All small businesses considering social media marketing will at one point have to address this question: should I outsource my social media marketing to a professional, or should I do it myself?

Doing it yourself I feel like is ideal, but with the DIY approach comes a lot of time spent learning (and time = money), and a lack of experience. 

Hiring someone internally is expensive (salary, overhead, benefits)

Outsourcing it to a consultant is a good option, but then you could face one major issue – your consultant doesn’t know your industry and/or brand voice well enough. You’re the expert, after all. 

What’s your view on the topic? What have you tried that works, what hasn’t worked, what will you try in the future? 

@amoresocial I frequently suggest a combination of outsourcing SM marketing. Use a pro to help you craft a good strategy and plan the calendar. They should be able to help you select the appropriate tools.

If you need them to create content, whether it be blog posts or other papers, a good consultant will learn from you quickly. I personally always invest some of my time to learn for a new client, as well as learn from them.

One thing that has worked for my clients is to use a part-timer to watch for mentions and relevant tweets and blog posts/articles that relate to your content plan. Then you and your consultant can work together. I’ve found that having the  article or post “Found” is a huge timesaver, as you can read it and comment, link back to your blog, particularly if you have a post already out there.

@amoresocial I agree. A good consultant is part of your team, and should be trusted. But, it’s your company and you need to have a full understanding of the strategy and voice you are portraying.

My advice is to eliminate the mundane (use part-timer)  and the very time consuming, and to an extent that which you really do not like to do. If you don’t enjoy writing, outsource that. You can still be active and ensure your consultant understands your POV – bullet points can take care of that, as well as scheduled discussions.

@kc_kreative your point about large companies is right on target. Even small ones can forget those password accesses. A lot there depends on level of trust as well.

I suggest the intern/part-timers more from a monitoring and research POV, so the tweets and other post are properly written and part of the overall editorial calendar. Only after someone proves they understand and can craft something appropriate and on target should they transition. But, for a small business it can be lots more cost effective, and good for an intern as well, to pay someone $10-$15/hour than to pay a consultant, or use your own time.

@joanmuschampfagnani  @kc_kreative I do like the concept of sharing responsibility. I think that’s the best solution for small businesses wanting to get social.

I also think you have to be weary about splitting up the responsibility among too many people. It could result in less consistency across the board. 

A lot of marketing consultants can provide you with marketing strategy & advice, and at the same time, manage your accounts for you and do all the things you would hire an intern or assistant for. And as long as you still keep the communication floodgates open, there shouldn’t be any problems. 

@debbielynnava I agree, that content should have some input from the client. Then you can build off of what they have said, as well as optimize it for sharing and SEO. 

As a small business owner with a tight cash flow sphincter , I really can’t decide to -you know….or get off the pot.  I want to do it myself but since I don’t know what i’m doing it takes 10 times longer and a whole lot of frustration. I’d love to be able to pay someone to do it but also desperately  need that return on investment. I can make a gloriously beautiful fresh arrangement in less than 20 minutes but can spend days trying to think of a clever ad and still never follow through.  

Most of the time the thing I hear from people is, “I’d love to be able to do social media but I don’t have the time or staff to do it.” Obviously if you can do it yourself, it’s a very authentic voice. However, you can certainly outsource it with great success. To me, it comes from having clear goals and guidelines of what can be said and not said. What happens when there’s a question that the outsources person can’t answer? How does the approval process look? How fast can that process be done? How often will posts occur?

These and other questions should be ironed out in advance well before you hire to represent your brand’s voice through social media.

Besides the internal or external argument, there’s a 3rd option I sometimes like to employ, which is me doing the work on behalf of clients but mentoring them on how to do it more often if they like. But since they don’t know all the ins-and-outs of analytics reporting, I still provide that while they gradually create more content on their own.

@danonbranding Great points Dan. As with anything, it’s usually better to start with a plan. Though sometimes a company’s “voice” develops over time.  

@jeniferswanson It sounds like you’re a florist. If that’s true start writing down a list of topics to pull from (flower types, occasions, Rose Parade, community efforts, keeping flowers fresh, etc.). Keep a notebook (or voice recorder) handy for random thoughts to develop later. This will help you even if you hire an intern or marketing consultant to help you out. I have a few content-oriented materials that I could email you if you wanted to private message me.

p.s. I’m having to learn my association’s voice as well as coordinating with a supporting media partner who knows it better than I do for the moment!

great question and good advice from everyone @amoresocial getting someone to help strategize is optimum! then it makes it more of a fill in the blanks by a check list which is do-able @joanmuschampfagnani

@amoresocial That would be just great Samantha, really appreciate that! Clarity of communcation and expectations are so important in the initial meeting.

@amoresocial

So many thanks for that Samantha. Looks like a great checklist to me!

@amoresocial

I love lists so it works for me and the great thing is that it can be added to as and when things arise

@amoresocial Hi Samantha! Great question and interesting replies. I have a few social media services on offer but my focus is on training and strategy and not on doing the work for someone. I’m more than happy to do up a fancy profile image and welcome page if that’s what someone wants but I want to “teach a person to fish”. As the businesses I work with are all micro businesses who can’t really afford to take on full-time social media staff, I think that’s the right approach for them. Teaching them the basics about Facebook etiquette and not to get hung up on the number of likes they have is also a priority. So many of them don’t get that they are doing their businesses harm by being spammish.