Should companies outsource social media?
Credit: tomfishburne.com
Ed. Note: This article originally appeared in my Postmedia News social media column.
Lately I’ve been running into a lot of companies that have been approached by agencies looking to “do their social media for them.” Inevitably, the conversation turns to the question of whether this is even a good idea.
My answer is maybe, but I used to think differently.
If you had asked me a year ago, I probably would have said something like outsourcing social media is a bit like outsourcing friendship. “Hey, Doug, wanna come to a BBQ?” “Dunno,” tweets Sanjeev “let me check with Doug’s wife.” Weird.
Ultimately, I still feel only insiders in a company truly know the company’s voice and can reflect it well, but, as it turns out, it’s more nuanced than that. In the same way lots of people can contribute to a newspaper (staff writers, editors, columnists, freelancers, letters to the editor writers and advertisers to name the main participants), lots of people can play a role in a social media program when properly orchestrated.
Credit: Jeremiah Owyang, The Altimeter Group
Creating the right organizational environment is key to making social media work, in-house, outsourced or blended. Last November, the Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm that specializes in “disruptive technologies,” released survey results indicating most organizations surveyed, 41 per cent, deployed social media using a “hub and spoke” organizational model. In other words, a central person or group helps business units or other departments use social media, akin to a traffic cop keeping things moving. Second-most popular at almost 29 per cent was a centralized (top-down) model, followed by multiple hub and spoke, decentralized and holistic.
Whatever the structure, it’s clear social media takes human resources and co-ordination.
As Chris Garrett wrote way back in 2009 on SocialMediaExaminer.com “One of the big concerns about using social media for business and marketing is time. Social media activities do pose a risk of drawing you in and taking up a huge amount of your day just interacting with people.”
Garrett goes on to warn “There is a danger though in that many companies are not just looking for help, but offloading all their activity onto an outside agency who is not integrated into the company, but still representing them in social media.”
Which is where reputation and brand can be at risk.
So there’s the conundrum — you don’t have the time or resources, yet there may be danger in outsourcing. What should you outsource, if anything?
According to Susan Baroncini-Moe (SocialMediaExaminer.com) “The short answer to this question is: You should outsource anything technical that doesn’t require your personality or involvement.”
Baroncini-Moe goes on to list things such as profile setup, design work, directory listings, blog syndication and scheduled tweets. Be careful not to overdo that last one, as you can appear spammy without intending to.
All this stuff can be done by an assistant, or at least can be co-ordinated by an assistant. I myself use a virtual assistant from OutSourcingThingsDone.com for these tasks (Hi Mary!).
But what about those agencies I mentioned at the outset? Where do they fit in? Should you use them at all?
If you do your due diligence and carefully evaluate an agency, it can work to have them be a part of your voice on social media. Trouble is, there’s a lot of snake oil being sold out there. Here are a few key attributes you should look for before allowing any agency to represent your brand:
- Satisfied clients — it seems obvious, but you don’t want an agency learning their social media chops on your dime. A good agency has a track record and is happy to share it;
- A holistic view of your organization — if an agency focuses only on social media marketing and the upside of social media, beware! A competent agency will work hard to mitigate risk and protect your flank, not to mention accommodate public relations, community relations, human resources and other communicators within your organization;
- Accountability — they should promise precise deliverables and success metrics (hint: “Engage the community” doesn’t really cut it);
- Availability — social media is real time, you can’t wait four hours for your outsourced community manager to come on-shift;
- Media awareness — social and mainstream media are increasingly symbiotic, if your prospective agency poo poos or ignores newspapers and TV, they should be shunned;
- ROI — what’s the return on investment of outsourcing this activity? Compare against bringing it in-house and make the business case you’re prepared to be accountable for a year from now.
There’s a long tradition of bringing in outside talent as the need arises. Heck, I make a living at it (though I teach my clients to fish, I don’t fish for them). Assembling the right resources in a strategic manner is key to successful social media implementation.
Just don’t outsource your friends.
Doug Lacombe is president of Calgary social media agency communicatto. He uses his own voice at http://facebook.com/communicatto.
About Doug Lacombe
As president of social media agency communicatto, Doug is a social media speaker, strategist and consultant. A 20 year media and marketing veteran, Doug was one of the first in North America to put a daily newspaper on the web in 1995. Prior to founding communicatto inc. in 2009, he held senior roles in the newspaper, software, wireless, and newswire industries. Speaking and working all over North America, Doug is based in beautiful Calgary, Alberta Canada where he lives with his wife of 24 years, Sandra, and a spoiled Mexican rescue dog named Bug.
Tags: altimeter group, authentic, Chris Garrett, disruptive technologies, media awareness, outsource, outsourcing, outsourcingthingsdone.com, reputation, ROI, Social Media, SocialMediaExaminer.com, Susan Baroncini-Moe, voice
