It’s the age-old question. When your business is growing and you feel you need to ramp up your marketing and advertising efforts via social media – how do you do this? Do you outsource this task to an agency or do you handle it in house?

This is a subject all SME’s wrestle with from time to time. Some may try it in-house and discover that it is not very successful, some may decide to outsource the task but get cold feet before the digital marketing campaign has reached its conclusion

Some things to consider prior to handling in-house

• Who do you get to action this task? Do you allocate to a current staff member or do you recruit an additional staff member?
• If allocating to a current staff member beware of making the assumption that the staff member who’s always on their personal social media will also have the knowledge and the skill to manage and promote your company via the same medium. This is not only a major misconception but it can be damaging to your business.
• Think about this person’s role within your company. Does this new task take away from other tasks which are pivotal to the smooth running of the office?
• How much training and development, and hence time and resources would be required for the tasks to be performed professionally in-house?
• If hiring an additional staff member make sure you do the maths regarding the on-boarding costs of new staff. (At the end of the day would it have been cheaper to contract an outside agency?) Can the new staff member handle additional tasks as well? Does he or she have the experience and skills to be successful in this space?
• How urgent is the need to develop your social media offering? Are you just dipping your toe in the water, or would professional social media marketing really enhance your existing campaigns? Time may be of the essence.

There is a lot more to a successful business marketing campaign via social media then first meets the eye.

You need a strategy and a business plan. You need to be sure of your goals and KPIs, know who your target audience is and how you are going to engage them.   What is the demographic of your target market? What sort of content will they like? How are you going to grow your “fans”– those that are going to be not only loyal to your brand but also happy to promote it…….and much more.

In my opinion outsourcing to an agency wins hands down. They not only have experienced and talented people to manage this for you they also can spend the time on your business – time to curate content that is going to engage, time to put together strategies that will build your audience and meet your needs. Efficiency is also key here – you will get results faster, and benefit form the broad expertise and up-to date industry knowledge of a full service agency.

If you are currently handling your own social media marketing and not getting the results you want, we’re happy to have an informal chat to point you in the right direction. We offer a variety of services tailored to different needs and budgets. Let us take your business to a whole new level!!!