Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Social Media Management

Transcription

1 Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Social Media Management

2 01 In an age of rapid-fire communication connecting everyone everywhere, social media has become more important than ever before. No longer a vanity marketing effort or purely for brand-building, social media is an important part of how you portray your business online, so you need a team in place to build, grow, and manage it properly. This can be challenging though, especially for small businesses with limited resources. Do you hire someone to handle community management full-time or do you outsource it to an agency that specializes in this type of work? There are benefits to both approaches, as well as some drawbacks. In this guide we'll take a closer look at many of these pros and cons to help you determine which is the best option for your company.

3 02 The Role of a Good Community Manager What exactly does this person do every day? Beyond posting to social media accounts with new content, how do they earn their keep in your organization? Do you even really need someone doing it full time? There are a lot of factors to consider here. The scope of your business, the number of customers you serve, the size of your potential audience, and the scale with which you want to grow and maintain your community will all be factors in determining where and how to invest in this position. Common duties include regular publication, follow-ups with concerns and complaints, crisis management, event coordination, and networking with other brands and thought leaders in the industry. Today's community manager is the modern face of PR for your company on social media and how they tackle that role will determine who is talking about your brand and how they discuss it. For this reason, as you can imagine, it's vital to find the right fit for your team. Let's take a closer look at some of the pros and cons of each option.

4 03 Pros of Insourcing Your Community Management Your first instinct will be to save some money and source your community management efforts internally either having a current employee handle it or bringing someone new in to work on it full time. There are some very real benefits to doing it this way, as well as some drawbacks and alternatives you should consider. Complete In-House Brand Control of Voice Agencies are extremely adept at working with existing brand voice, can go through your internal training, and must report to you with all of their activities, but at the end of the day, no one knows your brand as well as you and your team. The people who have been working on your product or service for the last several years and developed the brand and the voice used to communicate it day after day will be not only more comfortable conveying that brand on social media naturally, but will have unique insights that a third party wouldn't have, at least not right away. Over time, this benefit becomes less of an issue, but right away it is an advantage worth considering.

5 04 Customer Service Inquiries Handled by the In-House Team If your company relies on customer service as one of the pillars of your retention and growth strategy, social media is incredibly important. More people than ever before turn to Twitter and Facebook to ask questions about their purchase or worse, complain about their purchase to either you or their friends and followers. You need someone in place who can respond to questions and concerns as quickly as possible. Having an in-house team means a dedicated resource whose sole job is to review and respond to these concerns. That's not to say an agency can't offer similar coverage, but many agencies would lag behind in response. If you opt for an agency, it will be important to look for a fit that can provide 24/7 coverage and full understanding of your brand.

6 05 Ownership and Control Over Crisis Management Escalation When there is a problem a really big one it's natural to want to have control over every aspect of the situation. You want to know that when you ask for a response to go out, it goes out immediately. At the same time, while you will have greater control over the crisis management aspect of your brand's communications, you should also take into consideration whether your brand has previously dealt with this type of situation. If you've never experienced a crisis in your online communications, you may not have the experience needed to handle it rapidly either. This is where a seasoned agency can outperform an in-house resource. Without working with an agency or individual on your team who has experienced crisis, you are putting yourself at risk of a significantly damaging crisis.

7 06 100% Focus by Dedicated Staff This is an argument that could be made for any position in your company. If you hire someone to oversee your social media and community management efforts, you have a 100% dedicated resource on hand who will only work on your brand as opposed to a handful of brands as is often the case with an agency. We'll discuss the flip side of this equation when working with agencies shortly, but keep in mind that there are agencies that offer full time community manager options as well as expanded resource pools that more than compensate for it. Generally More Authentic Communication Again, if you hire someone internally or move someone already on your team to handle your community management, they will know your brand better and be able to communicate it more clearly to your audience. The months or years spent speaking the language of your brand, answering customer questions, and sitting in meetings with your team's decision makers will give them key benefits. For those leaning towards an agency, this is still an option. Just be sure to look for an agency that offers the option to send in a dedicated community manager on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis to work with your team so they also get that kind of immersion with your brand.

