In-house vs Outsourcing a Social Media Presence
Social media is becoming quite the revolution, as many of you already know, and many more are learning about on a daily basis. Businesses need to address how they are going to manage their social media presence, and in speaking with numerous businesses that I engage in social media discussions with, I’ll offer my quick thoughts.
There are 2 core ways to begin, in-house or outsourcing, both of which can be broken down into two types themselves. Some businesses consider keeping it in-house, whether that be hiring for a new social media position, or bringing in someone with social media experience to train existing staff. Others consider outsourcing it to a local company that specializes in social media management, while some consider offshore outsourcing, taking their social media efforts out of the country primarily to save on costs.
The decision on which option to go with often depends on engagement within the social media realm. Engagement is good… it’s what social media is all about. Being able to handle the level of engagement is a primary concern, and can drive the decisions on how best to manage a company’s social media.
Hiring someone part-time or full-time to handle the social media is usually beneficial when the needs of the business warrant enough engagement to sustain the position, usually depends on the size of the company, but is done to handle the volume of the engagement they expect to realize. Part-time usually leads to full-time, but either way having a company employee that is responsible for social media creates a focused, concise, professional presence that reaps the rewards of this type of investment. Examples include @JetBlue, as well as companies like @Zappos that allow all employees to engage in social media.
Similar to this, holding in-house training is an option, where someone in the marketing/communications department is trained to become the point person for managing the social media presence. Sometimes the biggest issue with in-house training is that people can take on the additional responsibilities of social media, but that enthusiasm and the engagement fade over time, usually within 30-60 days, and their social media presence declines, which erodes their intent, reputation, and can impact the bottom line. Giving existing people even more to do is challenging if they are already tasked with other responsibilities, especially when social media can consume a large chunk of time in ramping up during an initial launch, finding/building relationships, and getting the word out. In most cases, training eventually leads to creating a full-time position or outsourcing anyway.
Outsourcing social media to large agencies is something that is done quite often, and quite well. Large companies have no problems affording these agencies, and the agencies focus on social media very well most of the time. Smaller businesses or local non-franchise shops, restaurants, bars, etc often can’t afford hiring an agency, and look to smaller service companies that offer social media experience that can assist them in getting up to speed, as well as manage their presence for them, so they can focus on their core business, while realizing the explosive benefits that social media can deliver, all at a cost they can afford.
Some companies are considering outsourcing social media to foreign countries, but the biggest issue is that doing this is not anything like outsourcing technical/customer support, programming, SEO work, or other realms that have been done for years. Those realms have huge pitfalls that must be overcome to be done right, and some companies have experienced bad results when not done right. Social media is all about engaging… and outsourcing the engagement is especially difficult over and above those other realms, because the engagement must be authentic, the expectation, by the very nature of social media, is that customers are reaching someone that understands the company, relates to the customer in a very real sense, has the reach and depth to evoke real relationships to be formed, and in the end has the very essence of the company that customers are craving to interact with that causes them to become the loyal fans of the company. When done poorly, can not only tarnish the reputation of the company, but can explode in compounded negativity spread in real-time via the very social media networks that a company is trying to benefit from. To outsource the social media to a completely different culture can lead to unfulfilled expectations,negative experiences, laughable dialogs, and in the end a backlash against a company, it’s brand, it’s reputation, and it’s bottom line.
Outsourcing is a delicate option, and outsourcing to a agency or small specialists are best options as they establish the close connections between themselves and the company that are needed to manage the social media presence and engage in an authentic way. Outsourcing to foreign countries is done very carefully for support, programming/coding, or other specialized yet generale technical skillsets, and social media is not in any way related to those types of outsourcing experiences – it’s more like trying to outsource your sales and marketing to someone that you hope represents the company and it’s brand properly… something that is rarely if ever done, let alone done right, and the downside can be much more expensive than any cost-savings could be projected.
If social media is managed well, the end result is that there is a presence that will represent the company online, engage with their past, present, and potentially future customers, and maintain that engagement to build relationships that then ideally turn those relationships into loyal fans that not only remain customers, but tell friends, family, coworkers, and their own larger social media networks about the company and why it’s great. This is one of the central differentiators with social media compared to other methods of communicating with the same audience, in that if done right it leads to not only an improved customer experience, but elevates the company in a very positive way, and can enable the compounding of positive word-of-mouth.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, and if you have any questions or concerns, I’d be happy to discuss them with you.
Some other posts on this topic to reference:
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/social-media-outsourcing-the-onshore-vs-offshore-decision/
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/does-outsourcing-social-media-make-sense/?cs=11744
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/next-big-thing-social-media-outsourcing-smo/
http://marketing.about.com/od/internetmarketing/a/socialmediaourtsource.htm
http://soshable.com/social-media-hire-outsource/
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/why-should-brands-embrace-social-media/
Melonie Gallegos says:
Nice perspective on outsourcing there is not a lot of discussion around outsourcing Internationally I think it will become more of a focus as big brands venture into enterprise social. I like the point you brought out about resourcing in-house by layering responsibilities onto existing employees who may not have the time or the passion for it. Key take aways = relationships, passion, being close enough to the brand to emulate it through human interactions. Oh – and having the time and expertise, why we outsource in the first place.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 am
Ginger Anderson says:
Interesting perspectives…. As an in-house person responsible for my company’s online & social media presence, I am amazed at the number of questions and comments I receive about the brand (very detailed questions). Questions that are easy for me to answer, since I live & breathe this company every day. If our social media activities were outsourced, I feel you lose that deep knowledge/connection with the brand, which will be reflected in the online personality that reflects your organization. Yes, it can be done, but it takes a long time to truly understand the brand enough to fully represent them online.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
@DowntownRob says:
Thank you ladies. Outsourcing is def a good way to get a jump on social media, but it needs to be done the right way – represent the deep brand and company knowledge, keep it authentic, live the passion, ensure the engagement.
Agencies are hired to live and breath the brand, and most do great jobs. For those companies that can’t afford an agency, there are people like me that they can turn to for social media help.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Global Patriot says:
Like most business decisions, in-house vs. out-sourcing often comes down to ROI. I continue to see companies that keep work in-house even though they don’t have the skill set to do the job properly, which lowers the ROI. Problem is, if they don’t know what’s possible, they tend to be satisfied by what they get.
September 2nd, 2009 at 6:00 pm