Five advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing social media
By Alexandra Reid
Outsourcing social media has received mixed reviews and it seems that this debate is growing fiercer as businesses become increasingly more aware of the enormous impact social media can have on their reputation. This heightened awareness likely stems from a combination of horror stories of outsourcing gone wrong, such as the well-studied case of Chrysler’s social media disaster, and what seems to be a recent increase in research in this area conducted by social media consultancies, internal marketing departments, PR and marketing agencies and third party publications.
In our view, outsourcing social media is both safe and effective if you are judicious in selecting an external partner that is worth its salt. It is no secret that damaging and irreversible mistakes can occur in social media, so it is vital that you chose a well-established agency with a history of above-standard communications that knows your business through-and-through and that there be an iron clad, error-proof system of review between agency and business. This study conducted by SocialMediaToday on in-house and outsourced social media advises businesses to establish visibility into what the agency handling their social media activities does and make sure they are tracking, measuring and course-correcting constantly. We couldn’t agree more, having established these connections for open communication with our clients where each and every message sent out is reviewed, scrutinized and improved and where questions can be asked and responded to with immediacy.
