Social media marketing is getting very effective in contributing to the growth of a business. Sooner or later you would need to have a dedicated team to manage all your profiles. People in the 18-34 age bracket are the most likely to follow a brand via social media. 71% of customers who had a very good experience with a company’s social account would recommend it to their network.
There is no denying that social media marketing is good at swaying customers’ inclination to buy. And the numbers are stacked to its favour – there are 1.65 billion active accounts on various platforms and another million is being added every day!
But what if your business is not yet ready to maximise social marketing? What if you do not have the skills to build an effective campaign? What if you do not have the tools to analyse engagement? You can of course try learning as fast as you can. But while you are learning your competitors are already getting the most out of it. Another solution: outsource! How to do this right? Read on!
Look for the best social media services provider
Look for someone you can trust. I cannot stress this enough. Remember that the provider will become the voice of your social media personality so be sure that he/she embodies the value you hold dear as an organisation.
Where to look for social media managers? The easiest way to do it is to do a search on LinkedIn. Taking the search to Google can also widen your net. Most BPO companies offer this service. They are a good choice because they have the experience and the credibility to do social media tasks.
You can also ask your peers. There is a big chance some of your friends who are managing their own businesses would know someone who can help you with social media. The direct referral saves you time as you do not have to dig as much information to validate the provider’s identity or expertise.
Get all the platforms up and then strategise
If you are not too eager to have someone doing all the posts for your company, you can just assign the social media manager to set up everything for you. This includes configuring all the social platforms to your liking. If you need to have one account connected to another platform you can also do that. The important thing here is that when he/she is done, you will still be in complete control of everything.
Too many platforms to manage? Ask for some advice for the best social media management tool out there. This should help you have a more streamlined workflow.
Aside from setting up the accounts, the strategies for your social marketing should also be done by your social manager. How are you planning to use your social profiles to distribute your content? How will you use your accounts to funnel traffic to your website? How do you plan to integrate your customer service to your platforms? What do you want to say to your audience on social media? Messaging, timing, distribution, and metrics all play a role on how it would help your business grow. A social media manager can help you sort through these technicalities.
When he is done with your strategy all you need to do is roll it all out – just follow the plan and sustain it to get the results you want.
Communication is the key
What if you prefer to work with a full time social media manager and let him do all the marketing legwork for your business? Then you need to make sure you are communicating with him as often as possible. You need to be clear what tone and personality your brand will adopt online. Forget about monthly meetings. Talk as often as you need to – give him/her insights about the company, what it really does, its vision, its goals. The more the social manager knows the better for your business.
There are however things that can come up that needs your personal attention – like a specific complaint of your products or some inquiries that need a lot of considerations, things that are beyond what your social manager can handle.
Always know what’s going on
Even if you are hiring a specialist for your social media accounts never leave it all to him when communicating to your audience online. Be on the know what is being posted, give comments on what can be done better, encourage posts that are raking in good engagements.
Be sure to point out errors in the posts, and be very clear with messaging standards. Make sure you correct wrong content as fast as you can. If the post has been out there for a long time, apologise and clarify to your audience. In social media a little confusion can easily escalate.
Outsourcing social media tasks is easy. But there is a way to make it a successful undertaking. Get it right the first time by following these pointers!
