From doing your own marketing to handing it over to an employee or external source
When you first start your business, one of the main functions you’ll take on is marketing. It’s not your main area of knowledge but you know you need a logo, some business cards and a website. You’ll also need to do a bit of social media and networking as that’s what everyone else seems to do.
You get going with some printing and a website which you’re happy, so what’s next? You set up a few social media channels, such as a Facebook page and a LinkedIn page and do a few posts. Bosh! You’re killing it to start with but there’s ‘real’ work to be done, bills to pay and life to live. You’ve learned lots of new things along the way including acronyms such as URL’s and KPI’s but there are only 24 hrs in a day and you need to sleep at some point!
You come to a point where you just cannot do everything, so the marketing falls by the wayside even though you know it really shouldn’t as it’s also a source of sales for you.
Someone suggests outsourcing your social media marketing which seems like a good idea or handing it over to an employee if you have one at this point but is it their ‘thing’?
The real answer is there’s no right or wrong, we all do what we think is right for us but here are a few options:
- Keep doing it yourself – Find the time to do your social adhoc or check out a Social Media Management tool, such as Buffer or Hootsuite. These platforms are particularly helpful as you can plan your posts for days, weeks or months ahead in one go. You can also add posts as and when you have something to shout about.
- Hand it over to a member of staff – If you have a member of staff who seems knowledgeable in this area then why not hand it over to them? Will it interfere with their ‘day job’, will they want more pay? You can still keep control this way but if they’re just playing at it, will it do you any favours in the long run?
- Outsource it to a Social Media Marketing company – There are lots of companies out there who can do it for you and their capabilities and costs are varied. The good thing is, you’ll have peace of mind in knowing your companies social media posts will be professionally done and monitored so you’ll know what’s working and what’s not. They will advise you and help improve your posts. Depending on what you pay, you’ll get a set amount of posts each month which may limit your awareness opportunities.
- Could you employ a dedicated social media manager – Could you afford to take on an individual, whose sole role is to run your social media in-house? In 2021, social media has become one of the top 3 areas for making connections for sales, purchases, referrals and new contacts so having a manager in house, keeps you in total control knowing it’s being done professionally with unlimited opportunities to post.
Andy Middleton – Graphite Media