The other day a friend asked if I could do a proposal for him regarding a social media marketing client he had. Of course, I agreed. I did the proposal and sent it to him. A couple of days later, I followed up to know what had happened. That is if the client is ready to take us on as their social media marketing agency.
Well, the jury is still out as the client is not picking or returning calls. What is clear though is many brands and or businesses are keen on having an agency run and manage their social media marketing.
I gather, however, that most businesses don’t know if they should outsource their social media marketing and if yes, how they should go about it. And the mother of all reasons: can we afford an agency?
Social media management, make no mistake is not ‘easy’. It involves, sourcing for content, posting, engaging…and doing it all over again the next day.
If you go through this on a daily basis and still manage to go about your other business duties Kudos to you! If you find yourself overwhelmed, then its time you went agency shopping. Forcing the question: have you ever considered outsourcing your social media management?
Tarry a little. Don’t go in blind.
Here are eight things to consider before you sign that agency contract to outsource social media.
Does Your Budget allow to Outsource Social Media?
What is your budget? How much do you have to spend? Let’s be honest. At the end of the day, it’s all about the money. How much you are ready to spend and how much the agency in question is quoting for.
What you need to do is consider if you have the resources to invest in a whole other team of outsiders to take over your daily social media duties.
In the long run, hiring an agency is cheaper than having an employee. Here is why: with internal employees, you need to consider certain additional expenses such as benefits, office equipment, larger facilities, etc.
If what you want from an agency is outside of your budget, there is no shame in you considering to keep things in-house for the time being. Until such a time when you will be better able financially to seek outside help. Although let the bidding agencies know in good time.
On the same note, you need to take to heart that cheap is always expensive. That is why you need to beware of agencies that seem to quote too low. They could either be inexperienced or just don’t fully understand the complexity of social media management. All of these circumstances will end badly for you and your business if you blindly jump into a relationship with an agency you can afford over one that may be priced a bit higher, but has the experience, reputation, and staff to keep your social channels running smoothly. Take this to heart.
Are You The Controlling Type?
Can you give up control of your social media accounts?
We don’t like giving up control. It’s human nature. It takes out a large chunk of our trust portion. Having the right budget in-place to cover the fees associated with hiring an agency to manage your social channels, doesn’t come close to sealing the deal.
The big ask: Can you really let go? Timeout for micromanaging.
Otherwise, what’s the point of hiring an agency to save you time, when you’re just going to spend it rechecking everything they do anyway? It beats all logic right.
From the outset you need a capable team, to handle your social media management so you can go about handling other businesses all geared towards the achievement of business objectives.
How do you get here? By taking time in researching and interviewing potential agencies, narrowing down your list and meeting with their team members to get to know them.
This will provide an avenue for you to understand their strengths and weaknesses and how close of a fit they are with you, your team and your brand. Spending time builds rapport, which builds trust. Trust will make it easier to give up control.
Are Your Social Media Efforts Currently Organized?
Being organized goes a long way in making the handover process seamless. How organized are you?
For it would be wrong to just give your new agency team a confused mess of paperwork and random instructions and expect them to sort it out and get it all right when they take over.
This might result in chaos, jeopardizing any efforts the agency would like to put in place insofar as helping your brand is concerned.
That is why you’ll need to make plans well in advance for how you want your social channels managed. These plans will need to cover not only your overarching social media strategy but also your marketing strategy. Although this part can be handled by the agency with your input of course.
But issues to do with brand persona, general audience and brand voice, will need a clear direction from you.
How Long Have You Been in Business?
How many years have you been in business? How old is your brand or business?
It seems somewhat irrelevant at first, but the degree to which your brand is established can make all the difference in how it will be managed by an agency touching it for the first time.
If your brand is well-established, you have the benefit of being able to turn over your social channels with a typically hard-and-fast game plan for how to speak to your audience.
But we always advise our clients to keep a watchful eye on the content and verbiage used by your new agency to ensure your brand persona and voice stay intact.
If your business is relatively new, you have options.
Do you want your agency to have a hand in directing your brand’s focus for the future? If so, your involvement may be only to give approval or light direction. If you prefer to be the one making the decisions, you may need to build a closer partnership with your agency team and plan to invest a larger amount of time working with them.
Or, you may want to hold on to the steering wheel a little longer to establish your brand a bit more before handing it over to an agency.
Do You Need a Local Company to Outsource Social Media?
The distance of your agency from you will make all the difference on how on-site photos, press events and potentially new store openings will be handled.
Most of the time, you’ll want to be posting live from an event, sharing photos and engaging with fans, which is more genuine and timely when you have a representative on the ground interacting, gathering photos and feedback and posting to your social channels, in real-time.
When you’re working with an outside agency and you or they don’t have the funding to pay travel costs to send an agency representative to your events, you’ll need to have a streamlined process in place to send photos back and forth for posting and ensure that a member of the agency team is available at their office location for real-time posting while the event is going on.
Working with an agency that is far away or in a different time zone will create challenges when it comes to travel costs and management of events on social that occur during off-hours.
Does the Social Media Agency Have The Capacity?
When it’s all said and done, you need to consider the capacity of the agency in question. Are they or are they not up to the task?
Things to consider include team size, equipment, location, availability etc.
In a perfect world, you would be your agency team’s only client or their top priority. But most likely, they’re managing a collection of different companies and brands and you’re just one within the mix. It’s the economy, what can you do.
Other important factors to consider are:
- How many other companies are they managing?
- How do they decide what client gets priority over another?
- Do you have a certain team member assigned to your account or are responsibilities shared?
These are all considerations you will need to discuss with an agency up-front before deciding which one most closely meets your expectations when it comes to managing your social media accounts.
Now, should you outsource social media management?
Your business/brand is your baby and no matter what, giving up control of all of your social channels to an outside agency is going to be a challenge. Follow the guidelines we have set for you and you will definitely make the right decision.
No agency is perfect. No business owner will ever be fully ready.
But with these six considerations in mind, you’ll be well on your way to making a decision that’s right for you and your business/brand.
May you find the right agency for your business!
This post original appeared on bulk.ly
