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Should Social Media be done In-House or Outsourced?

One of the key issues facing businesses which are dealing with social media issues today is who should be doing the work that needs to be done in social media. Social media is something that requires time, connections, know-how and a willingness to learn. It can be a full-time job. Then again, depending on the type of business that you have and the social media strategy that you want to implement, it doesn’t have to require full time hours. Businesses are struggling with the question of how many hours per week to put in to their social media campaigns. They are also trying to decide whether this should be an in-house job or one which is outsourced. The answer depends on the goals that you have for your social media efforts.

Doing Social Media In-House

The option that many businesses try to start with is to do their social media in-house. There are two different options for this which each have pros and cons:

• Assign someone in the company to handle the social media for the business. This simply adds a new task to the work load of an existing employee. The benefit is that there is no added cost here. The drawback is that the employee will have limited time to devote to social media and will also be taking time away from other tasks so all areas of this person’s work my suffer.
• Hire someone to do social media in-house. You can hire someone who has the specific job of handling all of your social media. The drawback here is that you’re going to have to pay someone by the hour (whether part-time or full-time) to do your social media marketing. The positive thing is that you have someone on site who is solely devoted to this part of the job so you’re likely to get good results.

Outsourcing Social Media

Other businesses have found that it makes more sense to have social media work done outside of the normal working office. Again, there are two options for this:

• Hire a freelancer to handle your social media. This is very much like hiring an in-house social media person except that you don’t have to pay them hourly to come in to the office. Instead, you pay for results which could mean saving money in comparison to hiring a new staff member. The drawback is that you have a lot less potential to monitor the person’s social media work.
• Hire an SEO company to do your social media. There are now companies that specialize in full or in part on doing the social media promotion for your business. This is similar to hiring a standard marketing person but one who focuses entirely on your social marketing. The benefit to this is that you’re working with a professional company that really knows how to get the job done right. The drawback is that this is typically the most expensive option.

Deciding Which Option Is Right For You

Determining which of these options is right for your business is tough. On the one hand, you do have to consider cost and figure out what your budget is for social media marketing. On the other hand, you have to remember that your social media efforts are going to go a long way towards telling the general public about your business. You want these efforts done correctly so no wrong messages get put out there on the social networks.

Your best bet is to sit down to create a social media strategy. Ask yourself what your goals are with social media. Determine how many hours per week you realistically think need to be completed to meet these goals. Assess whether you or someone in your company can handle the job or whether outsourcing makes more sense. Then start slowly because you can always build from there.