Business Owners: Should I Outsource My Social Media?
Still not convinced whether you want to pay to outsource your social media marketing? Then ask yourself the following five questions.
With every social media account created and short attention span of social media users, it’s common for businesses to ask themselves whether they should look into outsourcing their social media efforts.
Running a business for the average CEO doesn’t give you a lot of time to work on social media marketing causing it to fall short on the priority calendar.
Social media marketing requires effort, time and money plus a level of creativity to execute. Frankly, it isn’t for everyone.
If you keep asking yourself on whether to outsource your social media marketing, ask yourself the following questions first.
1. Do I Have The Luxury of Time to Devote to Managing Social Media?
Time is the #1 reason businesses look to outsourcing their social media.
Social media isn’t just about scheduling posts.
You actually have to invest time in:
- Responding immediately to any inquiries.
- Tracking brand mentions on social media.
- Executing new social media ideas.
- Monitoring social media trends.
All of this needs to happen 24/7, too.
Dedicating 1-2 hours a week on managing your brand’s social media is really quite hilarious as you need more than that. It requires constant attention and generally in small intervals.
This is especially true for brands that have large followings and receive question after question through their social pages.
For those smaller to medium-sized businesses, you have even more time to grow your followers organically and through paid methods.
Social media isn’t a one and done type of strategy. You need to continually be optimizing your followers and be social online.
2. Do I Know How to Be Social Online?
One of the biggest pieces of advice I can give you is to know your audience. Social media isn’t an excuse to hide behind a computer and not actually talk to anyone. You still need to engage with your followers.
If you just really don’t have an appetite for having energy, creativity or will to be a virtual social butterfly, don’t be.
There’s truly an art of being a virtual social butterfly.
Don’t fret. There are tons of resources to teach you how to connect with people virtually and become this type of butterfly for your brand.
Maybe go over to these resources and learn how to connect with your audience socially.
When engaging your followers, mimic them, go where they are, talk like they talk, create content they’re comfortable with.
If the idea of this is making you cringe, it would be best for you to outsource your social media to an agency who has done work for another business within your industry.
This is someone who knows how to talk to your audience.
3. Have I Established My Brand Voice? If So, How Unique Is It?
Brand voice or brand tone is everything on social media.
This is one of the first things you need to determine before starting your social media. Know your audience but also know your brand before you even try to connect with your audience.
- Are your posts funny and sarcastic?
- Are your posts serious and formal?
- Do they only have calls to action and demands?
- Do you capitalize on virality or memes?
- Or are you more of a DIY mom who has a 10-year old blog?
The first when you engage with an agency is to get your brand voice down. Once you have it, never lose it!
Then, document everything you possibly can about this voice.
If you’re going to outsource anything, hire a social media consultant to help define your brand voice for social media and then take it from there.
4. Do I Have Content or Do I Need Content?
Let me tell you.
You can still manage the social media in-house, but if you don’t want to worry trying to figure out what kind of content your followers actually want to see, let the social media agency do all the work for you.
If you’re struggling to figure out which type of content to produce, or if you should reshare that ebook from three years ago, it’s worth outsourcing your content production to a professional.
The social media agency is going to need a good debrief about your business, how and why it operates, who it’s ideal and actual customers are, and what kind of content materials you already have.
Having something a social media agency on hand is where they can start before applying social media strategies.
5. Can I Afford to Outsource?
An outsourced social media team comprises different roles with different skills so they are not different with your in-house social media manager.
This outsourced social media team is less expensive than your in-house social media manager.
Here’s a look at everything that comes with in-house costs of social media management:
- Employees (salary, benefits, etc.).
- Social media tool subscriptions.
- Content creation.
- Social media advertising.
- Strategy development and measurement (time and tools).
If you go the freelancer route, you’re certainly saving money on those benefit coverages, but it may not always be the right path. You’re still looking at investing:
- Your management time.
- Your communication time.
- Content creation.
- Social media advertising.
6. What Should I Do?
So, the question is, which one is right for you?
It depends on tons of different goals and factors, most which we hashed out above.
If you’re already head over heels with to-do lists and the idea of carving out extra time to do another task is making your other eye twitch, do yourself a favor and outsource. It will be the least time-invested resource.
Though, don’t forget, it will still require a bit of your time and movement in your budget.
- Agency = A bit of time initially and then mostly hands-off.
- Freelance = Lots of communication, editing, approvals, and then double-checking ROI.
- Enterprise = Read our monthly reports and go “Oh” and “Ah.”
If you don’t have the time, budget, and experience to create an in-house team or become one, then go for an outsourced social media team.