Should I solicit from outside my company for social media expertise by engaging the outsourced services from an agency that isn’t familiar with my company, or rather hire someone directly to take care of it in-house?”
The question has been asked countless times. Here’s my 2 cents worth.
Every business owner and/or CEO wants to take their company to higher levels of growth. A CEO or entrepreneur is aware that the competition is leveraging social media and witnesses their positive results. He decides that getting into the game is necessary to grow his own business, so a social media manager is hired for $40,000.00 to $60,000.00 annually. There are of course extra costs beyond the base salary: payroll taxes, vacation pay, health benefits, equipment & office space. As we know, even the “extra” cost impact is not insignificant!
The other option is contracting the services of a social media agency. Instead of only having one person focused on your online initiatives, your company now has a dedicated team of professionals at its disposal to execute a full social media campaign. Strategy, planning, research, analytics, graphics, community management and contests all form integral components of any social media program and are all in a day’s work for social media agencies.
Let’s revisit the one person team concept. You’ve hired a single individual to execute your social media strategy, probably over several platforms. As talented as the person you’ve hired is, they can most probably execute some but not all of the tasks associated with executing and maintaining several social media platforms. After all no one person can do everything! Who among us can?
With your social media agency, you’re getting a full staff who are specialists in their own area of expertise but who work together to implement a cohesive marketing plan for the price of one person! You have a team of executives, strategists, designers, copywriters, and bloggers who all breathe social media and know its intricacies. After all, they’re workin’ on it 24/7.
Oh… and yeah… What happens when your in-house social media Superperson goes on vacation or calls in sick? Who’s going to update your platforms? Answer questions? Respond to queries? Manage your campaigns? Agencies never go on vacation and can always cover for a staff member who is away.
Working with an agency also allows you to grow together. You can hire a second or third in-house “specialist” but your salaries just doubled or tripled whereas your agency fees stay the same.
I’ll bet you that a new social media tool was launched by the time you finished reading this blog post! Social media is always evolving. Agencies stay on top of new tools and new strategies; either from each other in-house or from constant research… It’s our lifeblood.
Will you hire a social media manager or secure strategic assistance through a social media agency? At the end of the day the decision is obviously yours. But if you go the agency route, please note that not all of them are created equal. Make sure you do your homework before selecting your agency partner by ensuring that they not only have the right skills, but that they apply them in support of your corporate vision and goals, and have sensitivity to your budgetary considerations.
“Should I solicit from outside my company for social media expertise by engaging the outsourced services from an agency that isn’t familiar with my company, or rather hire someone directly to take care of it in-house?”
The question has been asked countless times. Here’s my 2 cents worth.
Every business owner and/or CEO wants to take their company to higher levels of growth. A CEO or entrepreneur is aware that the competition is leveraging social media and witnesses their positive results. He decides that getting into the game is necessary to grow his own business, so a social media manager is hired for $40,000.00 to $60,000.00 annually. There are of course extra costs beyond the base salary: payroll taxes, vacation pay, health benefits, equipment & office space. As we know, even the “extra” cost impact is not insignificant!
The other option is contracting the services of a social media agency. Instead of only having one person focused on your online initiatives, your company now has a dedicated team of professionals at its disposal to execute a full social media campaign. Strategy, planning, research, analytics, graphics, community management and contests all form integral components of any social media program and are all in a day’s work for social media agencies.
Let’s revisit the one person team concept. You’ve hired a single individual to execute your social media strategy, probably over several platforms. As talented as the person you’ve hired is, they can most probably execute some but not all of the tasks associated with executing and maintaining several social media platforms. After no one person can do everything! Who among us can?
With your social media agency, you’re getting a full staff who are specialists in their own area of expertise but who work together to implement a cohesive marketing plan for the price of one person! You have a team of executives, strategists, designers, copywriters, and bloggers who all breathe social media and know its intricacies. After all, they’re workin’ on it 24/7.
Oh…and yeah…what happens when your in-house social media Superperson goes on vacation or calls in sick? Who’s going to update your platforms? Answer questions? Respond to queries? Manage your campaigns? Agencies never go on vacation and can always cover for a staff member who is away.
Working with an agency also allows you to grow together. You can hire a second or third in-house “specialist” but your salaries just doubled or tripled whereas your agency fees stay the same.
I’ll bet you that a new social media tool was launched by the time you finished reading this blog post! Social media is always evolving. Agencies stay on top of new tools and new strategies; either from each other in-house or from constant research… It’s our lifeblood.
Will you hire a social media manager or secure strategic assistance through a social media agency? At the end of the day the decision is obviously yours. But if you go the agency route, please note that not all of them are created equal. Make sure you do your homework before selecting your agency partner by ensuring that they not only have the right skills, but that they apply them in support of your corporate vision and goals, and have sensitivity to your budgetary considerations.