This might be something that few business owners want to admit, but, if they had a choice, they would be better off outsourcing their social media activities. Why? Because what they don’t know is that Social Media is Hard Work! What is more, they might find it difficult to be “interestingly engaging” every day! – It’s hard to be positive and “switched on” every day isn’t it?
There is of course the pretty side of social media, the stuff that you read about every day about how ‘cool’ it is and glamorous and sexy blah,blah,blah, but the dark side is that social media done well is very time consuming and hard work In fact Amber Naslund, a well known business strategist and communications specialist recently wrote a post in her own blog entitled “be careful what you wish for” (down n dirty aspect of social media.)
Those of us who are involved in social media on a daily basis know this. We can’t tell you how often we have bouts of ‘writers block’; and then other times, there is a ‘magical stream of consciousness’ that results in us creating 4 or 5 posts at one sitting!
The problem is, there is more to social media than just doing blog posts, that’s often the easy part; there are status updates, content updates, changing content, creating content, sharing information, driving traffic, analysing data, connecting with your peers, finding your customers, making sure your clients are happy, and looking for new prospects. All via social or electronic means – every day and every night! Which leads to the theme of this post – and I know that you are considering it, or should be considering…..
“If I could, I would love to outsource some of this stuff”
So what is stopping you? You might be someone who, except for those times when you are feeling a bit pressed for time, actually likes doing it. You might like connecting and consuming and creating. If you do then great, but you will be in the minority and chances are your social media activities will quickly run out of steam and just not get done properly, if at all.
The truth is that the vast majority of businesses who do social media well are outsourcing the work to Social Media professionals such as wsiims
The ‘in vogue’ term for outsourcing is “aggregating activities”
The fact is, there are a lot of people who are automating a lot of their social media activities and still another group that are completely ceding control of their social media day to day operations to others.
You might also feel that using people outside your organisation to do your social media is ‘cheating’ your followers in the various forums. Just ask yourself this – if you are reading something about a product or service are you really bothered about who has actually written it or are you more interested in who has claimed to have written it and what message you are getting?
Here’s the point: If you’re going to outsource your social media activities, most people won’t care, and they will continue not to care until they find out that who you really are is not who you are supposed to be.
Yes, we are recommending the “don’t tell if they don’t ask” policy. Why? Because most people start from a position of trusting you and you will only lose that trust if you let them down. Funny thing trust isn’t it?
More and more companies are outsourcing their social media activities, far more than you might think. Successful Businesses are continually looking at solutions that can streamline, enhance and speed up the reward of their social media activities. Why? Because we speak with companies and agencies every day that say they don’t have the time to do it nor do they wish to do it – they just want to reap the benefits.
You might think that outsourcing your online social networking activities is a bit of a fraud… but, we are OK with that and perhaps you should be too.
Why? Because social media is really just an extension of what a PR or ad agency already does for you anyway.
As social media continues to grow and grow, some people just don’t want to do “it”, the social stuff, they would prefer that someone else does it for them- and you know what? There are plenty of people, such as wsiims that will do it and do it well – and.. You’ll never know the difference.