I can state the following with confidence, with no need to reference any survey findings or pieces of research:

Using social media effectively is vital to your business’s success.

It’s the ‘big hitter’ in your organisation’s marketing armoury.

It’s an essential arena for raising brand presence, building trust and authority through content, making new connections, and facilitating positive business conversations.

And, whether your business already believes in the value of using social media or not, your best bet is to make sure you’ve got those channels covered - and on an ongoing, permanent basis too.

Social media management is simple though, right?

Erm, actually no. Not as simple as it may first appear - if you want to do it properly. There’s actually quite a bit of detail lying behind this medium. That’s why there are so many apps, tools and online courses (varying between super helpful to super useless) out there - all dedicated to using social media well.  

But, on top of all of that, you also need to:

• use good, old-fashioned ‘gut instincts’

• have an appreciation of the nuances between different platforms

• keep learning about what doesn’t work and what does (and you can only do this through being constantly ‘hands-on’ with all your accounts, and using measurement tools to conduct regular analysis.)

What is your business’s social strategy?

Is it to get your brand noticed? Are you trying to push a specific service? Convey a particular message? Make your content assets work harder?

Maybe it’s all of the above? Or maybe you simply don’t know right now.

Whatever you’re trying to achieve, you need to put some regular time aside to put the right drive and attention behind it; drive and attention you may currently be lavishing on other marketing tasks…

Social media is a slow burn

Unless you’ve got endless cash to spend on social ads and sponsored posts, it will take time to build up a social following for your brand. It’ll also take a while to consistently capture attention using social and keep audiences engaged with what you have to tell them. In many cases, these kinds of gains can be made more quickly through offering something of value; whether it’s a downloadable insight asset, a promo code for a product, or a ‘free trial’ offer on something you sell.

Utilising these channels effectively can ensure that, at some point, your audience will actually remember you when they need a service/product just like the one you offer. You are, in effect, trying to build a long-term relationship with them.

With the above in mind, let's take a quick look at how a business might benefit from having a dedicated freelance resource looking at all of this.

1. You instantly free up capacity

You might not have the right resource in-house. Maybe you don’t have a marketing team, or if you do, you may only have a couple of bodies in that team - and you need them to work on other things.

Whatever your situation, this particular channel type is usually one of the first casualties of being stuck in this kind of bind.  Outsourcing this part of your digital marketing strategy can instantly alleviate the burden of having to look after all the associated maintenance that comes with it.

2. It’s often more cost-efficient than a permanent hire

With the average wage for a social media manager ranging between about £30k and £35k p.a, it's no wonder that many marketing functions/small businesses choose to omit the hire of a dedicated resource to manage their social channels.

Hiring a freelancer enables a small business to benefit from paying comparatively less for just as much expertise. We are also likely to be far cheaper compared to a marketing agency.

And, even though we’re not from a sparkly agency, many digital freelancers will likely have years of social media management experience spanning different sectors and industries. This means they’re more than likely to know what will work for your audience (and what won’t) in terms of offering value, topics, keyword phrases, and tone of voice.

3. You quickly fill any capability gaps you’ve got in-house

Maybe the array of tools you have to hand (software/quality of content/resource/ability (maybe even another freelancer you’re paying)) just aren’t delivering the results you’re expecting - and at the speed you’re hoping for. Someone in your C-Suite / one of the senior execs in your business may have noticed that you’re not gaining much traction, or perhaps they have forgotten about it altogether because they’re just not seeing any results.

Alternatively, maybe you're not getting the backing of your senior colleagues in putting their money where their mouth is, and investing in training to upskill your team / you.

Hiring some extra help ensures that all of your posts are fashioned in such a way that they make the most impact possible – i.e. ‘optimised’. Whether it’s making sure they include hashtags (some businesses still lack a basic understanding of this concept, for example), including an attention-grabbing image, or just plain making-sure-you-don’t-come-across-as-amateurs - little touches* can make all the difference between really standing out against the competition on your audience members’ newsfeed, or fading into the background. 

*This also rings true when it comes to making the most of your colleagues' profiles on platforms like LinkedIn - a blog on this very topic, here.

4.  You remove the ‘burden’ that can be ‘managing social’

Maybe managing social just isn’t anyone’s speciality where you work. Not all marketers like handling social.

Like the other components of digital marketing (SEO, content, etc.), this is a craft of sorts, and you also need a certain enthusiasm to ‘keep on keeping on’ with it - it can be tedious.

I’ve been close to businesses who basically give it a lot of welly for a few weeks, go through a long, cold patch of NOTHING, and then suddenly remember they should probably post something. It really needs to be kept on top of day-to-day, and week-to-week in order to see the best results. In addition, take the constant new features and enhancements platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook see on a regular basis – someone needs to be consistently in-the-know about all this stuff so that you’re making the most of any new features/modules. Behind staying on top of all this is the willingness and enthusiasm to stay on top of all of this.

The message, in case you've skipped to the end…

There may come a point where it’s time to admit you need some extra help, and hiring someone who specialises in social media management can pave the way to your business reaping the benefits of having all your posts properly planned, processed, optimised and monitored.

=====