What You Need to Know About Outsourcing Social Media
When an article on the subject of outsourcing social media came across my desk quite a while back, http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-outsourcing-social-media/, I thought it would be a good idea to get our resident expert to give our VAR audience a few tips to help you with your channel marketing plan, specifically your social media segment.
Leanne Holitza is an integral part of the Circa 65 team and offered the following insights:
Tackling that “where do I start?” issue with social media for any channel partner can be a daunting task. Outsourced marketing, particularly social media, to a knowledgeable expert can be helpful. However, there are some things to consider when outsourcing.
1) Make sure they know your industry
Just because they are social media experts, doesn’t mean they know how to talk to your audience. The key to social media is to engage in relevant, interesting and useful conversations. If your social media expert doesn’t understand your audience, they won’t know what your audiences wants to hear.
2) Planning is key
You aren’t going to be able to do everything all at once, nor are you going to want to set up one page that you update only three times a year. Make sure your social media expert is asking you the right questions and planning a strategy and content calendar you can commit to for at least a year.
3) Get your company on board
No matter how much expertise your social media expert has, this strategy isn’t going to work without your involvement. You will want to work with your social media expert to get recommendations on how to get your company involved at the right level to ensure optimum success before launching the plan.
4) Monitor
While it is true social media is more challenging to track all the way through a sales cycle, than traditional methods of channel lead generation, there are ways to measure success. Be sure your social media expert has a plan to measure your progress. It is possible.
Bottom line is, if you want to get into social media and you have no idea where to start, outsourcing the effort is an excellent idea. Being paired up with the right partner is crucial to ensuring your effort will yield success.
Leanne Holitza is an integral part of the Circa 65 team and offered the following insights:
Tackling that “where do I start?” issue with social media for any channel partner can be a daunting task. Outsourced marketing, particularly social media, to a knowledgeable expert can be helpful. However, there are some things to consider when outsourcing.
1) Make sure they know your industry
Just because they are social media experts, doesn’t mean they know how to talk to your audience. The key to social media is to engage in relevant, interesting and useful conversations. If your social media expert doesn’t understand your audience, they won’t know what your audiences wants to hear.
2) Planning is key
You aren’t going to be able to do everything all at once, nor are you going to want to set up one page that you update only three times a year. Make sure your social media expert is asking you the right questions and planning a strategy and content calendar you can commit to for at least a year.
3) Get your company on board
No matter how much expertise your social media expert has, this strategy isn’t going to work without your involvement. You will want to work with your social media expert to get recommendations on how to get your company involved at the right level to ensure optimum success before launching the plan.
4) Monitor
While it is true social media is more challenging to track all the way through a sales cycle, than traditional methods of channel lead generation, there are ways to measure success. Be sure your social media expert has a plan to measure your progress. It is possible.
Bottom line is, if you want to get into social media and you have no idea where to start, outsourcing the effort is an excellent idea. Being paired up with the right partner is crucial to ensuring your effort will yield success.
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