Author: Kate Rose / Source: Business 2 Community
So, obvious upfront declaration: we offer managed social media as an organisation, so we’d expect you to take this article with a “you would say that” – and that’s just fine. But here’s the thing: we also do a lot of other stuff, and in fact only take on a very small number of carefully chosen outsourced clients at any one time, because we understand that it’s hard to make outsourcing work really well for both sides. So, we like to think that what follows is a balanced and informed perspective that would be useful to us if we were running any other kind of business.
We’d recommend that you start with a step back, and (if you didn’t already) take a good hard look at what you’d like social media to do for you, whether that’s realistically achievable, and an outline of how that might look – basically, you need a social media strategy. Without this, you are setting both yourselves and your outsourcing partner up for failure.
This process may involve a small investment on your part, to get someone in to work through that with you, but believe us when we say it’ll be a tiny amount compared with the cost of months of badly thought out and ineffective outsourced management.
The other thing you should do is articulate your own expectations and discuss them clearly with any potential provider. For example, you might think that any agency worth their salt would be tweeting for you at least five times a day. That may or may not be right, but if you don’t share that assumption with them, they’re unlikely to guess it.
When outsourcing social media can help you
We’ve also talked in the past about our firm belief that a capable and focused internal employee is, most of the time, going to find it easier to do a great job for your company than a third party. If you’re a very small business or sole trader, times that by ten – you *are* your brand, and you are the best placed person to represent it to the outside world. Unfortunately those are often the businesses who struggle most to manage their social media presence – consistently.
So that’s our first reason for outsourcing:
To create a consistent presence
Don’t underestimate the value of regular, consistent activity on social media. This is probably…
Peter Bordes Jr
Founder & Managing Partner Trajectory Ventures. Lifetime entrepreneur, CEO, Board Member, mentor, advisor and investor.
Obsessed with the infinite realm of possibility in disruptive innovation driving global digital transformation in technology, cloud-based infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data, DevOps, fintech, robotics, aerospace, blockchain and digital media and advertising.