Social Media Marketing Outsourcing – Is it a Disaster Waiting to Happen?
Do you lie awake at night panicking about whether you have spent enough time on Facebook today? Maybe you have the opposite problem and go to bed feeling like all you accomplished was to find out what’s going on with your friend’s dog’s licking problem, explored and pinned some pretty decorating ideas to Pinterest, or scanned the Twitter streams of your favorite celebrities. The business side of social seemed to get lost among all the other distractions, while the real work of your business suffers.
The time commitment needed to incorporate social media into the rest of your business activities can seem insurmoutable at times. Wouldn’t it be great to get some help with it? However, with social media marketing, outsourcing some of your tasks could be either a welcome relief or a disaster waiting to happen.
If you’re hiring a social media marketing firm to handle this side of your business, talk to them first to find out their approach. You’ll want to make sure that they’re not going to make mistakes that can harm your online reputation.
Here are 3 of the biggest blunders to look out for:
1. Buying friends and followers
It’s become a common practice among many SEO and social media consultants to buy “likes” and “followers” from places like Fiverr in order to quickly build up the image of an active social profile. This is a big mistake.
It may look at first as if your outsourcer is doing a great job, until you look more closely at your following. Often these purchased friends are either spam accounts set up for the purpose, or friends of their friends who have no interest in your business at all. These types of followers won’t do anything for your marketing needs.
2. Not engaging in conversation with customers
The whole point of social media is to be social. If your outsourcing firm isn’t engaging in interactions with customers on a daily basis, you’ll look more like a wallflower than a thriving place to visit. Your outsourcing team should have a clear schedule for engaging followers with compelling content, preferably things that could go viral.
3. Being negative, rude or defensive
It goes without saying that politeness and tact are important in all social media interactions with customers. Unless your brand is all about being a jerk, then your social media outsourcers need to follow your company values to the letter. You’ll get some indication of how they interact on social media by looking at their own social profiles and the conversations they have. Most people find it difficult to truly separate their personal style with a forced persona.
The biggest mistake businesses make when engaging in social media marketing is outsourcing without clear guidelines and strategies. Social media consultants should be presenting you with a proposal that outlines exactly what services they provide. However, you need to be proactive about communicating your values and standards around interacting with your customers.
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Hey Sharyn,
Outsourcing social media marketing to me is sort of like outsourcing my personal life. Like getting someone to go to a party for me on my behalf. I don’t think that’s an effective way to connect with friends or customers. I look at it this way, what would my friends and customers think if they knew I outsourced my socialization with them?
I know that social media marketing is another task for us amid the hundreds of tasks we already do, but of all the things we outsource, our socialization shouldn’t be one of them. Socialization is a personal thing and how do you trust that to someone other than yourself, even with taking precautions?
If you must outsource your social marketing, you offer some great advice, and if you trust someone to socialize for you, that may work for your business, but it’s not something I’m not yet 100% behind.
Liz 🙂
Hey Sharyn,
Outsourcing social media marketing to me is sort of like outsourcing my invitation to a party and having someone else go in my place. It seems a little disingenuous. Although if one were to outsource this, your advice is well taken.
I realize that social media is just one more thing on top of a hundred other things that we do from day to day in our business but I’m thinking if you’re going to be social, even if it’s marketing, you need to be there yourself.
I wonder what my customers, associates and colleagues would think if they know they weren’t really communicating with me. Their might be a lack of trust or loyalty. It’s an interesting topic.
Liz
Hi Liz,
I totally agree that the personal side just can’t be outsourced, especially when that’s an important part of your business. And that’s especially true for a solopreneur or a business where the owner IS the business. On the other hand, I know people that successfully outsource the less personal part of social, like making sure each post or article they do is published to each of their social profiles. And responding to emails is often done by an assistant, which is the same type of thing. You could have a virtual assistant who filters out the stuff that you have to respond to personally. It’s a judgement call though, so you have to be very careful about who you’re trusting it to and train them well.
Best,
Sharyn
That is true. Though I haven’t ventured into the social media side of SEO yet, and I am building my 3rd website now (my first 2 were big-time failures), I now feel the need to engage with prospective customers socially.
Thanks for the article.
Hi Madhushan,
Don’t be discouraged! I think most people that first get started in internet marketing fail at their initial attempts. Just keep at it and focus on one thing at a time. You’re right to think that you have to engage with prospects and customers. At the beginning though, you really have to do it yourself and not outsource. It’s how you’ll build trust.
Good luck!
Sharyn
Normally I do not find out write-up about weblogs, even so would choose to point out that this particular write-up extremely obligated me for you to do and so! Your own way with words is shocked me personally. Thank you, really good post.
I believe that a social media consultant must be attuned to the company goals and aspirations if he or she is to represent them on their social media channels. I also think that outsourcing social media marketing is a good idea for a company looking to specialize in their core business. In any case, most businesses outsource marketing and advertising and I don’t see why social media marketing should be any different. You just need to be actively involved to ensure that you are represented in the way that you want
I believe that a social media consultant must be attuned to the company goals and aspirations if he or she is to represent them on their social media channels. I also think that outsourcing social media marketing is a good idea for a company looking to specialize in their core business. In any case, most businesses outsource marketing and advertising and I don’t see why social media marketing should be any different. You just need to be actively involved to ensure that you are represented in the way that you want