Many small businesses that we talk to about outsourcing their social media are doing so because they have reached one of three key stages in their business. In this article we are going to explore those stages further to help you understand if the time is right for you.
Time
Time is a critical barrier that small and medium sized businesses face when trying to juggle the management of their social media platforms, along with growing a business and all the other tasks that entails.
As your business takes off, your time is much more limited, and some things just have to take a back seat. One of these causalities of time is often social media.
As you busy yourself through your week you suddenly find many days have past and your social media has remained untouched. Worst still, posts that you have published in the past are generating interaction, but it is taking you days to respond. What was once a platform filled with content, is now just a case of just ‘getting something out there’.
You can put as much or as little time as you wish into social media, but what is absolutely certain is that the more time you invest, the more you will get out.
So when time does become an issue, outsourcing your social media is a good call. A social media agency will be able to manage your content plan, produce all the content and visuals required, and do the actual posting across multiple platforms. In addition, you can have all your comments and interactions managed for you, so that you know your audience is responded to quicky.
Content
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from clients is coming up with ideas for social media content. Being able to post regular, consistently high-quality content is a difficult task, especially when you are juggling other areas of your business, or you don’t have anyone in your team with that skill set.
When content does become an issue, there are some avenues you can take to help:
Look at your competitors – what sort of content are they posting and how can you emulate this in a way that is relevant to your business?
Get an understanding of key topics/trends within your industry. What are people talking about right now? How does your business respond to these key topics/trends?
Look ahead at any upcoming news from within your business that you can prepare for and share on social media
Sharing quality content is absolutely key in keeping your audience engaged and generating a greater following. When this becomes a struggle, outsourcing your social media will be a real benefit.
A social media management agency will work with you to produce a content plan based on your goals. The plan will usually cover between 1 and 4 months in advance, meaning you don’t have worry about last minute content planning.
Ability to grow
If you are a small business owner, the chances are you created your own social platforms and you manage them independently. But do you know how to use them to meet your business objectives? If your objective is to raise brand awareness and sell more products for example, is your strategy reflecting this?
We speak to a lot of business owners who have gone it alone with their social media but reach a point where they are not sure how to take it to the next level and really use it as a tool to grow their business. It is this stage where a lot of clients come to us because they are ready to outsource their social media.
Aligning your social media strategy to your business goals is critical to achieving success. When you reach the point where you feel you cannot grow your platforms any further independently, a social media management agency will be able to develop you a strategy that takes your platforms to the next level.
To summarise
So there is no specific time when you hold up the flag and shout for support. However, recognising when you can no longer dedicate the time your social platforms need to succeed, or that you know your platforms are not generating the sales you want can be a red flag that you need a partner who can support you in these areas and help you and your business succeed.
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