Social Media Outsourcing: How to Streamline Your Social Strategy

What is social media outsourcing?

Social media outsourcing is giving authority to a freelance social media manager or agency to manage your social media marketing across platforms. This then allows you to focus on other areas of your business and tap into scalability elsewhere.

Outsourcing social media marketing is sometimes seen as an unnecessary cost to small businesses. Yet, it's one that larger businesses are able to consider.

This ideology is something that should be debunked right away, because making this investment is more affordable compared to the cost of hiring someone full-time who may not be as experienced.

The benefits of outsourcing your social media

So, what are the overall benefits of outsourcing your social media marketing? Let’s have a look.

Firstly, it’s important to recognise the level of expertise that a freelancer or agency can bring. They'll be clued up on the latest trends and developments in social media which will enable them to tailor your content to your target audience more effectively.

Another benefit is that, in the long run, it'll save you money. It can be a lot more cost-effective than bringing someone in full-time and save you on expenses like taxes and office space.

Time efficiency is another factor to consider when outsourcing social media marketing. Getting an external person or agency to do the work for you will mean you can put your full focus into other key areas of the business.

Finally, it brings plenty of flexibility. If you aren’t happy with the work they’re doing, you can make changes at any point depending on your contract.

Choosing between in-house vs outsourced social media management

Having an in-house social media team can be beneficial in its own right – and it may be something you're considering, so let’s weigh up the two options.

Firstly, you'll need to consider your budget to understand whether a full-time employee is worth it to your business, or whether outsourcing is a more cost-effective method. This all depends on what your goals are with social media.

An in-house team might cost more, but they'll have more time to dedicate their efforts to your social media strategy. So you should identify clear objectives for your social presence and look at whether full-time staff or outsourcing is better for your goals.

Review your current resources at your disposal, like the ability and time availability of your current staff, and determine whether social media is something that can be added to any of their roles or whether outsourcing is required.

Finally, determine what sort of control you want to have over the social strategy. Having full-time staff on the job would allow you more oversight and control of your content, but outsourcing can provide you with more time to focus on other things.

How to develop an outsourced social media strategy

Managing social media isn't always easy, but any impactful social media strategy starts with your target audience. So begin by identifying who your potential customers are.

Then, understand which social platforms will be the most successful in building your brand identity. For example, are you targeting everyday professionals on LinkedIn? Or young college students on TikTok?

The most important aspect of a successful social media account is good content creation. You'll need a mixture of images, videos, and infographics that keep your content fresh. And your content should be entertaining and engaging in the eyes of your audience.

Consistency is important too – audiences love familiarity in the content they digest. Ensure that it reflects your brand’s tone and voice too.

One way to do this is through the Brandwatch social media management tool, which can create a content calendar for your brand. It can figure out how many posts you should publish over days and weeks, and run analytics to give you insights on all your posts.

Setting social media marketing goals

When measuring success in social media campaigns, you must set proper digital marketing objectives. Goals for any brand or business will vary, but brand awareness is a common one.

To do this, you'll need a brand presence on social media that's targeting your required audience and making them familiar with your content. You can track things such as reach and follower growth to measure this.

You may also want to be using social media channels to drive people to your website. If that’s the case, keep this in mind when creating content.

If you’re looking to boost sales or improve lead generation, then you need to be using call-to-actions (CTAs), that direct your customers to sign up to either a mailing list or straight in to purchase products.

Customer engagement is another goal that may need strengthening. To do that, it’s important to have a strong social strategy. Create a sense of community among your channels, and build relationships with your audience through responding to comments and messages.

Of course, community management can be a notable topic depending on your industry. If you are handing management responsibilities over to an external source, it's important to ensure you pick the right agency or individual.

Finding the right fit for your social media outsourcing

When you’re looking for the right freelancer and agency for your brand, it’s important to find someone you can have a good relationship with to meet your business goals. You essentially want them to be an extension of your brand, so you should do proper research to vet your proposed outsourcer.

Evaluating social media marketing agencies

When evaluating a social media marketing agency, you should take a look at their history. Search for testimonials and any previous work they've done that demonstrates previous success. Plus, looking at how they do their own social media is a solid metric.

You should create a list of potential agencies and compare the costs, track record, and capabilities.

Factors to consider when selecting an agency

Experience is obviously a key factor in determining the ability and level of who you're hiring. Look for agencies with a solid background in your industry and who already understand your target audience.

Analyze how they communicate with you in terms of their response rate and transparency, as this will give you an understanding of their professionalism and how receptive they'll be to your objectives.

Of course, price is another factor. Weigh up whether the level of service you're opting for aligns with your goals.

Outsourcing best practices

An outsourced social media marketing company or freelancer becomes an extension of your team. They become your online voice, so it’s crucial in the onboarding process to make it clear what you wish to gain from them.

Maintaining brand voice and identity

The biggest thing to ensure is that your voice and identity is maintained. Clearly communicate this in initial conversations, or better yet, find an agency or freelancer that has previously worked in your industry.

Brand guidelines are worth sharing to demonstrates how your image should be shared, what the vision is, and the dos and don’ts.

Share with them previous content that you feel has properly represented your brand and voice.

Content quality

Set and establish clear goals for the outsourcing team so they understand what’s required. Vet the content that they start sharing to check that it aligns with what you're trying to achieve.

You can setup bi-weekly meetings with them to discuss the work and ensure you all agree on the job at hand.

