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These days, almost everyone is on social media. That’s why a business that wants to reach its market should be on social media, as well.
However, setting up a social media account is only the first step. To make the most out of social media marketing, you’ll need to build a connection with your audience by giving them the kind of content they enjoy.
If you find yourself spending hours just managing one social media account, or if you want to finally set up your business’s Facebook page, then outsourcing is the solution for you.
Outsourcing is the process of getting someone outside of your business to perform a service or produce an output for your business. You can outsource an individual, a team, or even an agency to do anything, from writing to software development.
The same way they have advertising agencies produce their commercials and ads, corporations often subcontract social media agencies to manage their social media accounts. While small to medium enterprises (SME) may not have the capacity to hire an ad agency, they can get people to handle their social media for them.
Here’s how to outsource social media.
Before we talk about how to outsource social media, we need to address any expectations business owners might have about social media marketing. Sprout’s Social Index 2018 revealed that social media marketers’ number one problem is measuring return on investment (ROI). This is because both business owners and social media marketers have the incorrect idea of what consumers on social media actually want.
Social media ROI used to be measured by how much social media campaigns contributed to sales. This practice is slowly becoming outdated.
Of course, the main point of a business is to turn a profit. However, customers don’t go on Facebook or Instagram when they want to buy something; instead, they search Google or go directly to Amazon. Marketing on social media is not about conversion.
When consumers were asked about what they wanted from social media, they said they wanted posts that fall under awareness and consideration, such as inspirational posts (awareness), coupons and deals (consideration), and links to informative articles (awareness).
Influencer marketing, or getting people with thousands of followers to promote your brand, is still being used widely by social media marketers today.
The initial appeal of influencer marketing was that promotional social media posts appeared to be authentic recommendations from celebrities. However, as more and more brands used influencer marketing, the less enthusiastic audiences became. They learned to spot the “paid posts” and stopped paying attention to them.
Now, only 36% of consumers say that they would research a product or service recommended by a celebrity or an influencer. Meanwhile, 61% said they were more likely to research a product or service recommended by a friend.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQvah8oDFoB/
Remember: people go on social media to connect with friends and family and to be entertained.
As long as businesses keep this in mind, they’ll be able to use social media to grow their market, connect with customers, and slowly but surely convince them to buy their products or services.
Social media managers and marketers are versatile workers. Most are well-versed in several platforms, although you can also seek employees who are experts in a single social media website.
Once you learn how to outsource social media, you’ll be able to have them do all these for your business:
Business owners might find themselves reluctant to let somebody else manage their social media accounts. This is completely understandable; after all, who else knows their business the way they do?
However, businesses need a dedicated social media manager or social media management team because it’s simply neither feasible nor efficient to have someone else do it. Here are the reasons why:
If you’re a business owner who’s constantly in meetings, talking to clients, or managing a team of people, then you’ll find that you’ll have no time for social media management.
Up to 89% of customers’ questions on social media go unanswered. Even brands with social media teams can take up to 10 hours before being able to respond to a customer. If you wouldn’t put a customer on hold for 10 hours (or even 10 minutes), then you shouldn’t wait the same amount of time before answering them on social media.
Social media pages shouldn’t be a stream of self-promotional posts. Otherwise, you risk losing followers.
Most consumers want links to information and funny or inspirational photos or videos. Again, this boils down to time. Very few, if any, business owners, project managers, or even regular employees have the time to think of content to post on a daily basis. Not to mention, you or your employees will definitely get burned out if you add social media management to your list of tasks.
Or, to be more accurate: branding is about consistency, and social media is about building and maintaining your brand.
Even using different fonts for your photos or having different writing styles for each of your tweets can be damaging to your brand. Inconsistency confuses customers. They’re less likely to engage if the brand comes across as unsure about itself.
While you as the business owner should be involved in determining your brand’s visual and vocal identity, it takes time (again) and great attention to detail to execute that consistency on a daily basis.
If you really want to establish yourself on a certain platform, advertisements or paid posts are the way to go. In other words: you’ll need to set aside a budget for social media marketing.
While you can’t bargain with Facebook or Twitter for reduced ad prices, you can find an outsourced social media manager at an affordable rate.
In fact, for some businesses, outsourcing is primarily a cost-cutting strategy. Agencies and even US-based freelancers often charge more than an SME is capable of paying in their first few years. By outsourcing, you can redirect your funds towards more diverse marketing initiatives instead of spending them all on a social media manager.
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Qualified social media managers abound. Finding them is easier than you might think.
