Should You Outsource Your Social Media Marketing?

What Is Social Media Outsourcing?

Social media outsourcing refers to the practice of hiring external agencies, freelancers, or consultants to manage a company’s social media activities.  

This includes a wide range of tasks such as content creation, scheduling, and publishing posts, engaging with audiences, monitoring social media metrics, and strategizing campaigns to enhance brand presence and engagement across various social media platforms.

The goal is to achieve the company’s marketing and communication objectives more efficiently.

What Are the Benefits of Outsourcing Social Media Marketing?

Outsourcing social media marketing has become a strategic choice for businesses aiming to enhance their online presence while optimizing operational efficiencies. The decision to delegate this crucial aspect of digital marketing to external experts can unlock numerous advantages. 

Below are the key benefits of outsourcing social media marketing:

• Reduce costs: Outsourcing can lower additional costs by eliminating the need for an in-house team’s salaries, benefits, and training, making it a cost-effective solution, particularly for smaller businesses.
• Save time: It frees up internal resources, allowing businesses to focus on core activities while experts manage the time-intensive tasks of content creation, engagement, and analytics.
• Scale your digital marketing: External agencies offer the flexibility to scale efforts up or down as business needs change, ensuring that your social media strategy adapts seamlessly to growth or seasonal fluctuations.
• Embrace fresh ideas: External experts bring innovative perspectives and strategies from working across industries, injecting creativity and fresh approaches into your campaigns.
• Get access to instant expertise: Instantly tap into the knowledge and skills of social media professionals who are adept at navigating the platform’s complexities, ensuring your strategy is both effective and aligned with the latest trends.

What Are Some of the Social Media Tasks You Can Outsource?

Outsourcing social media tasks can include content creation, community management, strategy development, and analytics.

This approach allows for professional handling of posting, engagement, campaign planning, and performance analysis to enhance online presence and audience interaction.

Here are some of the key social media tasks that companies commonly outsource to external experts:

1. Content creation: This includes the development of various types of content such as posts, graphics, videos, and long-from content tailored for social media platforms. Outsourcing content creation ensures your feed remains vibrant and engaging, reflecting the latest trends and your brand’s voice.
2. Content scheduling and publishing: Planning and scheduling posts in advance to maintain a consistent presence on social media can be time-consuming. External agencies can manage these tasks efficiently, using specialized tools to optimize posting times for maximum engagement.
3. Strategy development: Developing a comprehensive social media marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals requires expertise. Outsourced teams can conduct market research, competitor analysis, and use insights to craft a strategy that enhances visibility and engagement.
4. Community management: Engaging with your audience through comments, messages, and reviews is crucial but demanding. Outsourcing allows for timely and professional interactions, building a positive community around your brand.
5. Analytics and reporting: Monitoring performance metrics and analyzing data to understand the impact of your social media activities is essential for measuring success. External experts can provide detailed reports and insights, helping to refine strategies and improve ROI.
6. Ad campaign management: Designing, executing, and monitoring social media ad campaigns requires specific skills and knowledge of the platform’s advertising tools. Outsourced professionals can manage this process, ensuring targeted and effective ad campaigns.
7. Influencer partnerships: Identifying and negotiating collaborations with influencers to expand your brand’s reach can be managed by agencies with existing relationships and expertise in influencer marketing.

What to Consider When You Outsource Social Media Marketing

Before you start outsourcing your social marketing activities, each business owner should consider what they want to achieve with their brand’s social media presence.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when considering outsourcing your social media efforts:

1. What are your social media marketing goals?
2. Do you have a social media strategy?
3. Will you outsource all of your social media accounts?
4. What’s your budget for outsourcing social media?
5. What are your social media outsourcing options?

1. What Are Your Social Media Marketing Goals?

When setting your social media marketing goals, it’s crucial to identify what you hope to achieve through your online presence. These goals will guide your content strategy, help you allocate resources effectively, and provide a framework for measuring success. 

Here are five social media goal examples for brands:

• Increase brand awareness: Make more people aware of your brand, its values, and what it offers. This involves growing your follower base and increasing the visibility of your posts.
  • Example: “Increase referral traffic from Facebook by 40% in six months by using targeted social media campaigns“
• Boost engagement: Enhance the level of interaction with your audience. This means more likes, comments, shares, and overall engagement with your content.
  • Example: “Double the average comments per post by the end of Q2 by initiating more community-driven and interactive content.”
• Generate leads and sales: Convert your social media followers into leads for your business, ultimately driving sales. 
  • Example: “Achieve a 20% increase in lead generation from social media platforms by implementing a series of targeted promotions and product showcases.”
• Enhance market intelligence and gain insights: Gather data on customer preferences, behaviors, and trends through social media interactions and analytics.
  • Example: “Use social media listening tools to identify and track emerging trends in our industry, informing our product development strategy.”

By clearly defining your social media marketing goals, you can tailor your strategies to meet these objectives, ensuring that every post, campaign, and interaction brings you closer to achieving your overall business aims.

2. Do You Have a Social Media Strategy?

If you don’t currently have a social media strategy, establishing one should be your first step when you decide to outsource your social media marketing.

A comprehensive strategy is the backbone of effective social media management, guiding every post, campaign, and interaction with your audience. 

It ensures that the external team or individual you hire can align their efforts with your broader business objectives, brand voice, and target audience preferences. 

Working closely with your outsourcing partner to develop your social media strategy is crucial. The more active a role you take in this process, the more tailored the strategy will be to your specific business needs and goals.

Social Media Strategy Template

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Your input is invaluable because you have the deepest understanding of your brand, your industry, and your customers.

Here are some key things to define for your social strategy:

• Business goals: Clearly communicate your overarching business goals to ensure the social media strategy supports them directly.
• Target audience: Share insights into who your customers are. Define audience segments to ensure the content resonates and engages effectively.
• Brand voice and identity: Your brand’s personality should be consistent across all channels. Work with your partner to ensure they understand how to communicate in a way that reflects your brand accurately.
• Content themes: Decide on the mix of content that will be shared. This might include promotional content, educational posts, user-generated content, and more. Ensure the themes align with your audience’s interests and your business objectives.
• Platform strategy: Not every platform suits every business. Decide which platforms are most relevant based on where your target audience spends their time and where your content is most likely to thrive.
• Engagement strategy: Determine how you will interact with your audience. This includes responding to comments, the tone of interactions, and how to encourage user engagement.
• Performance metrics: Agree on which metrics you’ll track to measure the success of your social media efforts. These could include engagement rates, follower growth, website traffic from social media, and conversion rates.

Even after the initial strategy is developed, your involvement is key to its success. Regularly review performance data with your outsourcing partner, discuss what’s working and what isn’t, and adjust the strategy as needed.

This iterative process ensures your social media marketing remains effective and aligned with your evolving business goals.