How To Outsource Social Media and Blogging

How to Outsource / December 18, 2011 / Charles

Social Media OutsourcingThere are many social networking options available to businesses these days. Tweeting, blogging, LinkedIn, and Facebook are the top picks. Some companies participate in all of them, which can take a lot of time to maintain, and, you probably won’t be an expert in each of them.

One alternative to allocating an employee or employees to maintain social networking and social marketing is to outsource some or all of the activities.

Social Media Virtual Assistants

Virtual Assistants (VAs) are entrepreneurs that work from a home office and offer a variety of professional services such as administrative, technical, or creative to their client bass.  Virtual Assistants also outsource social networking activities ranging in cost from $30 to $70 an hour.

Outsourced activities can be but are not limited to:

  • Evaluating and recommending the appropriate social networking platform for a business
  • Setting up profiles
  • Writing regular blog posts
  • Tweeting
  • Finding potential clients and networking groups
  • Writing regular posts to the networking sites
  • Summarizing what is happening on the social sites on a regular basis
  • Notifying the company when a potential client or a good collaborator joins the company’s social site

Finding the Right Outsource Resource

Before starting a search for a good match for a social networking VA, set up a plan with clear goals for the social networking contract. The VAs are generally highly professional and experts in many different areas. Nonetheless, it is always a good idea to ask to see samples of their work including any social sites that they maintain.

Make sure the VA knows all of the social networking lingo and terms. Another great tip is to make sure that the VA knows the social networking activities that are NOT appropriate to use for a particular company. This way you don’t risk your company contracting unprofessionals that might even hurt your company’s reputation.

10 Important Questions to Ask Your Outsourcing Provider

How many years of experience do you have in social media?

An outsourcing provider should have at least 2-3 years of experience, and, if less, provide enough high quality case studies to prove their quality of work.

Can you show case studies demonstrating your ability to deliver good results for clients?

Not being able to justify their previous work shouldn’t make you get in a deal with them. Every serious social media outsourcing company has case studies or at least examples from previous work they can talk about.

What kind of social networks would you recommend for my business?

This is very specific and not easy to answer by us but if you have got a b2b product and they recommend linkedin, google+ or twitter, you should be fine. You know they’re not professional if they generally push every message into every social network that exists.

Can you show one critical example and how you handled the situation?

Don’t fall for companies saying they have never experienced a critical situation in their career. Most of the time they try to hide this but keep on digging until they show you the information. If they handled it well and it sounds logical and appropriate you should hire them.

Where are your employees located and how are they trained?

Be aware of companies employing people outside your country. There might be a culture clash if your company is very much based on local events or products and the outsourcing provider will have a hard time to understand your vision.

What are your office hours, are you also available during emergencies requiring immediate action?

In general the typical office hours are enough but if you think about possible criticial situations an outsourcing provider that is working late hours as well would be better in case you need it.

How do you handle the knowledge transfer between clients and your company?

Experienced social media partners should follow best practices in order to write, tweet or post about worthwhile content from within your organization. If their best practices sound unplanned or without concept, don’t consider them.

Is your fee based on a retainer-model or per post?

I would generally go for the retainer model where you define a set budget for the month or in total and the provider keeps a record of all completed tasks and how much time it took them. I wouldn’t recommend an outsourcing company that bills per post since this is pretty much not within your control. Also interesting are companies who bill per success.

What was the most effective and most successful blog or social media post you have written and why?

Let the company show you their most successful social media post so you can evaluate if their way of reacting and writing fits your company’s culture and product.

What tools do you use to manage & report to clients?

Make sure that your provider has the right tools to provide you with monthly, weekly or even daily reports about your social media performance. These reports should not only look pretty but at best help you take measured actions.

Social Networking is All About Authenticity

The biggest danger of outsourcing social media activities is that followers may realize that a company is paying someone else to do the blog entries or the tweets or other social networking activities.

Be honest and transparent with social networking. If a company decides to outsource any or their entire social networking activities, let followers know right from the start. One way to avoid having the VA do all of the original writing is for the executives from the company to dictate their posts into a digital recorder and the VA could just be typing in the executive’s words, or, come up with simple guidelines the VA must follow.

One other pitfall to avoid when outsourcing social networking is that the contractor becomes the voice of the company, often setting tone and character. Make sure that the contracted firm or individual has a writing style and voice, level of professionalism, and business ethics that match up with the company.

Social Networking is Social

Social networking is all about the social part of the phrase. Keep in mind all of the items that have went viral on the Internet, some of which were counter productive to companies. While outsourcing is a viable option to keep up with all of the social networks that seem to be almost a requirement to belong these days, it is also important to closely monitor what is being posted on the site or sites first hand.

Visit the sites on a regular basis and read through the posts. Make sure that the profiles, the writing, the videos being posted all convey the professional image needed.

Building an Internet Image

It is a great time to be seen, heard, and read on the net. Social networking is the way to do it. Outsourcing social networking is the best alternative to staffing persons to spend the many hours it takes to social network effectively.

Download Guide: Outsource Social Media & Blogging