If you’re wondering why we keep talking about hiring an individual over an agency, it’s because we highly recommend that you hire a remote worker. Not only do they have lower rates, they’re also easier to monitor and to communicate with. They become part of the team and are more emotionally invested in your business than an agency could be.
| Remote worker | Social media agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | – Can go as low as $3 per hour – Easily negotiated – No overhead costs – Ideal for smaller budgets |
– Can charge as much as $1000 monthly – Rarely negotiable – Monthly retention fee – Ideal for larger budgets |
| Knowledge and experience | – Has experience working on multiple projects at once – Can be hired for specific skill sets – Can be asked to perform other related tasks (writing, graphic design, etc.) |
– Several people working on your social media account with no way to double-check their experience – Often limited to social media management or asks for expensive additional fees |
| Level of engagement | – Self-directed work with a collaborative approach – Easy to direct and provide feedback to – Medium to high level of engagement |
– Hands-off approach – Must reach specific channels before being able to speak with – Low level of engagement |
The same way you can reach a potential customer from across the globe, you can also hire a social media manager from anywhere in the world. There are dozens of online job boards on the internet, with thousands of job seekers on each of them.
Here are the ones we recommend:
Onlinejobs.ph
is an online job board exclusively for Filipino jobseekers but open to employers from all over the world.
It has more than 250,000 resumes, allows you to post job ads for free, and has recruitment services if you don’t have the time to recruit someone yourself.
Filipino workers are hardworking and honest, and they come at incredibly affordable rates. You can hire a qualified social media manager with a college degree for as lows as $3 per hour.
Unlike other job boards, Onlinejobs.ph doesn’t require you to limit your communications with your employee on the website. They also don’t charge you a percentage of your every transaction.
You only need to pay for a monthly $69 subscription that you can cancel as soon as you hire someone. And, since you’re likely to find a social media manager in less than 2 weeks, it’s almost like it’s a one-time fee.
Upwork offers a wider range of potential employees. They host profiles of people from all over the world. Similar to Onlinejobs.ph, you can post a job ad, browse resumes, or subscribe to Upwork’s recruitment service.
However, Upwork discourages you to communicate with employees outside of the website. Creating an account is free, but they charge a percentage of all your transactions and deducts a fee from your employees, as well.
Upwork also requires you to include a time frame for the job and is, therefore, best for project-based opportunities as opposed to long-term work.
Sometimes, all you need to do is post a status on Facebook saying you’re looking for a social media manager.
Your friends might have people to recommend, or someone you know might be looking for a job. You can also ask friends directly for any recommendations. The obvious advantage here is that recommendations can be trusted up to a certain degree; after all, it’s unlikely that your friends will recommend a bad employee.
Finding potential employees is only the beginning. Now that you know how to outsource social media, what you want to do next is:
After that, it’s a matter of evaluating job applicants and choosing the best fit for your business.
When you’ve decided on who to welcome to your company, here’s how to successfully start working with your social media manager:
A social media manager’s nightmare is getting hired and then immediately being left to their own devices. They can’t write in your company’s voice if they don’t know anything about the company. They can’t promote your services or your products if they have no idea what they are.
The first thing you need to do is give them an orientation about what your business is about. If you have a brand manual, give them access to that, as well.
The more your social media manager knows about the company, the better they can represent your business on your social media accounts.
Set up a meeting where you and your social media manager come up with must-dos and never-dos.
A must-do is something that should always be done when managing social media, while a never-do is something that should never be done. Examples are:
Your social media managers should regularly report on the state of your social media accounts.
Most social media websites provide insights and analytics of your page. This is a simple way to track progress in terms of follower count and audience engagement. You can also use this data to see which segment of your audience responds the most, what kinds of posts do they engage with, and on what day and time do your posts get the most engagement.
If possible, have your social media manager assess and make suggestions to your social media strategy, so they feel like they’re contributing to the growth of your business.
Include staying updated with the latest social media strategies in your social media manager’s list of responsibilities.
Have them dedicate an hour or two of their week reading up on news, tips, and tricks, so they’re not blindsided by changes in algorithms or newer audience engagement techniques. Keeping track of these will get you ahead of your competition—and help you stay ahead of them, as well.
Speaking of staying updated, don’t forget to keep checking AwesomeOutsourcing for more outsourcing guides, news, and tips. We talk about not just how to outsource social media, but also how to find the best employees, how to outsource bookkeeping and more.
Think we missed an important tip on how to outsource social media? Share in the comments below!
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