One of the biggest questions for any business owner or corporate marketing professional when considering hiring a social media agency is, “Can’t we do this ourselves?”
I was reading a blog post on entrepreneur.com titled, “Why You Should Manage Your Own Social Media” and—while the post was informative—I had issues with several of the assertions.
The author, Mikal E. Belicove, offers four reasons why he believes companies should manage their own social media, including creating a social media calendar, writing and posting items, and responding to comments.
1. No one knows your business like you and your team.
Point taken. But sometimes your staff is too close to the subject matter at hand. Part of the value of an agency is that it can bring a broader industry perspective to your communications. If it’s a good agency, they also know best practices from other industries that can be applied to your work.
2. Your business is fluid and dynamic, not stationary and static. Having an outside communications strategist create an editorial calendar scheduling tweets and Facebook status updates ahead of time is great, but eventually they’re going to come off sounding canned and out of touch.
Again, if it’s a good communications/social media agency, the agency’s staff is staying on top of topics and trends in your industry. Communication between your company and the agency is crucial and should be built into the social media management plan. Editorial calendars should be discussed and tweaked on a regular basis, at the very least once a month.
3. Your staff is accountable to you in ways that a consultant is not.
Looking at that from the other side, I’d argue that an agency has the freedom that your staff might not to tell you what you really need to do and not just what you want to hear.
4. Someone in-house likely has more passion for your brand than a consultant ever will.
While it’s true that no one has the passion for your business that you do, a good agency will bring social media best practices to the table that can ignite your passion in a way that will bring results—more follows, likes, comments and inbound website traffic.
In the end, as the business owner, it’s your choice whether to hire a social media/public relations firm or handle these activities with internal staff. Many businesses just don’t have the resources—be it staff or time—to handle all of their own online communications, including blogging. Social media is all about engagement, after all. Once it posts, does your staff have the time to engage potential prospects?
Obviously, you know your business better and love it more than any hired gun, but if you give an agency the opportunity to truly learn your business you can strike up a mutually beneficial relationship—one that will help your business attract new customers and increase revenue.
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Alison Frederick is the director of business development for WordWrite Communications. You can email her directly at alison.frederick@wordwritepr.com.
