The question to ask here is whether to hire an in-house social media manager or outsource the task.
Many businesses fear outsourcing part of their work because they worry about professionals not understanding their brands let alone market them. Moreover, horror tales on outsourcing are plenty, deterring many from pursuing this option. Unfortunately, these issues are nothing considering the benefits you can reap from hiring qualified, diligent professionals run your social media campaign. In fact, here are 10 reasons why you should outsource your social media management.
1) Cost-efficient Service
While it is understandable that many businesses are scared of the cost of outsourcing, you will be surprised to learn how much money you can actually save once you outsource.
Let’s look at it this way – if you stick to in-house social media management, you will be required to hire an employee (or maybe a whole team of experts) who has experience and expertise in this field. Not only will you be paying them full-time, but will also have to offer various other benefits such as health insurance and transportation costs. Moreover, you have to factor in the costs of having an additional employee, which include the cost of equipment and office space. These will raise the overall cost of social media management substantially.
Now you may consider passing off your social media campaign to les qualified professionals or even to unpaid interns. However, that is a very bad idea that can ruin your business. First off, you need to take your campaign and marketing efforts seriously, especially with the growing demand for social media posts and deliverables. While young interns and employees might be ultra-familiar with social media platforms, they do not necessarily understand how to utilize it for businesses. Social media management is much more than updating your company’s Facebook status or posting a picture on Instagram; you need to be aware of how to track analytics and set up extraordinary ad campaigns. Moreover, social media need to be monitored around the clock, a task which internees will not be happy to manage considering their limited wages and desire to have time for other things in their life.
Outsourcing to an agency allows you to hire a team of professionals within your set budget and benefit from their expertise without having to incur any additional costs. Since you pay a fixed amount to cover the fees of your agency, you do not need to compensate its experts overtime since it is their job to manage your social media profiles throughout the day. Considering that you get to save on office expenses as well, outsourcing is a healthy option for your pocket.
2) Time Savings
Unlike your regular business campaigns, which are taken care of during working hours, social media management calls for 24/7 monitoring, especially if your clients may be located in different time zones or even continents. You also need to ensure your availability to all your clients regardless of which social media platform they choose. As social media means real-time marketing, do not assume that you are effectively managing your social media campaign by simply sparing a couple of minutes here and there to share a picture on Instagram or compose a tweet.
Social media management demands three things, time being the first one, followed by effort and precision. Therefore, you either need to take some time out of your everyday busy schedule to run your social media campaign or hire a competent employee. And to be honest, as the CEO of a high-powered business, you may not have the excess time necessary to manage social media yourself. On the other hand, hiring an in-house worker will not be cost-effective since they cannot dedicate most of their time to your social media accounts. Since both options are far from ideal, the only logical solution for your dilemma is to outsource, saving your time to attend to more pressing business matters and run your business effectively.
3) Added Reliability and Dependability
When hiring an in-house employee to manage their social media campaign, businesses may be at the risk of wasting their resources if their new employee is not reliable. Now this does not mean that you have not taken the time to assess the quality of his/her work before adding them to your team. After all, you know better than to hire someone who is anything less than talented and accomplished. What we are trying to point out is that life happens; if the sole member in charge of your social media accounts gets sick or is indisposed for another reason, what can you do? Who is going to cover your accounts then?
In such a case, outsourcing is perhaps the best choice. The digital agency you sign up with will be monitoring your social media campaign at all times, irrespective of a holiday. Even if one of its consultants is indisposed, the agency will have a contingency plan in hand to ensure that another qualified consultant takes over so that your social media campaign doesn’t suffer. Moreover, as long as you hire a reputable agency, there is no reason whatsoever to doubt the quality of their work. Since their reputations are at stake agencies will never hire someone who does not exhibit great skills and expertise.
4) Unmatched Expertise
The growing number of social media channels is making it increasingly more difficult for businesses to run and manage their marketing campaign. The ever-changing terms of service and technology demands that you need to have up-to-date information and knowledge if you intend to run an effective social campaign. Furthermore, using social media as a marketing tool is a relatively new concept, which means that it can pose a number of challenges for those who do not understand it fully. As a result, you need to seek the help of a professional agency in order to be on top of the innovations and changes to social media algorithms.
