Outsourcing Social Media
Can You Clone Yourself by Outsourcing Social Media Marketing?
In many ways, social media marketing has turned out to be the wonderful tool that so many of us hoped it would be. Used correctly, your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles can help you to introduce yourself to new buyers, gain referrals from existing clients, and increase customer loyalty all at the same time. Even better, they can help you do it without spending a fortune.
But, as with everything in life, there is a trade-off: Managing a strong social networking campaign takes a lot of time.
First, there is the work of setting up profiles and making new contacts. Then, there are the hours spent sending and responding to personal messages, and the huge chunk of time devoted to creating compelling marketing messages that attract attention. Put them all together, and it’s easy to see how social media marketing could easily become a full-time job. And yet, most business owners and executives don’t have any spare time, nor the budget to hire a trained social assistant.
The answer, of course, is often to outsource social media marketing to someone else. That’s not a bad idea – it saves time and can make your campaigns a lot more effective – but there are a few ground rules you should always follow. Here are five of the most important:
Guidelines for Outsourcing Social Media Marketing
1. Choose the right social media marketing service. Ideally, this should be someone who knows your business and does great marketing work overall. You don’t want an overseas, cut-rate business managing any part of your public profile. Along the same lines, it’s usually a good idea to stay away from automated software that’s likely to embarrass you later.
2. Be upfront with fans and followers. People understand that social media marketing is a part of your business, and won’t hold it against you to use outside help. So, don’t be afraid to let them know that not every message is coming directly from you (although you should still be somewhat involved).
3. Know your social media marketing goals. Make it clear to your creative team what you are really hoping to accomplish, and especially what your branding and communications priorities are. That should help them keep your messaging on track.
4. Have an established sales funnel. This is a nice way of saying that there should be some mechanism (like a link to your e-commerce pages or email newsletter sign-up form) to turn social media contacts into customers, or at least sales opportunities. Otherwise, potential clients might not know how to take the next step.
5. Stay in contact. Not only should you log into your own social accounts once in a while to see what’s going on, and to answer personal messages, but be sure that your outsourced team knows when to reach you directly. Perhaps you want to hear about all new sales inquiries, or questions about your product. Set some guidelines early on in the process.
Need someone to help take your social media marketing to the next level? Contact a member of our team today and let us help.