Would you outsource your date?
If you want to get your yard work, housework and laundry done – you invest your time, your expertise and/or your sweat effort or you invest your money and buy someone else’s time, expertise and effort. Unlike yard work, housework and laundry, however, hiring someone to execute your social media plan can be a bit like hiring someone to date for you. There are some things you may be able to outsource – and others you can’t …or shouldn’t.
A dinner date, for example; making a dinner reservation, stopping by the cleaners to pick up the new outfit you want to wear, getting the car washed before the big date may be easy things to outsource. But how about ordering your meal? Maybe, if your outsourcing partner knows you well – or you study the menu in advance and give them directions of what you want – but then that requires more of your time. How about getting to know your date over the small talk – discussing the movie you saw last week, books you’ve read or the places you’re dying to visit? Does your outsource partner know you well enough and, if so, it wouldn’t really be “you” that was developing the relationship – does that matter to you? What about the good night kiss? hmmm. There’s a limit to what you would outsource, I’m betting.
The same is true when considering your social media strategy and hiring someone to manage your Twitter, Facebook, blog, etc. We talked about the importance of becoming a trusted and respected part of your social media community in the last post. If you are going to be trusted and respected, YOU are going to have to be involved. What you can / should outsource is determined by how familiar your outsource partner is with you, your brand, your objectives, etc.
Face it; there’s no free lunch. Social media is not free. No matter what you’ve read or what your consultant tells you. Like the rest of life, you get what you pay for. If you want to be successful in the social space it will require an investment of your time, your expertise and your effort or in the time, expertise and effort of others.