While hiring an experienced individual to look after your social media campaign may be a feasible option, the expertise which social media managers at top digital marketing agencies usually flaunt make them a much better choice. Because an agency is staffed with professionals who are social media geniuses, trust them to have an innate knowledge of the ins and outs of every social media channel and know how to make the most of each network. Whether it be regarding the ideal times to post, posting etiquette, analytics or the type of content best suited for your audience, a reputable agency will know everything.
5) Outsider Perspective
While self-examination is a wise step to see how your marketing strategy and campaign are received by your potential customers, adding a little bit of outside perspective promises to make everything even better. You may be biased in your opinions and decisions because you are the mind behind the business. The digital agency, on the other hand, is a third party, which allows them to contemplate and study your marketing ideas and their impact objectively. In such a case, it is better to outsource your social media management rather than run all your marketing campaigns in-house from within the company. You could have a top notch Toronto SEO company check out your site too, just to be on the safe side.
6) Ensures Consistency
Having a consistent social media presence is the key to business growth and success. However, ensuring this aspect is not possible if you try to manage your social media campaign yourself.
Think about it: while visiting the company page of a small business or company, how many times did you observe that the page seemed inactive and downright dormant? Because owners are busy solving other pressing matters, they tend to forget to update and monitor their social media accounts. However, this is not the image of your company that you would want your customers to see. After all, neglecting your page could be misinterpreted as inefficiency and lack of dedication to your future clients
If you decide to outsource, though, you can be sure of constant and consistent content for your social media pages. This, in turn, will establish your business as an authority in its industry. With constant monitoring added to the mix, you can keep your social media campaign’s momentum going and ensure that your business runs smoothly. Therefore, outsourcing is a brilliant idea if you expect to build a strong and consistent social media presence for your company.
7) Peek at Competitors’ Work
After customers, your competitors are the entities whose policies and strategies directly affect your business. Being aware of what they are up to and what marketing strategies they plan to execute beforehand can give you a considerable edge. Indeed, what better way is there to gain competitors’ insights to the industry other than to hire a marketing agency?
Because a digital marketing agency manages hundreds of accounts on a monthly basis, it tends to have a much better understanding of the social landscape within your industry. As a result, its experts are more capable than most to comprehend your competitors’ social media strategy and predict the techniques and approaches they are likely to adopt.
8) Maximum Brand Exposure
Social media is all about branding. It offers you the chance to build your brand voice, brand look, and brand following among other aspects by providing a platform that allows maximum brand exposure. As such, you need to take advantage of this opportunity to create a brand name for your company.
As many businesses are still unaware of what their brand voice should sound like, passing social media management off to a manager is never a god choice. You run the risk of sounding confused and shaky, thereby, negatively affecting your chances of building a unique brand name for your company.
Digital marketing agencies, on the other hand, have the right expertise and the contacts to create a brand out of your company through social media. They have their own channels in the form of website, blogs and portfolios to promote your business and build your brand authenticity. Moreover, they have lists of influencers from different industries, ensuring that your social posts receive maximum exposure through even the simplest @ mentions.
9) Customer-Centric Approach
Because social media is essentially a great tool for real-time marketing and real-time communication, customers expect instant replies to the queries and complaints they make. If you continue to manage your social media accounts yourself, you may end up ignoring or forgetting to engage with them and let many customer queries remain unanswered. Even if you do not do this on purpose, the large amount of work on your plate and strict deadlines will overwhelm you often, preventing you from focusing on your social media campaigns.
Seeking the help of an agency is an ideal solution. Because it is their responsibility to effectively manage it solely, the agency’s social media marketers make sure that no comments or complaints go unanswered. They take relationship building seriously and do it with utmost respect and professionalism.
10) Easier Integration of Social Media Strategy with Wider Marketing Strategy
Your social media strategy cannot work separately from the wider business strategy and goals or else it will fail. By working with you closely and understanding where your business is coming from, an external agency can help you connect and integrate your social media campaign with the rest of your marketing and business strategy.
As long as you outsource your social media management to seasoned professionals and well-reputed marketing agencies, your business is set to experience endless growth and development. Small businesses, especially, should outsource their social media management to an extended digital marketing agency to thrive in the future and reach out to a wider client base.
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