In response to the shift in customer demands and the rise of digital, organizations’ social media strategies have become central to marketing success and the ability to reach your target audience with relevant content has never been more important.
Needless to say, the social media space is much more competitive than it was just a few years ago. The biggest investment organizations make with social media is the human resources employed to manage it. The various tools and channels used in social media marketing are far less costly than traditional media. So, it only makes sense to make a wise investment in the people who work on it.
This leaves many organizations and CMOs to wonder whether social media is best handled in-house or outsourced to an external agency. How do you ensure your investment in social is bringing in maximum return?
The Missing Piece in Your Team: Accountability by Moving Social In-House
As an experienced social media marketing staffing agency, we have the opportunity to
see best practices across many enterprises. Social thrives when you have top talent and the ability to make decisions and changes in real time. That means having leading social media experts directly on your team, working alongside and sharing ideas with other marketers. This can be accomplished with direct employees or contract resources. Utilizing the expertise of social media marketing contractors allows you to test, learn and adapt without making a commitment to a full-time headcount.
From chatbots, to AI, to live video, to augmented reality, to influencers and everything in between, marketing leaders must know how to best employ rising trends in today’s social space. Mastering how to implement these tools via social channels requires strategic management and most importantly real-time execution. The speed of social dictates the need for internal resources.
Whether an in-house staff or external agency is better for your business’s social media efforts is only a question if you feel unqualified to manage it internally. The benefits your organization will reap from placing expert social media contractors on your team:
Full, Unrestricted Control
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Social media isn’t just a one-off task that can be aimlessly checked on every now and then. Your marketing needs to have a social media team that manages and executes on a daily basis and can communicate in real time with senior leaders.
As busy and fast-changing as marketing is, CMOs don’t have time to go back and forth with an agency when creating or adjusting social strategy for their business. The major risk you run by outsourcing your social media efforts is losing control of the message and the martech tools or channels used to deliver that message.
CMOs who outsource their social media efforts will find that they don’t have much control overseeing their efforts as much as they should. However, employing contract staff to handle social media is a direct and effective way to have full control of your social media and strategy, with flexibility as well. The ability to walk down the hall and push any changes is incredibly valuable when you have direct access to the exact people who are in charge of it.
Authentic + Genuine Brand Voice
As a CMO, no one knows your brand voice and message better than you do. You are the best person to craft how you want your brand to sound, making you the top spokesperson for your organization.
Agencies are a valuable resource for strategy and thought leadership. However, when you get down to day-to-day activities of social, it is best for the social team to have a direct connection to the senior level marketers in your organization. Additionally, senior leaders will get valuable feedback from social channels. With social done in-house, you are much less likely to miss key insights.
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A marketer who works within your organization, who works with your products and services, and who engages with customers and employees is the ideal person to manage your social media. Having these marketing contractors directly under your leadership and team will help preserve a voice that’s genuine and authentic to your brand via social channels.
Compelling Content That’s Rewarding
It’s incredibly worthwhile to educate, excite, engage, and provide an incomparable experience for your customers, especially through one of the most popular forms of engagement today – social media.
Creating original content that’s effective and compelling is a big component of a successful social strategy. However, providing the most valuable content to the consumer is also one of the greatest challenges in marketing.
Successful social media marketing involves recognizing what content and which platforms appeal to consumers the most. Skilled professionals uncover new ways to reach consumers while enhancing the quality and content of your social media accounts.
Having social media contractors on your team ensures that the execution of your content strategy is properly aligned with your brand and voice on social platforms. Successful content drives lead generation and customer loyalty far more than any paid advertising can.
Critically-Efficient Response Time
Social media is a critical channel for customer service and care. More often than not, people resort to social platforms (Twitter, in particular) to communicate any concerns they have.
Truthfully, if you’re outsourcing your social media, you have lost control of the timeliness of your responses. And in the world of marketing, timing is everything. Your ability to engage with customers and prospective customers on a real-time basis is crucial, and has to be incredibly quick and effective.
Marketers who are in-house know exactly what is going on inside of your business and can instantly communicate with your audience in an appropriate manner. If your brand runs into issues or complaints through social, you have the people and tools directly on your team to handle them without any interference. Their daily interactions with your customers and understanding of your brand make it remarkably easier to navigate and resolve customer concerns.
Closing Words
Social is no longer just a mere supporting player in marketing; it’s a driver of your bottom-line success. Customers today are very well-informed and can search your brand with ease, which is why the right social media staffing is a valuable element that will guarantee growth within your company.
The more informed you are about your options, the better of a decision you’ll agree on. Joining forces with a social media staffing firm can ensure your company has the talent that possesses all of the skills that your business needs to thrive. By hiring top talent, bringing them onboard and empowering them to succeed, you will see a worthwhile return on your investment.
