Why Outsourcing to a Social Media Consultant is a Bad Idea

I honestly think that outsourcing Social Media is the worst you can do. Maybe it would be better to not do it at all. I have to admit, this has not always been my point of view. I used to offer outsourced Social Media services to my clients for a very long time. I would update their Facebook, Twitter and write their blog posts for them. Like most other Social Media consultants, my clients could pick different packages according to their needs. I had clients in a variety of industries and in many cases, I was not familiar at all with the industry that they were in, had no insights in their business strategy and what was going on in their day to day business.

Social Media is about connecting people with people directly. This is why it is so powerful. If you hire a Social Media consultant, it feels like one of these silly situations on TV where two friends are not talking and a middle man has to play the messenger. Remember in Harry Potter, when Harry and Ron didn’t talk and Hermonine had to repeat everything they said? Pretty childish and inefficient right? So why would you do that in your business?

Social Media is also about showing that you care, want to listen and build a relationship with your customers. You can’t outsource “building a relationship”. A relationship is built on trust, mutual interest and genuine care. Do you think you could build a friendship with someone, if you only communicated through their secretary with them? Probably not.

Here are a couple more reasons why I believe that outsourcing Social Media is a bad idea:

1. Your Social Media Consultant does not know your industry

I used to do the Social Media for a budget car rental company with locations all over the US, Central America and the Caribbean. I wrote hundreds of blog posts about the various locations, things to do for tourists, the best hotels etc. The problem was, that I had never been to most of these locations. I researched my content on Trip Advisor, travel blogs, Wikipedia and more, but I had no inside knowledge. I had no way of evaluating if the information that I had researched and passed on in my blog posts was accurate or not. In short, I was just regurgitating what other people already shared.

If on the other hand, somebody at that rental car location had written a blog post about their city every couple of weeks sharing their knowledge and cool insights about the city they call home, it would have been a real value to the rental car customers, don’t you think?

Your customers want to see your expertise and insights in your industry. How can you establish yourself as a thought leader and show that you care for your customers, if you pay someone else to do it for you? You are the one who has worked in the industry for years, know the ins and outs, have the network and most importantly, know your customers. All your Social Media consultant can do is provide information that is already widely accessible and does not provide further insights. At best, it’s a good summary of information that barely touches the surface of what is really going on in your industry.

2. Your Social Media Consultant has no insights in your day to day business

Another problem was that I was working remotely and there was no way for me to gain insights into the day to day business. People who follow your company on Social Media are interested in learning more about your company from a personal level. Who are the people that are working for you? What is it like to work for your company? What does the office look like? Do your employees like their job and feel appreciated?

You probably have a ton of cool and interesting stuff going on at your office that your customers would love to see, but your remote Social Media Consultant sitting in another city, state or even country has no way of knowing what is going on.

Sharing pictures from the impromptu office party after completing a huge project or from the 5k raising money for kids in need where your whole team dressed up in company shirts? Letting your customers vote if they would prefer white, red or black Ford Mustangs as a rental car? These are all cool ideas for an interesting and engaging Social Media presence. But if you hire a Social Media consultant, implementing this will be much harder, because they need to be constantly updated on the progress, need to understand the business practices and operations, and you would have to do most of the work yourself, because you are the one who was there. But then you wouldn’t need a Social Media Consultant, would you?

3. Your Social Media Consultant is not as passionate about your business/industry as you are

 While outsourcing makes sense in many areas of your business, you can’t outsource “care”. If they are a good Social Media consultant they care about your business, because they want to keep you as a client. It’s nothing but human nature. Let’s say, there is a complaint about your company on Facebook. As your Social Media Consultant, they wont care about it as much as if you had left a negative comment on their Facebook wall. The relationship to your customers is removed by a degree separation. And quite frankly, it’s not their job to care. It’s yours. They are your customers that make your success possible. They deserve to be listened to. Building a relationship and trust is a two way street. You can’t expect your customers to be loyal customers who believe in your brand, buy your products and might even recommend you to their friends and family and you don’t even take the time to listen to what they have to say.

Another problem for Social Media consultants is that they are not on location and do not have much insights in the operations. Let’s get back to my car rental client for an example. One of the main complaints on Social Media was that their Customer Service apparently never picked up the phone. I actually tried it myself one time and rang them 5 times within one hour before someone picked up the phone. People who already were unhappy or had a problem with their rental car and called customer service experienced another break of trust when nobody answered their calls and didn’t reply to emails. When they found our Facebook page, many of them vented and shared their frustration. However, all I could do was collect their contact information, tell them that someone will contact them shortly and forward the info to my contact person, the Marketing Manager. He, also very busy with his daily tasks, eventually forwarded the complaint and contact information to the very people who didn’t pick up the phone in the first place. It turned out that the Customer Service department was notoriously understaffed and had a horrible response time because of it. If I had worked directly for the company they could have given me permission to communicate directly with the customer to make things right or at least communicate with the customer service representative directly to help the customer as soon as possible.

The person you are hiring is not an industry expert, they are a Social Media expert. Yet, you are hiring them to share industry knowledge and insights. They have no insights in your company, but you want them to share a look behind the scenes with your customers. You want them to pretend to care about your customers, but that is your job, if you want to stay in business in the long run.

via:http://jupiter-labs.com/outsourcing-to-social-media-consultant-bad-idea/