Outsourcing? How to Pick the Best Fit - Part 5
Written by Wayne R Karlins President of Reed Social Media Group
If you have the time, the content, and the skill to do things right on your social media page, I believe there is an advantage to doing things yourself. What do you need to know before deciding this?
Disclaimer* - This is Part 5 of a 5 piece series on running your social media. I highly recommend reading the other blogs prior to reading this one, as we may refer back to previous information posted.
How to get started: Part 1 – Understand Your Mission Part 2 - Creating a Plan Part 3 – Choose a Platform Part 4 – When to Get Help Part 5 - Outsourcing? How to Pick the Best Fit
Questions to Ask: Picking a Fully Engaged Social Media Company
Picking a fully engaged social media company can be a bit more complicated than some may assume. You do not want to hand your keys over to your brand new car without making sure you ask the drive the necessary questions. We have compiled a list of some key questions we believe you should ask, prior to signing any agreement.
1. What is full engagement, and will that work for you.
2. Look for a company that will take the time to meet with you, or at least have a good phone call with you to discuss you goals, mission, and ethics you want represented on your page.
3. They should ask a lot of question about you, your company, and what your goals are on the page(s) they are going to manage for you - not everyone or every business have the same or even similar goals.
4. Before letting them take control of your page, discuss how often you want posts and how often they should be on you page. If they are managing your page correctly, they will not be posting every time they are on your page? Discuss your percent’s of how content will be post 80/20 or 70/30
5. Discuss restrictions, age appropriate materials, and important groups to like and to avoid.
6. What else will they do for you besides post? - Check messages, respond to friend requests, etc
7. Check with them if it is ok for you to continue posting your own page
8. Discuss their posting habits and what time of day they typically post
9. Will they post your photos, videos, and blogs?
10. Will they write blogs for your company (ghost blogging)?
11. Will they engage with your followers? (Like, comment, share)
12. Are they good at representing the local feel of your business?
13. Will they engage with people who like or comment on your posts?
There are many concerns you will have about social media. Target audience, compliance and more. Make sure you have an easy way to get ahold of your social media company. Always have at least 2 people from your company (including you) remain an admin your social media pages. Have in writing what will happen to your page if you are to discontinue service with the company and how quickly you will have access to the page once the service is discontinued.
As I said in my first of 5 blogs, if you have the time, the content, and the skill to do things right on your social media page, I believe there is an advantage to doing things yourself. But be prepared for a lot of work to do it right. Anyone can do social media, some of us do it right
Feel free to email me at info@reedsocialmedia.com for advice on which platforms to start on and ways to choose how to handle your social media time.
Anyone can do social media. Some of us do it right!
"We keep you in the conversation"™
