Successfully outsource your social media in four steps flat

01 July 2022By Michelle

You’ve decided that tackling the tall task of managing your own social media is best left to the professionals. Fired up, you hit Google, tap in ‘social media management’ and boom! – 6,180,000,000 results returned in 0.71 seconds. Worse still, these results contain everything from email platforms to job posting boards. Yikes.
Let’s work our way through this – THIS is how to pick a social media agency that’ll do the business, for your business.
(and if you’re still firmly on the fence about in-house social versus going pro, read our blog: Five reasons to outsource your social media marketing).

1. Before you begin your search – work out whether you need a set-up and strategy, or an ongoing service.

There’s no two ways around it – setting yourself up on social media platforms take time (a lot of it). There are accounts to configure, graphics to be designed, ‘About’ sections to write. And putting together your own strategy is out of reach for even the most seasoned of in-house marketers.
Commissioning a social media management agency to tackle these for you can save you time and hand you a strategy that works, with your team taking it from there.
Once you’re all set-up, strategy in hand, you may also want to think about whether some hands-on training could be beneficial for your team before you and your social pros part ways.

2. Moving ahead with a social consultant? Trust your gut.

If you choose ongoing management, rather than a set-up and strategy service, you should work with a person you feel comfortable to email, call, whatsapp or direct message at any time (there are plenty of questions that can pop up over the course of a month when running a social campaign).
There’s nothing quite like gut feeling when it comes to weighing up whether the person you speak with will be one you work well with. Go with it.

Lead Social Pro Tip: If you work within a regulated industry and you’re not allowed to say certain things, make sure your social consultant has the full ins and outs.

3. Now, sort the wheat from the chaff with THIS critical deciding factor
That critical deciding factor being reputation…

• First, check out their website – do they have testimonials? Even better, are there case studies that could demonstrate a working knowledge of your industry?
• Next, go back to Google – what are others saying about them online in third-party places? Can you discover them on Google Places?
• Finally, head over to their own social media accounts and see how they manage their own accounts.

4. From here on in – Monitor their work

Never, EVER, leave your social media unchecked. You should always check in with your pages to see whether the postings are on-brand, with graphics to match and a tone of voice that reflects your identity.
You should also check how long your social media agency is taking to get back to comments – most social users expect a response within 24 hours (and not engaging with those who’ve taken the time to write a comment is social media cardinal sin #1).

Picking a social media agency is a big deal. Choose unwisely, and the brand you went to great lengths to perfect could be giving the wrong impression. At Lead Social, we get it. Let’s talk about why you might want to skip those 6,180,000,000 Google results.
Book your free social consultation with us today.