While this sounds like a no-brainer idea to many small business owners and even big business owners, hiring someone else, like a marketing firm, to interact in social media for you isn’t necessarily a very good idea. The reality is that people do business with people. A brand is only as good as the people behind it, whether it is service oriented or product driven.
Since it is people that make the difference, do you really think it is a good idea to hire outsiders to handle your social media engagement? Do they really know your company as well as you do, as well as your team does, as well as your management does? I doubt it.
In fact, it is a far better idea to tap the people reserves you have and spread the social media engagement responsibility across several of your own people than to farm it out. Now, I already know you are going to howling at me that you don’t have the time. Answer this . . .
- Do you have the time for more business?
- Do you have the time to talk to new prospects?
- Do you have the time to answer questions about your service or product?
- Do you have the time to build your bottom line?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then you will find the time to keep your company’s social media engagement inside your company. You may hire someone part time or full time to work integrally inside your company on this piece, simply know that they are going to have to understand the “voice” of your company and the nuances of how your people communicate or risk sounding like one of those dreaded automated voice systems only they’ll be online sounding like that.
There are a ton of time saver tools available to streamline your engagement process while maintaining your unique voice and keeping the “personality” of your brand clear and resonating with prospects and customers. Here are just a few. . .
www.hootsuite.com ~ outrageously robust scheduler and dashboard to allow one stop engagement on multiple platforms.
www.tweetadder.com ~ ideal for setting up twitter with a block of tweets, RSS feeds, creative DMing, Retweeting and more.
www.tweetdeck.com ~ allows easy engagement across multiple platforms including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn as well as fast access to Twitter Chats.
www.timely.com ~ takes your tweets and puts them out at the best times for visibility and retweeting.
www.postling.com~ another all in one dashboard allowing you to interact on multiple platforms from one source, also provides you with a digest daily of your activity.
www.socialoomph.com ~ allows easy scheduling of Twitter tweets and Facebook posts as well as a myriad of other functions to save time and streamline engagement.
You will go farther faster when you realize that whether you like these platforms or not, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, and more, they are the tools of today’s marketplace and you can either use them or lose business.
The bottom line about marketing is that it represents a conversation about your business. If you love what you do this is generally pretty simple. You are talking about what you love to either do or provide. If you don’t love what you do, you will find marketing much harder and likely shun the free and low cost tools available. The choice is yours.
I’d love to hear your comments on social media, your wins and your frustrations, and the tools you like and use the most.
I definitely agree with a slight revision: my clients write all their own updates, tweets, etc., and approve “fillers” such as quotes from a list I provide. Then I (as their VA) do the actual scheduling which saves them time. The clients do all their own responding to comments, thanking people for likes and retweets, etc.
I love Hootsuite although, whenever possible, I don’t use a third party for facebook posting because that will harm your edgerank.
Caroline,
Interesting because for me the time is in the creation not the use of tools, lol. Glad they have you on board to make it all work :).
Hugs, Melissa
Love it! I couldn’t agree more. When you love what you are doing, see the value in your services, enjoy your clients, you are the one that wants to share it and shout it from the roof tops. You are excited! It’s just like being in love, you want everyone to know about it. You talk about him/her all the time and you have more than enough time to share all the juicy details. People that love what they are doing share all about it. Fall in love with your business and using social media will be a none issue.
Well done Nora!
You are spot on and you are a living example of this :).
Hugs, Melissa
I agree too! And Caroline, I think this is a smart compromise. Help clients understand how the messaging will work best, have them write the messages and take the geeky tech piece off their hands. But they do need to learn how it all works!
Thanks Kelly,
I guess as NON-tech as I claim to be, I have learned all of the tools and taught them to others so, for me, they make it easy.
Hugs, Melissa
I agree completely. Also, if you are a great marketer on your own, it can only benefit you more to learn social media which is the future of business in the same way that the internet once was (and continues to be). Social media is just a little easier to learn than programming. 😀
Hey Tyler,
Well since I’m a non-tech and in some circles considered a veritable social media whiz, it is definitely easier than programming which is an impossibility for this non-tech!
Yes, I agree, building relationships is a tough one to delegate effectively.
Hugs, Melissa
Just the list of tools was worth the read.
However, I will consult back to this article in the future to show my clients why it is better for me to teach them how to use social media instead of simply doing it all for them. That would be a disservice to them and their business.
Tyler,
So glad to hear that! Also found a new one last evening at #blogchat. Are you using http://www.bufferapp.com? Very cool little time saver. Different than the usual tweetadder and hootsuite. It is simpler and powerful still.
Hugs, Melissa
PS. Why don’t you have an avatar? Go to http://www.gravatar.com . . .
Hey thank you so much. I set one up so we will see when it starts to work. I have been trying to figure out how everyone else has an avatar and I don’t. Thanks. 😀
Melissa, I agree with many of your points. The automation and time saving suggestions are great. And you have done a great job promoting your personal brand and business via social media. The reality, however, from what I see, is that many small businesses just do not prioritize social media marketing, nor do they understand it. They know that they need to become active on social media, but aren’t sure where to start. So they end up a) doing a poor job of it (which reflects badly on the company) b) hiring someone internally for a cheap rate (think intern) who does a poor job of it or c) not doing social media at all. I agree with some of the other posters that if social media is outsourced to a marketing firm, the company should still participate in some training to understand each site, the business impact, marketing strategy, etc. Then the marketing firm needs to become immersed in the business and communicate regularly with the client so that the firm adequately represents the company’s voice/brand/products/services. In my mind, the ideal situation would be for the marketing firm to merely supplement what the business owner or company is already doing on social media, so that they can have a greater presence without the constraint of time.
I think this also makes the case for a company to hire a CMO to portray the message in the proper light.
I agree entirely Donald, that is having a dedicated expert to create the company’s social media strategy and voice. Well said.
Hugs, Melissa
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