Some marketers around the web harp that in order for social media marketing to be effective, you have to and should do it all yourself. That is, you shouldn’t let someone else socialize on your behalf. Tweet your own tweets. Post your own juicy bits to Facebook. Etc. Yet social media marketing is a time consuming and often tedious undertaking. Isn’t it possible to outsource at least some of this increasingly critical piece of the web marketing pie?
Indeed it is. And you don’t have to compromise your integrity or your brand to do it. Instead, think of your social media marketing strategy as an ever changing tapestry. Most elements of the artistry must be painted by you and only you. But who says you have to find the right frame for each piece? Or hang your own art on the wall? Here are some social media marketing tasks you can outsource and still sleep at night:
- Social media profile setup. Who the heck can figure out those blasted Facebook Fan Pages anyway? Hire a Virtual Assistant to set up your profiles on selected social media sites. But go beyond the data entry and have your VA assist you in making those profiles mini marketing engines for your core online business or website.
- Research and select social media tools. Tempting as it may be, resist the urge to take a shotgun approach to your social media strategy. Instead, have your Virtual Assistant scope out those tools and sites that fit your online marketing goals best. Different sites attract different audiences. Know who you’re talking to before getting involved.
- Dig for the gold. You can’t just contribute content; you must actively seek out your ideal audience. Once you’re active on the social web, you need to be on the lookout for groups, networks, individual users and power users whom you should be connecting with. Potential clients as well as strategic alliances (think joint ventures and referrals) are everywhere.
- Maintain. Maintain. Maintain. If you’re not engaging your social circles on a consistent basis, your returns will be inconsistent if not negligible. A VA can ensure you stay focused by setting up contribution schedules, Tweetlaters, and weekly alerts and updates around what is happening in your social sphere. You’ll have no excuse for dropping off the radar.
- Micro-content creation and distribution. Assigning a Virtual Assistant this task doesn’t make you a fake or a liar. For example, why can’t a VA who knows your brand inside and out ping your content (new blog posts for e.g.) or reply to specific questions or replies from followers? The key is to remain the primary gatekeeper of your brand, to remain engaged with your audience on the whole. If you can outsource things like copywriting and SEO, you can outsource this kind of micro-content and do it ethically.
The social web doesn’t have to be overwhelming, though it can be when you’re trying to implement a multi-channel marketing strategy. With a trustworthy VA on board who “gets” social media, you’ll be on the radar screen of your target audience and ready to convert fans into clients.
So how about it? Are you ready to outsource some of your social media tasks? If not, why? If so, which ones?
Excellent advice, Karri. Many people I come in contact with think exactly as you say, that no one else can ‘be’ your online presence, and that’s true in a sense. Thanks for sharing this list of items that can (and should!) be outsourced.
I wholeheartedly agree Karri! I source a bulk of my social media out to my Virtual Assistant and leave the fun stuff to me. I love to go into my networks and socialize and get to know my followers yet I’m not big time into doing the tedious work like maintaining my Twitter or Facebook fanpage which is an excellent outsource project for my VA.
And if your VA doesn’t know how to do your social media stuff then what are you waiting for??? Invest your money into sending her/him to a course to learn how to do this for you. I recently sent my VA to an online course to become well versed as a Social Media Marketing Assistant at http://www.VAnetworking.com/vaclassroomsocial and it was one of the best investments I have made in awhile for my business success online.
Great list Karri! I’d like to add to it tracking and analytics services. After all, one can spend lots of time and money setting up great profiles, posting valuable information, etc. but the bottom line is are you getting the return on your investment?
A VA can help set up goals and tracking with Google Analytics and services such as TweetBurner and TweetStats. Social Media VA that helps with client’s social networking will also be able to keep track of more qualitative statistics (i.e. number or % of total updates spent on RT, referrals, introductions, etc).
And while I’m at it… Here’s 7th way a VA can help succeed with social media – VA use social media to monitor client’s online reputation (personal, business, product, niche) and keep an eye open for competitors’ updates.
Karri, These are exactly the types of services I do for my clients – not pretending to be them and postings updates on their behalf – but helping them manage the accounts, set them up properly and connect with their targeted groups of people.
Great list!
Kathy
I completely agree with you Karri! There seems to be so much buzz about the ethical implications of having someone assist you with certain aspects of social media. When you get right down to it, it’s really not much different from any other marketing activity that you would outsource to your VA. Of course, everyone has their own opinion on the subject, don’t we know…but my take on it is this…a real estate agent wouldn’t ask me to meet with a potential buyer/seller or go to a closing on their behalf, but they would definitely ask me to prepare all the marketing materials, update their website and make sure they are doing everything possible to attract and develop relationships with buyers and sellers. The whole point of having a VA is so they can assist you with the marketing, admin, miscellaneous support activities that are time-consuming yet necessary for continued growth. There are so many activities related to social media that are ideal for a VA to handle leaving the client with more time to parctipate, contribute and network in the social media world.
There are many services that you can outsource to help you in your social media venture, which in turn gives you “the person/company” time to participate in the true act of socialization.
Thanks for the great post.
As a VA, I’m finding potential clients who are unwilling to have a VA do all of this for them because it can be very costly. I always let them know that they don’t have to do everything right away! It’s best to do as much as possible as soon as possible but as a VA you can do the research and make a list of the, “tools and sites that fit your online marketing goals best,” as you so eloquently said, and prioritize them. You can start with the very most important one or two and add more as revenues increase, as they most certainly will with the help of a great VA.
If you’re the business owner, ask your Virtual Assistant how versed s/he is with social media marketing. Perhaps a course is in order (perhaps the one Tawnya recommended five posts above this one), perhaps another one. Then again, you Virtual Assistant might not want to take that on and you can work with her/him to find someone perfectly matched to help make your business grow exponentially!
Thanks for such a fabulous post, Karri.
Thank you so much for writing this post. In the community I live in I am offering classes on using the big three and now after the classes I had planned to offer my services this way and now I can also reference your post.
Excellent post, really appreciate effort. This is exactly what we have been doing for our clients.
Love this post! Great layout and gives clients the real options available to them.