Let me get this straight. If you want to be able to focus on the meat and potatoes of your biz, then it’s about time to free your hands (well sort of) from some burden and outsource your social media to offshore back office solutions. In the past articles of our blog, we’ve talked about the importance of branding and selling through social media using a more hands on approach. But what if your business is not yet ready to commit the kind of time and personnel to manage a full-force social media campaign?
This is where outsourcing to back office offshore services becomes an option.
Find a trustworthy and capable consultant
The back office social media consultant is not that person who just “handles” your Twitter account. This guy will be creating messages for your brand. Anything they say on behalf of your brand might make or break you. With these things in mind, you might want to hire a consultant you can trust.
So how do you know if these guys are trustworthy?
Google the company or consultant’s name to see if something will appear on the web – if they’ve done a bad job, someone might have already complained about it.
Another recommendation is to find a consultant or outsourcing company who your industry peers are using.
Work closely with your outsourcer
If you want your social media to be the voice of your brand, then you will want to work real close with your consultant. Aside from scheduling regular meetings to discuss your plans, there should be someone that you can communicate with when you have questions about your social media.
Remember, there are a lot of different things that can happen on your social media accounts that you and your consultant might need you to deal with, or at least needs to work with you. However, responding to specific customer complaints is something that you as the business would need to possibly respond to yourself so you can research the problem and find a great solution. If your business is bound by legal regulations, and cannot say certain things, you must make sure that your consultant knows these things before allowing them to answer queries or post on your behalf.
Be very thorough when it comes to monitoring
Depending on how close you want your work with social media consultants to be, you must always monitor your outsourcer’s work. Read the reports and insights they send to ensure they are timely and relevant. Let me also emphasize that your consultant must have a firm understanding of your business and your industry.
Also, be vigilant when it comes to checking for mistakes – something as simple as a misunderstood status update could create major havoc with your social media account. One example was when Nikon posted a question that implied photographers are only as good as their cameras. Someone who understands photography and the way photographers work would surely be triggered or offended by such insensitive status.
The tips I mentioned above are just some factors to consider to ensure that outsourcing your business’ social media will be a medium to boost your company’s productivity. Any suggestions on how to maximize the use of outsourced social media? Please feel free to share them with us.
