Are you thinking about contracting out social media marketing for your business? It can be a viable option. There are pros and cons to consider.
Pros of contracting out social media marketing
There are a few advantages to contracting out social media marketing. If there is no in-house experience and expertise, it can be useful to work with an agency or freelancer who has the specialist skills. They will have strategic input, will have graphic design and video skills, and will know what the latest trends are on social media.
It can save you time, if you run social media yourself or one of your employees runs socials. If you have a team member tied up creating social media, they might be better deployed somewhere else where their skill set is. As a business owner, core operations like sales or production are a more efficient use of your time.
Contracting out social media can be cost effective for a business. Hiring skilled staff full time with all that comes with an employment contract can be more expensive than using a freelancer who has the skills but is only working on your account part of the time.
Agency and freelance staff are scalable. As your business grows you can scale the amount that you contract out. Flexible freelance workers quickly adapt to change and they are used to working with a variety of businesses.
Social media specialists will have access to tools and software programs. Tools like Sprout Social or Adobe’s Creative Cloud would cost a business a significant amount to licence. The freelancer or agency will use these tools for multiple clients, making it more cost effective than if a business invests in these tools for just their own use.
Cons of contracting out social media marketing
There are none. Kidding.
An agency or freelancer will never be you. I have found that often solopreneurs struggle with the move from doing all their own social media to using a team (in-house or external providers). This is the same with a business. If they have an established brand voice and personality, the agency or freelancer must be able to adopt it.
You can’t stop off at the desk of an external contractor to casually chat through something. Working with someone who isn’t in the building has the same challenges as working with remote staff. Great communication is the key.
Regular communication and reporting is essential to keeping any campaign on track. That’s the same with internal staff as it is with an agency. It is part of the strategy to set goals and these need to be tracked throughout the campaign to ensure that any issues are addressed early.
A business might want to train an employee into social media. Social media is fast paced and can be technical (particularly paid social). A business needs to consider the pros and cons of contracting out their social media vs training in-house.
An established freelancer or agency will have systems in place to secure your information, but there is potential risk in sharing business information with an external provider. If this is a concern for your business, ask the contractor to outline what they do to protect data. You might find that their system is more robust than yours!
Contracting out social media marketing
Ultimately, the decision on contracting out social media marketing rests with the business owner. There are factors like staffing levels, skill sets and experience and cost to consider. There are pros and cons, there are cost savings in contracting out work versus employing a full time worker and there is an advantage in flexibility and scalability. Is your business considering contracting out social media? If so, let’s talk.