Should you still be doing your own social media marketing, or is it time to hand it off to someone else? There are many factors that go into whether or not you can hand off your social media. Here are some of the things to consider when you’re weighing your decision.
Is Your Social Marketing Personality Driven Or Process Driven?
Is your social media primarily driven by you and your personality, or is it primarily driven by processes?
One example of personality-driven social media marketing is a comedian. In his case, it’d be very hard to outsource his social media, because he has such a unique voice. Finding someone who could emulate his voice enough to still build an audience would be very tough.
An example of process-driven social media marketing might be an artist or band. The primary jobs in managing their social media is responding to friend requests, deciding which gigs to take and updating the event listings. This is something that could easily be handed off to someone else.
When you’re deciding whether or not it’s time to hand off your social marketing, one crucial question you need to ask yourself is whether or not you can hand it off without losing your voice.
How Much Time Is It Taking?
If social media marketing is sucking up all your time and detracting from other areas of business that actually generate income, then it may be time to seriously start looking for ways to outsource it.
If you’re constantly checking Twitter, Facebook and MySpace for updates, chances are it’s becoming more of a distraction than a profitable business activity. In fact, if you spend more than ninety minutes on it per day, you should really think about getting that activity off your plate.
Who Can You Outsource To?
This is really the all-important question. If you’re not doing your social media marketing, who is?
Do you hand it off to someone in India for $3 an hour? Or do you hand it off to someone on your staff who really understands the spirit of your company?
Again, the issue really comes down to how important the voice is. If people come to your social network pages expecting to get constant updates from your unique voice, then you really need to carefully select your social media managers.
If managing your social media is mostly technical, then you can hire anyone with the capability to do it.
In short, it is absolutely worth thinking about outsourcing your social media marketing when it gets to the point that it’s distracting from other more productive activities. Put special attention on what your visitors expect when they visit your pages and who can actually replace you from a voice and brand perspective.
I hope you’ve found this information to be helpful and if so I’d love to hear from you! Please let me know what is the one tip you received from this post that you think will help you in your business the most by sharing your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you have any additional questions about starting your business or need assistance with expanding or marketing your business, please feel free leave me a comment or post it on my Facebook Page and I’ll try to assist you in any way I can!
Have an awesome day!
Pam Lawhorne
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Pretty much, I do alot of forum postings, social bookmarking, unique content creation and some article marketing. And, commenting on other people’s blogs is pretty effective as well. Targeted blogs =)
DNN recently posted..Pam Lawhornes Inspiring Marketing Message
That’s a very smart strategy! Guest posting is something I need to do more of and commenting is something I need to make more time for! I spend so much of my time writing and researching… but I know, I know – it’s a must!
Pam
Great post. I am a huge proponent of social media outsourcing, as I do social media consulting and have seen how beneficial it can be to a business owner to be able to turn the function over to someone more comfortable with and well-versed in using the various tools, etc. You make an excellent point about the importance of the voice. I find that, especially with nonprofit organizations, having someone familiar with organizational culture, the mission, the membership, etc. is particularly important to leadership. Regardless of the nature, or size, of the business, social media marketing can be successfully outsourced and should be when, as you mentioned, the time required becomes a burden. I have written a few posts on my site regarding outsourcing and the necessity of a business owner to hand over tasks that can be better accomplished by someone else. I just stumbled across this site today, but I will be sure to check back.
Hi Tamara!
Thanks so much for dropping by. I’m glad you found me! I have been outsourcing for years and honestly do not know how I would be able to run my business without my extended team! And I agree with you – it’s important that the people you work with are on board with your vision and ultimately they support your goals. That’s why I primarily work with the same team consistently.
I appreciate the feedback. Great stuff!
Pam
P.S. Love your site! ;o)