Outsourcing gives you the ability to delegate certain tasks
for a much lower price than it would cost handling them in-house. This can be
very helpful to small businesses, as it allows them to stay competitive without
a huge cost increase.
Social media is something that every business needs to be
active on, and by outsourcing, it allows businesses that don’t have a marketing
team or social media manager to take advantage of the opportunities available.
Here are some reasons you should consider outsourcing your social media
marketing.
More cost effective.
It’s easy to say every business needs to be active on social
media, but the reality of the matter is that it takes man power to run social
media marketing campaigns, and if it’s not in the budget, many businesses can’t
bring on a social media manager.
But, outsourcing allows you to hire a dedicated full-time
employee without the full-time salary. “Aside from the salary, many people
forget that it also costs employment tax, health benefits and additional costs.
That can turn a $45,000 annual salary into a $60,000 cost,” says Loren Taylor
of Soothing Company. Hiring an
outsourced social media manager can be had for as little as $400 per month,
which is $4,800 a year. This is a massive difference and one that most
businesses can afford.
Puts a specialist in place.
Don’t let the low cost of outsourced social media managers
fool you. They are very good at what they do, and because it’s the only task
they are focused on it allows you to have someone experienced handle the job,
rather than have to train someone new.
“Most business owners aren’t experienced themselves in
social media marketing, which would make it next to impossible to train someone
on the best practices,” says Karen Anderson of The Probate Law House. “When you hire a
social media manager that has prior experience you reap the benefits of that experience
right away without a learning or training curve.”
Allows you to focus on building your business.
Aside from not having experience marketing on social media,
most business owners don’t have the time. Even if they were social media
masters, dedicating their time to that rather than to building their business,
would have a far less impact on their growth.
“When you hire someone else to handle it you are able to
focus on the tasks that have a much greater impact on the growth of the business,”
says Darryl Howard, who teaches how
to monetize a blog, and some of that strategy includes outsourcing the
social media. “Yes, social media is important, but that alone isn’t going to
make a business succeed.” Working on your business and focusing on that is what
lead to growth, press opportunities like being featured on msn,
and other opportunities. The business owner and top team members need to
dedicate their time and energy to the more crucial tasks.
Can scale as you grow.
As your business grows and your social media demands
increase, you can easily add more virtual team members. One of the most
attractive things about hiring an outsourced social media manager is that you
can hire someone form any part of the world.
“If you build a wildly successful business you might need to
hire multiple social media specialists to ensure you have someone working 24/7
to handle all of the engagement and posting,” says April Gillmore of ClickFirst. “Some of the largest
brands are posting multiple times per hour and constantly engaging with
followers. This is not done with a one-person team.”
As your business grows and your revenue scales, it gives you
the option to add more social media staff, and they can be located all over the
world. Set it up so you have coverage at all hours of the day to meet worldwide
demands.
Can experiment with different platforms.
Not a master at Instagram? Never dabbled with Snapchat?
That’s not a problem, because when you hire a dedicated social media manager
you are going to hire an expert that has experience on the platforms you want
to be active on and/or test.
You never know how the reception and results are going to be
until you test, so this is a great opportunity to have someone with experience
roll out campaigns to test different platforms, as different users have
different intent of each platform. “Hiring a specialist that understands how
search intent works is beneficial,” says Jeannie Hill of Hill Web Marketing.
Have a feeling Snapchat for example can help you connect to
a new audience? Then make sure the person you hire has experience and some
creative ideas for that particular platform.
There is no shortage of experts available, so be very
specific in terms of the platforms you know you want to be active on and the
ones you want to test.
Gives you additional customer support.
Social media is where most people turn to when they want
answers to a question or to ask about an order or a product. This is why it was
suggested above that you hire multiple social media workers to cover all hours
of the day.
“When your business grows and your customer base increases,
so will the customer service requests through social media,” says Chris Moberg,
whose best
mattress review site relies heavily on social media. “You can’t fight it,
as it’s where the questions come from, and there is no sign of that trend
changing any time soon.” Make sure the people you place in these roles are
aware that customer service will be part of their duty as well.
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