REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA www.audaciousleap.com
REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA Companies of all sizes make choices between managing their business activities in house , employing temporary staff or fully outsourcing areas of expertise. The primary reasons for doing so is to drive the business forward in the most efficient and cost effective manner. From accounting practices to IT infrastructure management, human resources to market research - outsourcing business activity to solve business problems and drive productivity and revenue is common place across many industries. Social Media Outsourcing has grown at a fast rate - from 2010 to 2012 the numbers of companies bringing external resource has doubled according to a report from Michael Stelzner, Social Media Examiner. There are many reasons for this trend taking place and the purpose of this paper is to share some of these aspects. Your business may already be managing a social media strategy or alternatively you may be in the early stages and assessing the value of a social campaign. Either way, you have objectives in place to increase brand awareness but are unsure which path to go down - do it yourself or bring in external resource - ‘the build vs buy’. Here are some of the most commons reasons in favour of outsourcing social activity; 1
REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
INVESTING TIME BUT LACKING RESULTS‌ You have invested time and resource into social media and have not seen the traction you desired. Publishing content
and spreading the word over multiple platforms just does not appear to drive consumer engagement or traffic.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
CHANGING OF STAFF‌ As within any job function, a change of personnel can slow down productivity - easing a new person into a role can be a significant ramp up period. It does however provide an opportunity to take a fresh look at the current strategy in
place - bringing in external expertise as a temporary or part managed basis can maintain momentum and bring new ideas to the table.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
YOU ARE GROWING This is great news - more clients, increased revenue but you want to ensure your customer satisfaction is high as well. Keeping your customer base up to date with company news, product releases, new services etc It is becoming
common place that companies are bringing in external resource for contracted periods to help drive promotions and launches at certain times of the year – helping to reduce additional salary and training expenses.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
IT IS TIME CONSUMING Social Media platforms are typically ‘free’ to use at a standard level but the real cost is the time it takes to develop the right strategy, engage with your communities and analyse the campaigns. Many companies employ
teams of social managers to simply listen and engage with their audiences - for the SME market this is very often not an option and the cost of hiring social media managers can be substantial.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
IT IS NOT YOUR CORE COMPETENCY… Your focus is on developing your products or services – you sell, you support, you Product Manage but Social Media is
a new area that is not a core competency for your business. Your marketing do a great job building case studies, press releases, sales collateral , company messaging - stretching this to managing a Social Media Campaigns just isn’t
possible without bringing on more staff.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
THE COMPETITION IS ALREADY THERE…. Taking a look around and you will see companies in your space using social platforms - some are doing a great job
and others are a little behind the curve. First thing to do is to ‘Get Even’ and then ‘Get Better’ - gain the competitive advantage and act now.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALWAYS CHANGING ‌. The landscape is continuously moving - there are more social platforms coming to market every year and the
number of third party applications & plugins are simply to large to count. What technology is new, what markets does it address, how does it complement your business objectives....it is a minefield but one that contains a
gateway to custom.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA
MAYBE YOU JUST NEED A KICKSTART! For those companies who have not got a solid strategy in place the challenge may lie within some of the topics mentioned above - for others it may be that you have created great content and shared it over many platforms but just not
getting the traction you desire... you are not alone - it maybe time to bring the experts to give you a boost in the right direction. This is a short list of some of the reasons why many businesses are looking to outside assistance as a way to leverage the brand awareness that a social strategy can offer - fully
managed services, training courses, strategy development consultancy - there is an option for all types of companies.
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REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOCIAL MEDIA What stage of Social Progress is your company in?
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