How to successfully outsource social media for your business

LET US PREFACE THIS WITH: we brag all the time about how we do NOT seem to our clients like an outsourced team. We are an EXTENSION to our clients’ teams and we feel strongly that our emotional connection to the brand allows us to create work for these brands as if they were our own. However, the blaring truth is that we are an agency and when you hire us, by definition you are outsourcing the work.

Ok, moving on…

Social Media isn’t as simple as it used to be in the early days of its creation – there isn’t just one platform that’s the most important anymore. There are analytics, algorithms and scheduling involved, and if you’re focused on running the business side of your brand, you probably aren’t able to devote enough time to run your social successfully – and there is nothing wrong with that.

Unless you have an in-house social media experts team (read: more than one person), you’re probably going to need to outsource social media for the greater good of your business’ success. 

Hiring a third party to come in and learn your brand and manage your social presence for you can be scary at first if you’ve had the reigns for a while. So before you decide to outsource your marketing, here’s what you need to think about: 

1. 1. Time. How much do you have to devote to social?  Is it not enough? If it’s not, outsourcing will free that up. Fun fact- a successful social media team will require 32 hours a month for just one platform (just one!). So if you have 3 main platforms, that’s 96 hours a month. Ask yourself – do you have that time? Outsourcing to a social media team means this is all they do, all day, every day.
   2. Expertise. Do you know social media? Like, really know social media? This is sort of a big deal. While you’re an expert in your business and running it, you can’t be an expert in EVERYTHING – so  hiring a team who ARE experts can help you innovate instead of just “keeping up.” 
   3. Staying up to date. Having a team that can designate members to constantly staying on top of trends so you constantly stay on top of the game is important. You need to stay in touch with consumers so your message and your brand/product/service stays relevant too. 
   4. Content. Outsourcing for social media will help you in creating new content, finding new content, finding ways to recycle content – all good things that benefit you. 
   5. Reaching Sales. You may be giving everything you have to your social, but you may not be able to provide the sales and traffic you’re striving for with the limited time you have. 
   6. Specific Knowledge. Outsourcing a team means they can work on constantly innovating and finding programs that work best for scheduling and reporting 
   7. Cost. Think about what you have the budget for. Do you have the resources for one person to do all the work, which is a risk, or enough to pay a small team of experts? You could hire an agency with a team (read: more innovative minds) as opposed to one person with one mind, but one person can only do so much. A team can create as numerous ideas that and think of things one person didn’t even consider. More people=more ideas=more chances of driving sales. 

 

These seven things are important things to think about before you go searching for a team. 

Once you’ve done this, here are some things to think about what YOU or your INTERNAL team is going to need to successfully take your brand to the next level in an outsourced partnership:

1. Have unique and high-quality imagery/video available.

1. 1. • First, you’re obviously going to have to have some form of content created for this team to work with. If you don’t, then you might want to consider hiring a professional to do so.
      • Once you have content for them to work with, realize that you will also need continuous fresh content. We aren’t talking content from a folder you’re recycling and using differently. If you hire a team like us (hi!), they can help in providing content direction for you when they ask for new content.  

2. SEO Optimization. Your website should be optimized for traffic and SEO. You can hire a team like us (hi again!) to make sure your website has all the right tools running to maximize traffic. SEO is important because it allows for your website to pop up on all those organic, unpaid searches on google if you have the right keywords, programs, and code running on your website. This isn’t something you should take a stab at if you don’t know about it, because it can literally affect how big or how small the numbers of people coming to your website are.

3. Don’t assume this means hands off. Be prepared to also put time in, in a timely manner. Monitor what’s happening since you are working with them. This means (but not limited to) monthly meetings, time to review reports, weekly emails for approvals. We don’t mean for this to sound like a time-suck – because it’s not. You’ll need time to review content and approve content. If you work with a team like us, we don’t just take the reigns and disappear. We collaborate with our clients on an on-going basis. We let you know what’s happening, why it’s happening, and when it’s going to happen. 

 

At the end of the day, we always stress to social clients that this is a COLLABORATION. You can’t just say, ‘manage my social’ if you have no assets or an ineffective website. Also, you should WANT to be involved. Your social media WILL come up in conversation and you should know what’s going on and being posted.  At LBMG we believe it’s important to value the clients inputs and opinions and we always strongly encourage good communication, because at the end of the day it’s not our brand or brainchild (although we sure as heck get attached to it as such – in the best way), we’re just here to make it as amazing as possible.

Just because we do all of the work doesn’t mean our clients are not responsible. Having a good social mean team on your side that encourages and favors communication between employees and clients is always the best formula for having a meaningful social presence. If you’re ready for your brand to go to the next level, then outsourcing is your next step – and lucky for you, we’re just an email, DM, or call away.