Social Media Management 101 – Should You Hire A Social Media Service?

Are you considering hiring a social media management service to help you get more results with social media marketing? If so, this post will help you make the often-difficult decision of whether or not to hire a social media marketing service or do it yourself. I’ve got 5 simple questions for you to answer before you decide what to do…

1. Are You Social?

I know this is a strange question, and it might be a difficult one for some people to answer honestly. We all consider ourselves social — humans are social animals! But I mean, are you REALLY social? For entrepreneurial types (probably you) I recommend you start by assuming that you lean towards a “No” on this one simply because most business-oriented people usually aren’t naturally social (or not enough to be successful with social media marketing).

If you answered NO to this question, stop right here. You definitely need to hire a social media service to help you get the results you need with social media marketing.

If you answered YES to this question, let’s move on.

2. Are YOU The Business?

This is an important question. The answer to this question will be YES if you’re a coach, trainer, consultant, author or similar type of proprietor. Basically, if what you sell is strongly connected to your personality and your profile, then your answer is yes.

If that’s not the case, then you probably do want to outsource your social marketing. The reason is your time value is probably best invested elsewhere.

If that’s the case AND your answer above was yes, then let’s move on.

3. What’s Your Time Worth?

Now we can begin looking at more strategy-level questions to help you decide. If your time isn’t worth a lot yet (early stages of your business, for example), then doing social media marketing yourself is probably a wise choice. This is usually the case if you don’t have a lot of money to invest and you can’t generate significant revenue with other uses of your time.

If your time is worth a lot and you can generate revenue or spur revenue growth with other applications of your time, then let’s move on.

4. Do You Have Available Staff?

Most of the time this won’t be the case, but sometimes we have existing employees who can be reorganized or reassigned to fill new functions. This is usually the case in smaller operations or startup businesses where individual employees have several responsibility areas.

If the answer is yes, you should consider having these available employees become your blogger. Of course, your selected employee will need to possess the right skills and you’ll want to answer the following question first?

5. Can You Train, Manage, And Supervise A Social Marketer?

This is a biggie. One of the key advantages of hiring a social media marketing service is you get a turnkey solution. You get a company that understands social marketing and knows how to do it right. Unless you’re aware of what needs to be done, this final question can be an instant deciding factor.

The other advantage of outsourcing to a social media marketing service is consistency and reliability. A good social marketing service firm should deliver regular and frequent posts regardless of who’s sick, on vacation, etc. You’re really hiring a team of professionals who deliver a set service for a fixed price.

These 5 questions are a great way to determine your needs for social marketing. Interested in learning more about our Full Service Social Marketing plans? Click here to learn more now.