8 07 Pros of Outsourcing Community Management As you can see, there are several benefits to insourcing your community management, but for those without the resources in place or a limited budget for bringing on a new full time staff member, outsourcing is an equally if not more appealing option. Here some of the key benefits of outsourcing your community management efforts and what they can bring to your business. Larger Team with More Resources For an equal or smaller budget in most cases than bringing on a full time staff member, you can hire a global agency that offers 24/7 coverage for your social media needs. With the speed, expectations, and potential reach of today's social media sites, this is incredibly important. It ensures your brand is actively communicating around the clock and not just 9-5, M-F. It also allows you to tap into a larger pool of resources in other areas of expertise. While you may have a new community manager on staff, what about design work or content development? An agency allows you to access all of these resources at a comparable or lower cost.

9 08 Pros of Outsourcing Community Management As you can see, there are several benefits to insourcing your community management, but for those without the resources in place or a limited budget for bringing on a new full time staff member, outsourcing is an equally if not more appealing option. Here some of the key benefits of outsourcing your community management efforts and what they can bring to your business. Larger Team with More Resources For an equal or smaller budget in most cases than bringing on a full time staff member, you can hire a global agency that offers 24/7 coverage for your social media needs. With the speed, expectations, and potential reach of today's social media sites, this is incredibly important. It ensures your brand is actively communicating around the clock and not just 9-5, M-F. It also allows you to tap into a larger pool of resources in other areas of expertise. While you may have a new community manager on staff, what about design work or content development? An agency allows you to access all of these resources at a comparable or lower cost.

10 09 World Class Talent at the Best Agencies Taking that a step further, world class agencies tend to attract world class talent. The chance to work with the world's best brands, build a strong portfolio, and use creativity to solve complex problems is an attractive force for many young and talented recruits. Your company may be able to find a good fit for the position, but you'll be left with a smaller pool of local candidates and your budget may restrict the talent and experience level you can afford. A world class agency has no such restrictions. Best Practices and Successful Campaigns from Other Clients An in-house resource may know your brand better, but what about other brands? What have they learned from the community management and communications efforts of hundreds of even thousands of other brands in the industry? Agencies work with numerous clients, often across industry-lines, allowing them to draw on what works in a related space for each of their clients. Tests and new strategies with larger budgets or longer engagements can trickle out to all clients and ensure you get only the best of the best strategies and tactics for your campaign.

11 10 Better Paid Media Rates Over time an agency will develop relationships with paid media outlets that allow them to get preferential placement and rates. From agency-level engagement with massive networks like Twitter, Facebook, or Google to smaller scale advertising efforts through distribution networks like Outbrain or display networks, these rates will save you money while ensuring your ads are being managed by someone with several years of direct experience in this field. Advertising advantages are among the starkest differences between in-house and outsourced community management if you plan on advertising, this is a huge benefit to hiring an outside agency. Better Access to Tools There are a number of powerful tools that, when properly engaged, allow companies like yours to compete even with the largest of competitors. Research tools that provide regular updates on the top performing posts, community development tools, SEO tools that tie site performance to social media efforts, and the production suites of tools that allow you to maximize the quality of your graphics are all very important, but extremely costly for a small business with limited funds. An agency will have access to most if not all of these tools purchased at an agency or enterprise level to assist their clients. You can leverage access to those tools by working with such a team.

12 11 Faster and More Streamlined Activations A good agency has this stuff down to a science. They can provide faster, more efficient activations that you could hope for internally because they've already done it hundreds if not thousands of times. The delay that often comes from an overworked and understaffed internal team can be eliminated by a larger agency team that can scale to the needs of your own. Whether that means growing the team for large scale operations or just having resources in place for when you inevitably need more people on-hand to manage your brand, an agency with the right mix of resources and experience can offer just that.

13 12 What's the Best Solution for Your Company? So what's the best option for your company? There are several factors to consider when deciding where to invest your community management budget, and in many cases you'll want to maintain a healthy balance between insourced and outsourced efforts. Choosing a model that fits your needs requires you to know exactly what those needs entail. How often do you need to communicate? How large is your potential community? What are your competitors doing and how can you compete with them in an active space? An agency can help you determine what will work best for your efforts at each step of the process. And the best agency will be one that fits all of your needs. A company that offers 24/7 support, 365-degree global coverage of your brand, and that has been through numerous crisis situations for brands like yours will be best situated to tackle these challenges in the most effective and efficient way.

14 13 At the same time, you want an agency that has equal experience working with start-ups and Fortune 50 clients, drawing on experience from the fast paced, budget-tight world of small business and the large scale, high stakes world of the biggest businesses in the world. With real-time SLAs and management, full-service options and the ability to scale to every possible situation you might encounter, the right agency can be the perfect partner for your community management efforts now and in the future. Would you like to learn more about insourcing vs. outsourcing your social media management?