Why You Should Outsource Your Social Media Marketing

Social Media marketing is an indispensable part of digital marketing. The basic reason why this is such an integral part of online marketing is because customers are present more than ever on Social Media and companies who want to reach out to their customers must reach out wherever customers choose to go.
Social Media Platforms Are Diverse
Social Media marketing is either completely free or very low-cost compared to traditional advertising. Social Media marketing — when done right — is highly targeted and hence very effective. It’s important that this form of marketing be done right using the correct Social Media platforms, so choose your platforms carefully. Certainly, a presence on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ is a given. As to the other Social Media platforms — Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, Vimeo or more — serve specific purposes and should be used to target certain audiences. Companies whose products lend themselves to artistic photography — and after Steve Jobs and his obsession with aesthetically pleasing industrial product designs, very few companies will stick their neck out and say that beautiful looks are not important for them — must use Pinterest and Instagram to showcase their products. So, if you are a restaurant or any sort of business related to food products, cooking, recipes, bakery products and so on, beautiful photography and the promotion of those photographs on Social Media is going to be a key part of your online marketing policy. Similarly, For B2B businesses, LinkedIn promotion is a must. Do your research and see what works best for you as every business is unique so one-shoe doesn’t fit all as they say.

Keep Social Media Marketing Engaging & Interesting
One of the biggest reasons why people use Social Media is because they find it interesting. People come back again and again to their Facebook newsfeed multiple times in a day because they find things that are riveting, funny, informative or otherwise engaging. For marketers, the cardinal principle therefore has to be: never be a bore. Actually, it’s not just relevant to Social Media marketers but many others.

Hence, viral video marketing is very effective. If you create a funny video commercial, people will watch it and share it and it will get millions of views on YouTube. Marketers have internalized this principle and we have seen many recent instances of clever promotional videos that went viral for different reasons.

Videos can go viral by being funny, emotional or by tapping into a specific mood by incorporating some hot button current topic into the video. The other way to get audience participation is by having contests. Social Media accounts should remain active. There should be regular posts on Facebook and Google+ as well as tweets sent out from the Twitter account. Remaining regular and consistent is a very important characteristic if you want to become popular. In addition, Social Media being an interactive platform itself, it is important to be interactive and interact with your customers on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to give them a personal touch to show them you care.

If customers make a complaint via Social Media — such as sending a tweet to an airline’s Twitter account complaining that the airline was not sufficiently helpful when their flight got delayed or that their luggage was misplaced in transit — then corporate accounts should have a policy about how to respond to these complaints.

Reasons to Outsource Social Media Marketing
There are many good reasons why it makes sense to outsource the Social Media marketing of your business. Here are is a few:

Cost & Time Factors
Remaining regular and responsive on Social Media can be a time consuming activity — you have to post content on Facebook at least once a day and tweet several times a day. Depending on the size of your Social Media community, there will be several comments on your FB posts and you may need to engage with a few of the comments. If anyone is spamming your FB posts or trolls or becomes abusive on Twitter, you need to take corrective action such as blocking the relevant accounts. It can be time consuming to keep an eye on all of the different activities happening via Social Media.

With outsourcing this activity, you can get professional Social Media marketing companies to take care of all of the above aspects at a reasonable cost compared to hiring multiple Social Media experts in-house depending on the size of your company.

Experience & Expertise
Whether it’s writing novels or picking apples, experience matters. The same applies to Social Media. Professional Social Media guys or gals who are at the top of their game have developed a range of knowledge which can be hired by outsourcing Social Media marketing. Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and all the other Social Media platforms are evolving continuously; hence, only experienced Social Media professionals will be able to really do a great job.

Long-Term Investment
While it might appear to be an easy solution to attach Social Media responsibilities to the existing job description of a regular employee, there are many problems to taking this short-cut. Social Media being quite time consuming, tacking this on to an employee’s existing job role might hamper the employee’s productivity in his or her role.

Remember that Social Media is here to stay — it will change and evolve but Social Media is not going to go away. It’s a long-term investment for the company. Hence, a company should approach it with a sufficiently strategic vision in how to go about it. Outsourcing Social Media marketing to a professional agency will ensure that this will go on in a smooth manner irrespective of personnel issues. When you outsource Social Media marketing, you don’t have to worry about a particular employee “handling it” and you will be able to rest assured that a good agency has the expertise to make this a long term activity.

Real-Time & Hands On
With outsourcing, you get professionals who are always there. You are paying them for a service and you expect results for this service. With the immediacy that is an intrinsic character of Social Media, you cannot treat it like a side job which is what might happen if you tack on Social Media responsibilities to an existing employee. You cannot postpone responding to customer complaints or queries on Facebook or Twitter just because you are having a busy week or are out of town attending a trade show. With outsourcing, professionals will be there to respond to any crisis or complaint or even to say a gracious ‘Welcome’ to customers who might send an occasional ‘Thank You’ tweet to the company’s Twitter handle.

Brand Voice
Companies should have or develop a consistent brand voice which will in turn create a devoted user base. If a clothing company is seen to be modern for example, then it might attract a younger demographic. Companies have to have a certain personality to attract their target demographic of customers. Social Media caters to different sorts of users and Social Media professionals will know how to create an attractive and consistent brand voice for the company. When you use a professional company to help with these services, they can help you create this “brand voice” and guide you with what makes the best business sense

Summary
They are many advantages to outsourcing your Social Media. Yes, you will have to be very careful when selecting who you are working with to ensure that you get exactly what you need. However, the benefits far outweigh trying to hire a full in-house team. With these advantages as listed above and other advantages, outsourcing of your Social Media marketing makes a lot of sense. If you need any help with any of your Social Media marketing or any other digital marketing, feel free to reach out to the team at Mind Digital Group.