Social media outsourcing–WTF?
Reading an article I just came across on twitter about social media outsourcing got me rethinking about this subject—at my previous company, I struggled with this mindset.
I discussed this a few times with my boss, but the end result always came down to us wanting to run SMCs (social media campaigns) for our clients. That in itself is not a problem. Managing and suggesting is fine by me, in fact, I think that’s a great way to offer social media help to clients. Plus, jumping into something like SMM is very scary, and pointless if you don’t have a strategy in place.
However, their definition of what we wanted to offer was different. We wanted to “be” the client in terms of what others would see. This, even in theory not yet in practice, made me very wary.
How would we, the agency, know how to talk, think and act like the client. I suppose we could have done extensive research into their marketing history, their business model, their sales history, their ROI, their customer history, etc. We certainly could have done a great deal of research, possibly even some training, but we were not planning on doing any of that. Even if we had, I would still have not been copacetic with the idea. Why?
Transparency. I love knowing, or at least as I understand it to be, that the person / brands I interact with in social media, are in fact, those who they say they are. What is the point of interacting with someone if they are not actually themselves, but rather another agency posing as them? Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the personal gratification I want to feel that I actually matter to them?
Plus, social media shouldn’t viewed as a burden, as something to be handed off to another contractor. It does take time, and it does take investment. But the benefits can far outweigh the negatives. Besides the opportunity to create another viable revenue stream, it gives people / brands a chance to get very intimate with your customer. This can be the most powerful thing you can ever do for your business, word of mouth marketing is free (sort of) and so much more impactful than any other form of advertising.
But, if you are not willing and open to embrace social media for what it’s worth, and participate the way you should (honest + transparent), you can fail big time. If you do fail, then embrace that, share that, and learn from that.
My two cents—just do it yourself. Take the time, this is your business that you love, so show some love to your customers and empower them to show others love for your business.
