Social Media Outsourcing? Oh, NO or Yes, of course!

As companies are struggling to understand what social media means to them, what type of resources, processes, channels they need to engage in this huge largely unknown to them space: social media, there are some efforts out there to simplify the social life for enterprises. How? Via outsourcing!

I expect tons of angry notes about the social media outsourcing idea – “it is all about conversations!”, etc.. I know, I know!

So before we get really busy fighting over this, I will try to outline ongoing activities your company has to perform in order to do it right with social media/networking:

1. social network analysis
2. social networks listening
3. social networking: response/actions
4. action/campaign results analysis
5. content creation
6. community management

We need to look at these activities and decide which ones makes sense to outsource and why.

For example, let’s look at social network analysis. In order for your company to do this analysis it needs to have social networks analysts – people with very specific skills, degrees in sociology, math, etc.. Is there a need for companies to have those people on-site? Will they need these types of services on a daily basis? Especially SMB? Probably the answers are no and no. What’s wrong then in using qualified outside of the company talent to do this work for you and provide reports/updates on a regular basis?

Does it make sense for your company to outsource? Answer these questions for each activity mentioned above:

1. Do I have people in house with required skill sets?
2. How often do I need to perform this activity?
3. What are the risks associated with outsourcing certain activity? Mitigations?
4. Costs – in house vs outsourcing?
5. Time to market – immediate start with outsourcing, gradual move to in-house?

I strongly believe that outsourcing of certain social media activities is a growing and emerging outsourcing space that’s why I setup http://scrmworld.com consulting services where I pre-qualified and partnered with top experts in each of the potential social media outsourcing areas.

Advantages to your company:

1)      have one face of interaction for your company;

2)      no need to manage multiple vendor relationships;

3)      I did the work for you – pre-qualified service providers in each area: from social network analysis to iPhone developers, SEO and social media monitoring…

4)      Significant savings!

Interesting in learning more? Contact me!