manic self publicists or do they really get it and be able to bring a strategic perspective to your digital?

In a nutshell, if you think outsourcing is for you, look to an agency you can trust and depend on. Your agency should have a wide range of experience so they are able to provide you with a variety of suggestions. Setting a few rules and guidelines is a must and it’s imperative they spend a few days with your team getting to know your business. Don’t forget, it doesn’t all have to be outsourced, you can provide the content you want posted and it can be tweaked, tailored and posted at a time to suit your audience. Or if you havent the time to come up with the fresh ideas and then craft the necessary text, you could outsource your blog writing and post it yourself when it suits you.

We are real believers in the power of social media and the need to generate great content that resonates with your audience. If you would like to discuss outsourcing further do give us a call or email us for a no obligation chat. We’d be more than happy to offer you some advice on how you can get the most out of your social media activity.