As we have written in the past, the sheer amount of work involved in Internet marketing – and especially social media – makes it nearly impossible for business owners and marketing managers to handle on their own. But, since so much of social networking involves personal communication, we are often asked which parts of your social media strategy you can safely outsource to others.

The quick answer is “anything you don’t have time to manage yourself.” Typically, that involves things like writing posts and updates, researching keywords and links, and responding to routine inquiries from clients and colleagues. In truth, you can probably outsource as much or as little of your social media marketing campaign as you would like, so long as you keep these three rules in
mind:

It’s still about your voice and brand. Although another person may be writing your posts or looking after your updates, they should be familiar enough with you and your organization to stick to a theme and voice that is similar to the one you would use. In other words, they should be working under your direction, not simply generating content.

You should still be involved. In addition to helping your social media consultant or community manager to come up with topics and ideas, you may want to step in and personally post updates and tweets from time to time. That will help your social media marketing be more authentic, and also keep you in closer touch with your customers.

Make it clear that you’re getting help. There’s no reason to shy away from the fact that you have others involved in your social media marketing accounts. That’s especially true in this day and age, where your customers and colleagues are going to expect that you have a team working for you. Be upfront about these relationships. In our organization, we designate our tweets with initials, for example, so it’s easy to tell who is posting a particular comment or responding to a question.

Social media marketing can be easy or difficult, highly effective or a waste of time, depending on what sort of professional help you have on your side. Keep these tips in mind and outsource the parts of your social networking plan that you would rather not handle or don’t have time for.

Do you need a professional online marketing and social media team on your side? Contact us today for a free meeting.

In keeping up on the local Calgary online marketing community, we’ve noticed an interesting trend: Roughly once every three days, a new job listing is posted by a major Alberta employer for a professional who can help them to manage their social media marketing.

What do they know that you might not? What can a social media consultant do for you?

Also referred to as a “community manager,” a full- or part-time social media consultant can help you grow your business online in a number of ways. Here are just a few of the most important ones:

Social media marketing content creation. Most managers and business owners don’t enjoy writing things like posts. Having someone else handle it for you can save a lot of time and take a great deal of stress out of the process.

Respond to inquiries and requests. From colleagues wanting to link with you to customers tweeting questions about your products, a social media marketing consultant can ensure that inquiries are answered quickly and completely.

Issue press releases and other statements. Are your customers getting the good news about your products, awards, and testimonials? If not, then it might be time to make sure that someone else is staying on top of these activities.

Looking after your online reputation. Internet reputation management is a quickly growing field, and there’s a great reason for it: What your customers are saying about you on sites like Facebook and Twitter – whether it’s good or bad – can have an enormous impact on your ability to increase your sales online. A community manager can keep an eye out for feedback to see what kinds of impressions are being shared, and make sure they’re accurate.

New positions for social media marketing are popping up all the time, because social networking sites have turned into big business. Who’s looking out for you and your company?

If you’re looking for a social media consultant you can trust, or a speaker who can explain the process of finding customers over Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to your audience, then don’t hesitate to contact us today.

When the subject of hiring a social media community coordinator  first comes up with C-Level Executive leaders, a lot of them will wonder if they really need one. After all, can’t an office administrator just post the corporate tweets and Facebook updates, without paying someone to do it for the company?

You certainly could, and lots of professionals do. In the long run, though, it usually doesn’t make much sense. You might not want to handle your own social media marketing for the same reasons that it doesn’t really make a lot of sense to do your own taxes, represent yourself in legal proceedings, or cut your own hair: You probably don’t have the time to learn to do any of these things, and someone else can do a better job of them, anyway.

In the first case, consider that finding new customers through sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn doesn’t cost a lot, but is time-intensive. It might seem like nothing to dash off a quick note or update, but you can easily spend an hour a day keeping on top of your social profiles. That’s an hour you could have spent running your business. Even more importantly, what happens on a day when you don’t have that hour to spend? Your online marketing plan comes to a halt. String too many of those days together, and you’ve got a social media marketing campaign that’s going nowhere.

But even if you can stay on top of your social profiles on your own, would you really want to? As personable and articulate as you might be, you’ll probably get better results from having a professional edit your posts, keep an eye on recurring themes and ideas, and otherwise ensure that you are creating content that’s interesting, unique, and relevant.

In other words, by setting the tone yourself, turning the day-to-day details of your social media marketing plan to someone else, and supplementing them with your own tweets and updates, you are much more likely to end up with the result you’re looking for: more leads and customers coming to you through social networking sites.

You might not need a social media consultant in the same way that you need a doctor or a dentist, but if you’re serious about taking advantage of one of the most important Internet marketing trends to come along recently, then hiring one is a no-brainer decision.

Having said all of this, it is critical that you remain involved in your social strategy. Need some help growing your organization or social media sites? Get in touch with us today to find out how easy it is to get started.