You’ve consulted your management team, coworkers, and maybe a small sample of customers and finally reached a decision about the whole social media thing. Your business wants to jump on the bandwagon and give it a whirl. Great! But now what?
I’d be willing to wager that one of the questions I hear most frequently in regards to social media (aside from the whole ROI conversation) is whether or not a business should manage their social media strategy and implementation in-house or outsource it.
I’ve teamed up again with Ben LaMothe to tackle this very question as the second part of our social media for businesses series.
So without further ado…
BL: This depends greatly on the experience that staffers have working with social media and the web as marketing and PR tools. It’s dangerous to assume that just because you use Facebook or Twitter in your personal life you’re able to utilize the platforms successfully for business. I would recommend outsourcing it, either at a consulting level, or an execution level.
If you’re comfortable with the mediums and just want the ideas and strategy documents, go that route. Bring someone in to write a strategy for your business, and then take over the responsibility of implementation.
Outsourcing the strategy and implementation brings with it the benefit of ensuring the profiles and web presences remain active. Having a team working on your behalf also ensures that ideas flow continuous, and any opportunities for monetization or growth are spotted early.
AP: The needs of every business are as diverse as the individuals that run them. To answer this question, you need to determine how you expect social media to help your business and do an honest evaluation of the talent located in your organization.
It’s often tempting to assign social media roles to interns or Gen Y staff because of the generational stereotype that they’re all social media junkies and tech-savvy. Instead of making that assumption, I’d encourage you to open a dialogue with individuals in your organization to see if you might have someone who’s genuinely interested in adding social media to their list of responsibilities (and seems to have a proven track record in communicating on these platforms). As Ben mentions in his response, there’s a difference between using social media platforms for personal and business practices.
I’m personally a big fan of keeping implementation in-house, but partnering with a consultant to help craft overall strategy and key messages. Partnering with an expert allows you to avail yourself of their experience and gives you an objective participant who can keep an eye on the big picture making sure the social media strategy’s framework takes into account all overarching business strategies and messages.
An expert will help you determine which platforms you should pursue, craft talking points for each of them as well as guide you through the process of developing a following. Transparency is important in the realm of social media and taking responsibility for implementation of strategies in-house lends an authenticity that outsourcing can’t duplicate. A good partnership will help you find your company’s voice on these new platforms.
