Social Media

Most businesses are finding that to manage Social Media properly a great deal of time and they are left with three choices.  One, to reassign someone from other job functions to work on Social Media. Two, to hire someone new to work on Social Media. Or lastly, outsource Social Media Management.

Maria Florio, in a blog from a couple of weeks ago, gave a list of items to consider when outsourcing your Social Media:

Resources (Man Power). To run a business there’s a need for different departments in order to take care of the different endeavors a company requires to run efficiently and succeed. This is a limiting factor. It is limiting because it distributes the number of employees in a firm, reducing man power from each sector.

Expertise. Typically employees are hired for their skills; yet working with a business, especially a small one, usually entails taking care of more than what one individual was hired to do. For this reason hiring a well rounded professional versus a specialized one is a favored option. Also an indication of why some businesses have external consultants when it comes to taking on specific projects.

Tools. Taking care of social media isn’t only about engagement; unless the sole goal of a business’ effort is visibility. If businesses want to make a high return on their online marketing investment they need the tools social media agencies (and professionals) use to track and analyze their efforts. Those who work the field test and evaluate those tools through time. They are also up to date on the latest tools, which makes them better at picking the right tools, with the best analytical and data gathering options.

Knowledge. Being an expert in something requires that ninety percent of daily tasks and practice entail one specific topic. If one’s tasks involve doing social media management and marketing, but also include following customers, assisting in responses, and other office tasks; an individual’s efforts and experiences include more than one subject matter. This scenario doesn’t allow for full knowledge and specialization. It limits knowledge or if gained, it will be through a lengthier time and process.

For Maria's full article click here.

In many cases outsourcing the management of your Social Media is the best choice.  There are many reasons when you need to consider taking this route including not having enough time to handle it yourself or you do not have a good understanding of how to implement a consistent Social Media campaign.  Outsourcing may be a short term fix or a long term proposition.  Regardless of your reasoning there are certain qualities you should look for in a Social Media Management Company.  These are the three main qualities we suggest you consider:

• A company that will learn your industry, understand you company and your goals, get to know your competitors, figure out your optimal customers and where they spend their time.

• They need to pick out the best way to be 'your voice. So not only do they need to become experts on your services or products, but also take on your style of communication since they will be engaging with your customers, and potential customers, via Social Media channels.

• They should have the same enthusiasm for the success of your company as you have.

If have any doubts of the company under consideration not meeting the above, KEEP LOOKING.

Google+ now has 343 million active users compared to a little under 300 million active users for Twitter and YouTube. But all have a ways to catch up with Facebook’s 1 billion users.

Although many probably thought Google+ was just a blip on the radar and would go away, it seems highly unlikely that it will.  It has too many good things going for it.  Here are the main four reasons Google+ has, and will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in my opinion:

Users are active

Google+, unlike Twitter, encourages group discussions.

Communities are forming

There is a lot of excitement about the 'communities' being formed in Google+. The setting up and administration of a community is quick and easy.

Google+ has strong support from influential people

Within the communities you will find well known personalities who are active. Thomas Hawk, Ashton Kutcher, Guy Kawasaki and Sarah Hill, just to name a few.

Google+ is more useful

There are just so many different ways to use and interact with Google+. It has the regular postings, similar to Facebook, Communities, Hangouts, works within Gmail and the list goes on and on. There seems to be no limit to the different ways to approach using Google+ because the platform is designed to be flexible for almost any approach.

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