Managing outsourced social media efforts

Once you outsource social media, there'll be several things to consider. Firstly, you can’t just leave them to do the work. It’s still your brand, and you need to ensure you have some level of control in terms of the higher level decisions that are made, such as on social strategy.

Communication and collaboration with the outsourced vendors

It’s crucial that you stay in open communication with the outsourcing team or individual, and collaborate with them on decision-making. Schedule regular meetings with them, maybe bi-weekly, to speak through data-analytics and how they're measuring against the goals you've set.

Use shared documents, like Google Docs, to track campaigns and ideas as well as performance metrics, or social media marketing tools like Brandwatch.

Give them clear feedback – it’s imperative that you're honest with them about your feelings on the work being produced. Be constructive and ensure that you're on the same page.

Monitoring and measuring success

Look at defining some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you can monitor regularly with the outsourcing team. You should look at the performance of both the outsourced social media manager, and the impact their work is having.

Start tracking the engagement rates in the posts such as likes, comments, and shares to understand the interest being generated.

Also, ensure you analyze follower growth and the impact that's having on engagement. It’s an easy one to evaluate the impact that the outsourced social media team is having.

Leveraging social media platforms

To ensure you get everything you need from outsourcing your social media, you need to understand the different platforms that will suit your brand the most.

Choosing the right social media accounts

Each social platform has its own strengths and weaknesses – but they also have very different audiences.

You should focus on the platforms that are most relevant to your audience to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns and to reach the customers you need.

A social media marketing tool like Brandwatch can help a business owner identify the right platforms. Then, they can pass responsibility on to a social media management professional or company.

Adapting to platform specific knowledge

After you have established the social media accounts you're going to utilize, it’s fundamental to know what their individual features are.

Posting formats differ on each platform, so understand the preferred post types for each channel – whether it’s image or video focused, like TikTok, or more text focused like X.

They also all have different optimal posting times, so ensure your social media posts align with their algorithm. For this, Brandwatch’s social media management tool can help with this through it’s social media planner and scheduler.

You need to cater to all of these nuances and algorithms to ensure you get the best value for money from outsourcing your social media.

Tools and technologies for social media outsourcing

There’s plenty of social media tools on the market that will streamline your processes and make you more time efficient. Let's take a look at some of them.

Popular social media management tools

Some social media tools can create a far better experience for your social media management by putting all your content in one place.

Take Brandwatch for example, which can manage your organization’s social media activities across networks and regions, providing an all-in-one solution that helps you maximize your time, reach, and impact across social.

Hootsuite and Sprout Social are also popular tools which provide you opportunities to monitor and schedule content.

Integrating tools with outsourced services

If you’ve decided on a tool that you want to implement for your social media management, you'll need to integrate this with your outsourcing team. This can bring consistency to ensure you meet the goals of your social strategy.

The outsourcing team need to fully understand your business expectations and what you want to get from the tool.

Create a joint account so the whole team has access to the tool, which will create an efficient workspace for collaboration.

Make sure to always track the results through performance metrics and analyze the efforts of your own tools mixed with the outsourced services.

The financial implications of outsourcing

When you begin your search for outsourced social media services, you should conduct a cost-benefit analysis that can help you decide if the outcome will weigh up against the cost.

Doing a cost-benefit analysis of outsourcing

You can begin by looking at the cost of having an in-house staff member versus the costs of outsourcing social media. There are several key factors to consider on this.

Firstly, analyze the cost of hiring a full-time team member. Look at what they would bring, the level of experience you could realistically hire, as well as taxes and training fees. Then, compare this cost against outsourcing.

You should consider the social media marketing tools you will need to pay for too, as well as any analytics software. Then there’s editing software such as Adobe Creative Cloud, this will all be required for in-house teams.

Weigh up the time and efficiency of the two options. Look at how long it would take to train up an in-house employee depending on their experience. There are pros and cons to both, but make sure you consider all costs before making your decision.

Outsourcing social media marketing services

Outsourcing social media will come at a cost and could have an impact on your expenditure in the short term. So, consider these key points before going ahead.

Most services will come at a fixed monthly rate which will help with your budgeting, so you can accurately keep track of your expenditure. Plus, outsourcing social media management is often customizable, which means you can select the level of service that is right for you and that meets your business goals.

Experience is a huge factor with outsourcing social media, to. You're working with highly professional and experienced social media experts that have a deep-rooted understanding of the industry. So, you'll need to decide which level of experience suits your business needs and budget.

Concerns with outsourcing social media marketing

There's always going to be challenges in the world of social media outsourcing. Understanding these potential challenges can help you mitigate them in the long term, as well as helping you to build a strong relationship with your outsourced social media specialist.

Addressing common concerns

Your brand voice is fundamental to any online success – so make sure you produce a detailed document of your brand guidelines for your specialist. This will give your chosen social media agency a head start in meeting your goals.

Make it clear to the team what your customer service requirements are, setting clear guidelines on response times and how to speak to your audience.

Regular communication with the outsourced social media team can help with this, to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.

Solving issues with outsourced vendors

You may have situations where you're unhappy with the level of service provided by your outsourcing team, and if that happens there are a few things you'll need to consider.

Firstly, make sure you have set very clear expectations of what you want them to achieve from the start. Plus, ensure that your KPIs are fully aligned with the business objectives.

Schedule in bi-weekly meetings to review things with vendors and offer constructive feedback where necessary.

Don’t be afraid to renegotiate the contract if there are changes to your business goals, or if there’s changes to the business in general. This will make for a smoother relationship and make sure that they stay aligned with your objectives.