Outsourcing your social marketing to a third party saves valuable time on your business’s part, allowing you and your employees to focus on the bottom line free of the distractions that typically accompany web marketing . While hiring someone can be a big relief in this sense, it’s important not to downplay the need for regular communication once you’ve committed to a social media manager (SMM): The better relationship you have with the person who’ll actually be running your accounts, the more effective and engaging the posts will turn out to be (a rule which applies to all social platforms). Here are some tips for liaising:
Get Personal
While some would tell you that mixing business with personal isn’t recommended, social management is a different beast: Since your SMM is hired to speak under your company’s voice, its important for him/her to understand exactly what your business is about from an ethos/pathos perspective. Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask your liaison for a casual meeting over coffee, or to add him/her personally on Facebook for the sake of building a relationship. You’ll find that as you get to know the person better, he/she will begin to understand your business through your eyes and post things that are more likely to be in tune with your own corporate ethics and beliefs.
Send Collateral On A Regular Basis
Though a competent SMM can discover and post information about your business on their own, its very important that you regularly update them with the latest information about your company that they might not be privy to without having an inside track. If you have access to internal collateral (product lists, new promotions, competition statistics etc.) that hasn’t been made public yet, forward it to them on a consistent basis either via email or through a cloud sharing service such as Dropbox. Even if you’re not sure how the content should be scheduled, send it anyway: its an SMM’s job to disseminate information about your business and disperse it to the public in a way that will drive engagement. Your SMM is essentially your internet public relations coordinator, and should be treated as such.
Specify Your Advertising Budget
Since most social media platforms have paid advertising options, many agency-proposed management plans will include an allocated ad budget within your monthly rate. If your SMM doesn’t offer this convenience, however, its recommended that you decide on a maximum monthly ad budget beforehand and take it into consideration alongside the proposed management fee. Most social ads run on what’s known as a “maximum cost-per-click” basis, meaning that you’ll only pay if and when someone actually clicks through to your website or respective social environment. SMMs are experts and maximizing the strength and reach of your budget, even if its a modest one, so don’t be afraid to play with different amounts on a month-to-month basis to see what works and what doesn’t.
