Business owners: “Should I invest in hiring a freelance social media manager, or try to do it myself?”
The ultimate question.
Choosing whether to outsource your business’ social media management or to do it yourself is not only a personal choice, but also a choice that is personal to your business. Everyone is different in their preference and every business has different needs.
So if truth be told, there is no right or wrong here. But I’ve laid out some of the pros and cons to each pathway – to help you decide what could be the best pathway for your business.
HIRING A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
PROS:
- Essentially, a good social media manager will know what they are doing. Plain and simple. Social media management and marketing is their jam. They should have the training, experience and skills behind them to deliver on your agreement, create a consistent on-brand presence, and bring your business results – whatever that may look like.
- A social media manager will know the best ways to reach your target market online and increase brand awareness for your business. They will also know how to track results, understand metrics and adjust strategy to make sure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.
- Hiring a social media manager saves you so much time, because they’re doing the bulk of the creating, curating and posting of content for you. Not to mention all the other behind-the-scenes work like research, reporting and engagement. Which in turn also reduces your stress as a business owner, as you have so many more responsibilities around running a business that you need to keep on top of!
- Hiring a freelance social media manager (usually on a monthly contractual basis) will save you money because you don’t have to hire a full-time employee (and provide them with employee benefits).
- Hiring a social media manager will help you stand out from your competition. So many businesses still don’t utilize social media (more so in certain industries), let alone have a strong, consistent presence on it.
- A good social media manager will also know that social media is a constant learning curve, and so they will keep up to date with trends and changes and invest in further training… all so that you don’t have to.
CONS:
- Maybe it turns out you don’t get along and/or you have differences in vision or work ethic. You need to find a social media manager that not only clicks with you but also clicks with your business. A good social media manager will treat and value your business as if it were their own.
- Some business owners just prefer to do it themselves, so they know exactly what’s being posted and when. While there should be trust in the relationship between business owner and the social media manager so that they can get on with their respective jobs, sometimes a business owner would just rather not have to go through a third party to get something posted on their Facebook page. Which is fair enough.
DOING IT YOURSELF (DIY Social media)
PROS:
- The biggest argument I see around is that business owners know their business and brand, including the ‘brand voice’, better than anyone else. What is arguable though, is that the business owner is not necessarily a marketing expert or copywriter that is able to get that voice across in the best way possible.
- If you’re unhappy with the content going out, or the results (or lack of results) being generated, it’s on you! No other person to deal with. (This could also be a ‘CON’ if you don’t wish to take responsibility for a poorly maintained Instagram page that’s collecting dust).
- If you’re feeling productive / in the mood to do some social media marketing, you can go ahead and do whatever you want, when you want. You have full creative control and don’t need to liaison with anyone or go through a third party to get your Facebook Ad idea up and running.
- It’s always good to learn new things! Doing your own socials and picking up new skills and knowledge that comes with that is always a positive.
CONS:
- You dabble in social media (you had to do it to help get your business’ marketing started), but it’s not something you excel in. You know your business would be better served with an expert or specialist on board.
- Maybe you’ve had no experience in the area of social media marketing. It can be overwhelming, you don’t know where to start and/or you don’t know how to level up your game. Which leads me to…
- TIME. It takes time to learn the skills, tools, and keep up to date with ever-evolving updates and changes to platforms. It takes time to plan to and execute strategies, create and curate content, research your audience, competitors and ideas. Social media marketing is so much more than just slapping a photo on your business’ Facebook page, adding a hashtag, and hoping hundreds of customers come bursting through your door. Of course, anyone can learn anything if they put the time and effort in. But that’s just it: it takes time and effort. Something many business owners just don’t have.
- And last but not least, a ‘CON’ to doing your business’ social media yourself, is that you’re already juggling everything else that comes with running a business. Social media is just one more thing to add to the list.
So there are many variables to consider when deciding if hiring a social media manager is the right choice for your business. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that your social media is getting the time and attention it deserves. Hopefully I may also have uncovered and demystified some of the things a social media manager actually does!
If you have any further questions around social media management, feel free to contact me.