Should You Do Your Own Social Media? Absolutely Not!
Here’s something I hear all the darn time: “social media is easy! My [insert 12-year-old relative here] could do it for me! Yes, they could do it for you. Just as you could do it yourself! But do I fix my own plumbing? Nooooo! So should you do your own social media? Again: Noooo!
Analytics
Analytics
In order to make the best decisions about when to post, what to post, and how often to post, you’ll need to look at your analytics. If you don’t know what that means, then you’ll need to study up on analytics. Here’s a post about Twitter analytics, for a start.
Choosing Your Platform
Choosing Your Platform
Do you know where your audience is? Do you know the average age of people on the different platforms? Do you know the best place for women to hang out online (hint: it starts with a “P” and ends with a “T!”
image centrism
Image-Centrism
I’m not sure that’s a real term, but you know what I’m saying. These days, you need a good image. Gone are the days when you could post an article without a good image to go along with it. There are some exceptions, of course. But not many.
Your Time
Your Time
Recently, I started to use Noko, a great time management tool. How much is your time worth? Do you really want to use it to learn how to manage your time online, when there’s someone who’s already ironed out all the kinks of an online posting system?
frustration
Frustration
Will you know what to do when there’s an emergency online? Who will you talk to if something goes wrong? Wouldn’t you prefer to have someone else handle everything for you?
Do You Do Your Own Plumbing?
Do You Do Your Own Plumbing?
If I did my own plumbing, probably there’d be a lot of leaks. Also, a lot of extra pieces of pipe that went nowhere, spurting water. It would maybe look like the Winchester Mystery House, except I couldn’t charge money for people to come over and see it.
Research and content
Research and Content
How will you handle finding your own content for posting? Will you create original content every day? How much time will that take away from your other business? How will you know what to post?
Constant Changes
Constant Changes
Today, Instagram introduced Instagram “stories.’ Recently, Facebook changed its newsfeed to focus more on friends and families. Will you be able to keep up with the rapidly changing social media scene? Will you want to?
Still Think You Want to Manage Your Own Social Media?
Many people think they don’t have the budget, or the means to hire someone. Possibly that’s true. And a few people do a good job themselves. But if you don’t do your own plumbing, why would you do your own social media? Tell me why in the comments! Thank you.
You are allowing your brand to be in the hands of that person. They should have discernment and discretion along with creativity and the ability to strategize long-term to enhance your other marketing efforts.
If you can just your 15 year old niece, go for it. But if not, pay someone to do it — and pay them well. I recently had a conversation with a friend who wanted a social media manager who could also produce and edit video and was shocked that I said he should pay them *at least* $20/hr. Likely, he wants a biz dev person — not a SMM. I just shook my head and moved on.
Continual education, understanding the cultures of each platform should not be taken lightly.
Wow! That’s crazy about that person not wanting to pay someone at least $20 an hour! And understanding the cultures of each platform are integral to being a good social media manager. Thank you for the comments, Bridget!
Carol
I’m not in the camp of turnng your social media marketing ove to someone, but I don’t think you should do it yourse;f either.
There is a line here. You can turn over posting and monitoring to a 3rd party (nad you’d better pay well for the right person) but the social aspect – the interaction and engagement – should be done by you. Here too though, you can have and should seek help. It can be in the form of training or support.
Unless you are very profeicient at something or OK if the time you put in fails to pan out, it’s bets to get help!
Hello Robert,
That’s right. As a social media manager, I wouldn’t know all the nuances of your business. Having someone there to monitor and pass along comments is a huge help. As is finding someone who can interpret the social signals (i.e., analytics) and understand the details of each platform. Most SMMs that I know can do simple engagement (thanking people, for instance), but leave the rest of the engagement to someone who knows the subject matter well.
Thank you for stopping by!
Carol
Interesting discussion in the comments.
As Carol and Robert have said, there is value having people involved in running the business involved in social media. However there is also value in having a social media expert on hand to strategise and analyse the data.
I’ve found this to be true in my work as a content strategist. The best results are obtained when you combine the knowledge of someone who understands the product with the expertise of someone who understands marketing strategy.
Hi Clement,
I find a lot of good ideas in the comments, which is why I often like to return to a good thread to comment again. Your blog posts often have great discussions going.
Good point about getting the best results from a combination of someone who understands the strategy of marketing, along with someone who understands the product. None of us can know everything about everything; having specialists can boost a brand’s reach and help increase visibility or gain new clients.
Thank you for stopping by and for your thoughtful comments, as always.
Sincerely,
Carol