Do your social media channels take up all of your time and prevent you from doing what matters most? If so, don’t worry. You’re not the only small business owner who has struggled to build a strong social media platform. Maybe it’s time for you to do what some are too afraid to do and outsource your social media.
Outsourcing your social media is a great way to alleviate your stress and struggle by hiring someone to manage and write your social media channels. Delegating your platforms saves you time, gives you the freedom to work on high-priority tasks, and makes it easier to turn followers into dollars.
Before you begin searching for social media agencies, there is more to outsourcing than finding a millennial or recent college graduate who knows how to navigate Facebook and Instagram. When you use social media for business, there must be a strategy. Otherwise, the lucrative relationships between you and clients, the growth of your business, and the sharing of your services and products will not happen.
If you want to create a social media strategy to spur the growth of your business, there are a few tips to know before hiring someone.
1. Know Your Goals Before Outsourcing
How can you expect a social media agency to know what to do for you if you aren’t sure what you want? Are you looking to increase your followers from 500 to 1,000 within a certain amount of time? Do you want to see more engagement (likes, comments, and shares) on your posts? Or do you need help promoting your services and products to potential and current clients?
It’s vital to know your social media goals because it provides a plan to follow for those that you’re outsourcing. Having specific goals will also help you know if the agency or individual you’re delegating to is the best fit for you in the future.
2. Review What the Social Media Agencies Will Do For You
Many social media agencies are looking to help small businesses create strong social media platforms, but not all are perfect for you. The best way to figure out if you should work with a particular agency is to find out what they will do for you. There are several essential questions to keep in mind when deciding who to hire.
- How will they write your posts? Will they be based on your platforms’ analytics and framework, or will they write based on what feels or sounds good?
- Will they do hashtag research? If not, you must keep in mind that hashtags bring your post to specific people interested in what your business has to offer.
- How many posts will they write for each platform? And how many platforms do they include? Again, if you know your social media goals, it’ll be easier to determine if their services are perfect for your social media platforms.
3. Research Your Options for the Best Fit
No one knows what your business and social media platforms need more than you. The easiest way to narrow your search is to match what you need to an agency that offers a solution to your problem.
Let’s say you know your monthly budget for hiring a social media agency and want to receive 30 posts for each of your four social media platforms. You no longer have to search for any and every social media agency known to man. Now, you can spend your time looking for an agency that meets your needs and fits your budget.
4. Check Out Their Work for Previous and Current Clients
Finding the right social media agency requires a process of elimination. If you’ve narrowed your options to a handful of agencies, a simple and easy way to choose is by checking out their previous and current clients. Looking into the agency’s client history will give you a peek into what it’s like to work with them, how they work with others, and the results they’ve been known to provide.
Likewise, references are worth their weight in gold. An established social media agency or specialist should be ready to provide you with references to past clients that can speak to their experience.
If one agency’s recommendations or experience doesn’t align with your goals or expectations, you can move on to the next.
5. Understand Their Process and See if it Works for You
You think you’ve found the perfect social media agency. Great, but now isn’t the time to sit back and relax. It’s time for more questions!
If you fail to ask about their creation and review process, you will place yourself in a complicated position along the road. Knowing how many posts they create at once will help you understand their workflow and what you can expect to receive each month.
Asking how much they’ll need you to be involved will let you know how much work you will need to put into the process. Too much involvement may cause you to feel as if your outsourcing was in vain. Too little involvement may cause you to feel as if your advice and suggestions aren’t recognized.
After asking these questions, you’ll have a better idea of whether the social media agency is what you and your business need.
Realistic Expectations Get Realistic Results
The goal of outsourcing your social media platforms to a social media agency is to alleviate the pressures of writing copy, managing content, and building lucrative relationships. Achieving these things takes time and doesn't happen overnight.
Outsourcing may be the right move for your business, but expecting immediate success and growth will make it seem like the wrong move. Real-life relationships grow and strengthen gradually; digital relationships require the same. After you’ve used these tips to find a social media agency best for your business, it’s wise to remember patience is a virtue, and success comes with time.
