Increasingly we are speaking to customers who want to build a social media presence, but either don’t have the knowledge or don’t have the time to successfully implement it. We also hear that many people lack the confidence to do it out of fear of making mistakes.

For us, the main reason you may choose to out source your social media activities is so that what you are doing keeps up with continuous changes in best practices, which dedicated professionals  or consultants will constantly monitor.

What are the risks?

As with all outsourcing you do lose some control of our brand, and the message it is sending into the market.

No third parties will have better knowledge of your company or your products than you do. On the back of this, it is you who will have to deal with any follow ups such as complaints. We expect that you would not trust anyone else to ensure your customers are treated with the utmost respect.

If you are going to outsource, you should outline an agreement from the start in regards to what content will be used and what return you are expecting.

How should I do it?

The most important thing to remember with social media, is that what works for one company will not necessarily work for everyone. Even very similar companies may be looking for different results. Some businesses will give great value to just interacting with potential customers, while others are looking for direct sales. This is why it is vital that you have distinguished what results you want to get out of your social activities.

Which social media channels should I be using?

It is definitely worth giving your business a presence across all channels, including FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, you never know when a new customer will come across your brand.

That said, depending on your target audience you should be identifying what social channels will work best for you. LinkedIn is a place to target other businesses or senior decision makers within business, whereas FaceBook is more for public consumers.

If you don’t know think about your audience first, it could be that you waste many hours targeting users who have no interest in the product you are promoting.