The benefits businesses can gain from using social media are endless. From generating new leads and improving customer relations, to increasing brand exposure and advertising – it’s an opportunity you can’t miss. As a communications agency, we are meant to tell you to outsource your social media. The issue is – we don’t always agree! No one knows your business better than you, so if you have the time and resources and want to commit 110%, then investing in team training or mentoring will often be the right avenue for you to follow. Equally, if you’re only looking to increase your likes and followers, then the job’s yours.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to create measurable, meaningful results through a strategy which fits your business objectives, it’s a good idea to find an agency that gets you and your business. We’ve compiled five reasons you should outsource your social media if you’re wondering whether it’s right for you. Should you decide you want to go down that route, we’ve offered top tips on what to look out for in a good agency.
You may know how to use Instagram with your eyes shut, but do you know how to make the most of other platforms? What key social media changes are happening and how algorithm updates can impact your brand? Do you understand how to target your campaigns to maximise success and generate business leads? When using an external agency, you wouldn’t have to worry about that. They’ll be experts in social media and will know what to look out for, so you won’t have to trial and error different methods. The best agencies will also have expertise within the team across all platforms – so the strategy and channel choice fits the brand. Another area of expertise they should have is paid social advertising, something which goes hand-in-hand with organic social media. Creating campaigns can be tricky, expensive and very time-consuming if you don’t know what you’re doing.
The best tactic for creating an authentic online community is to balance your sales methods with stories, blogs, images, videos and interesting information. Your social media platforms need to be full of fun and engaging content, not just ‘buy now’ posts. If you outsource, they will understand this and will help you reach your goals.
Time tends to be the biggest reason businesses outsource. Social media isn’t just about scheduling posts, and is not something that can be done for an hour once a week. It needs a lot of time invested to monitor relevant conversations, watch comments and mentions, respond to inquiries, follow trends. This requires someone watching over it 24/7. Giving the social media responsibility to someone else will give you or your employees plenty of time for their other duties.
Outsourcing social media can seem expensive. However, it can often work out a lot cheaper than paying an in-house employee to do it for you. It means the agency becomes accountable for your success, and removes the risks of training or hiring a new internal employee. Through outsourcing, you will likely receive a large return on investment, as social media advertising can create huge revenue for your business. You’ll also save money on scheduling and analytics platforms, as an agency would take care of that for you.
An agency will have access to all the top social media tools and platforms such as Hootsuite, which help to run successful campaigns, track progress and produce amazing results in a faster time. These tools are expensive for you as a business to access on your own.
Simply having a social media presence doesn’t guarantee results. You’ll need to measure your progress using hard stats! It is important to do this, so you can figure out what the most effective strategies are. It can be easy to get caught up on the raw numbers like followers and likes, and while it is always great to increase these, it’s even more important to focus on the quality of your followers. It’s about upping the engagement, impressions, reach and creating an authentic community of loyal followers. A set of detailed analytics can allow you to see how engaged they are, and if they’re likely to become a customer. Agencies will have access to tools which generate detailed reports on what is working best online.
It’s always a good idea to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to on social media so you can stay ahead of the curve. A competitor analysis enables you to check on the businesses you’re toe-to-toe with and compare their online presence to your own. A good analysis can help you identify who to look out for, what platforms they’re using, how they’re using them, and if their strategy is working. There are tools online you can use to do this yourself, but the chances are, you won’t have time to go through each of their platforms and analyse their digital marketing plans. It can be a long task, and why spend your time doing that when a social media agency can do it for you!
We’ve covered some of the main reasons it could be a good idea to outsource social media; but what now? What should you be looking for when outsourcing?
There are certain things you should be asking the agency you’re thinking of employing. Find out what is included in their service, what expertise they have, what results they’ve had with similar clients, and how they work. Discover what you should expect when working with them and find out how the creative process works. Results look different for different clients, so establish what they’ll look like for you, so the agency can manage those expectations in advance. They should be able to manage the objective in order to achieve your goals. Once you’ve asked these questions and are happy and confident with the responses, you’re good to go!
Whilst running your own social media accounts can be fun, as your business grows it’s not always plausible, and that’s totally OK! Using a professional social media company is something to consider as it can be a great and cost-efficient way to level-up your business.
If you’re feeling confident this is something you’d like to look into, we’d love to hear from you.
For more social media tips and tricks, make sure to sign up for our newsletter. As always, please get in touch if there’s anything you need support with.
Put your feet up, we’ve got this. We’ve been living and breathing social-first communications since the phrase “social media strategy” was first heard on business-leader lips. Get the newsletter to stay in the loop. We respect your privacy and would never sell your details on to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time – see our Privacy Policy for more details.
01225 809990