How to Outsource Social Media

Outsourcing Your Social Media Delegating your outreach while maintaining an authentic expression of self

Conversation Overview
Social Media for Business
Why use it?
How often?
Outsourcing Social Media
Why outsource?
Which pieces to outsource?
How much to outsource?
Who to outsource to?
Outsourcing Twitter
How, what & why
Outsourcing Facebook
How, what & why
Outsourcing Google+
How, what & why
Social Media Campaigns
Affiliates & joint ventures
Strategy & execution
Campaign monitoring tools

Why should businesses use social media?
74% of CMOs believe they’ll tie social media efforts to hard ROI this year
73% of consumers can be reached through a social network
56% of journalists said social media was important or somewhat important when reporting stories
Statistics from www.b2bsocialmediaguide.com

How often should businesses be engaging?
1-4 Tweets per hour
0.5 Facebook posts per day
CTR (click thru rate) is highest midweek & on weekends
Statistics by KISS Metrics

Why businesses should outsource
Solopreneurs and small businesses have a cap on available time to devote to social media therefore need to delegate out activities
Consistency on social media is key to achieving goals and building a following but not all business owners can keep up with demand
Outsourcing is more cost-effective than doing it at the business owner’s rate

Which pieces should be outsourced?
Facebook, Twitter, Google+ & LinkedIn management
Content creation for all platforms
Statistics / reporting on social media sites
Campaign management for promos / launches
Affiliate / joint venture involvement using social media

How much should outsourcing social media cost?
Social media assistants / virtual assistants can be hired at $20-50 per hour
On average, a small business will need 15-30 hours per month, or more, to see returns
Social media campaign management tools (to facilitate activities) can cost anywhere from $10/month to hundreds per month

How do businesses maintain authenticity?
If using a ghostwriter : create a swipe file of your marketing material, blog posts, etc. and provide to writer to get tone / voice.
Be engaged : review written material, provide corrections and feedback often.

How do businesses maintain authenticity?
Only outsource a portion : @ replies, personal responses to Facebook messages, etc. should still be done by you.
Only pre-schedule some updates : write the rest “in the moment” to maintain a presence.

Write a social media policy guide / set of standards for your team that includes:
Content that is appropriate for posting
Schedules for posting content
Types of updates that require approval first
Branding / messaging instructions
Links to all of your sites, etc. pre-shortened

Twitter Facts
1 billion Tweets sent per week
During February 2011, there were 460,000 new accounts created
The average Tweets per day in March 2010 was 50 million - by February 2011, the average Tweets per day was 140 million
Between 2008 and 2011, Twitter saw a 5000% increase in the # of people they employed

Outsourcing Twitter
Writing Tweets
Outsource your writing to a ghostwriter who can learn your voice and write updates.
Have team write:
Recommended / referral Tweets
Quotes and links to pre-written content
Marketing Tweets for promotions, etc.

Outsourcing Twitter
Writing Tweets
Have your team recycle all of your content into 140 character updates
Blog posts can be chunked down and linked back to post for additional traffic
Articles can be chunked down
Videos can be summarized and linked to
Portions of e-books (and print books, etc.) can be summarized, posted and used to upsell product

Outsourcing Twitter
Writing Tweets
Create an editorial calendar for your social media updates
Do referrals / recommendations on Fridays
Schedule marketing type updates midweek
Schedule content rich material each day at 2-3 set times
Your audience will enjoy the consistency of your updates and you will be able to pre-schedule updates far into the future

Outsourcing Twitter
Prescheduling Tweets
Promotions / sales / launches
Upcoming events that you are involved in
Dated / timely updates
Recommended resources / Follow Fridays

Outsourcing Twitter
Prescheduling Tweets
Have your team take content they wrote, or content you provide, and schedule per a pre-determined schedule of your choice
Have the team track CTRs (click thru rates) by putting links through Bit.ly or other link shortener
Use a tool like Hootsuite so you can also monitor , edit and control content before it goes out

Outsourcing Twitter
Following / Unfollowing People
Your business should have a following and unfollowing strategy and your team should implement that for you
Will you follow everyone or just select people?
Will you seek out people to follow or just follow people back that follow you?
What would be your grounds for an unfollow?

Outsourcing Twitter
Brand Monitoring
Keywords - useful if you want to engage people in conversation when they are talking about something you specialize in
Name usage - tracking your brand on Twitter allows you to provide ultimate customer service to those talking about you

Outsourcing Twitter
Brand Monitoring
You’ll want to monitor:
Business Name
Domain Name
Your Name
Pen Names
Trademarks / Trademarked Phrases
Major Product Lines / Brand Names

Outsourcing Twitter
Brand Monitoring
Tools to help you / your team monitor your brand:
http://search.twitter.com
http://socialmention.com/
http://tweetbeep.com/
Hootsuite (create a column for mentions)

Writing Updates
Many of the Twitter concepts apply here with a few key differences
Facebook has more space so you can share more content
Facebook has the ability to use photos and video captions to make posts more interesting so share dynamic content

Writing Updates
Posts can be pre-scheduled in Hootsuite’s dashboard interface (where your Tweets are done)
Long URLs can be used, if you wish, which seems to increase CTRs (click thru rates) since the link destination is visible

Prescheduling Updates
Facebook is a great place to schedule updates that request engagement from your audience or encourage sharing
As with the Twitter concepts, recycle your content and bring people back to your main websites

Managing Posts & Comments
Have your team report back to you on comments and engagement on various posts
Follow-up replies should come to you but a key to keeping it organized:
Schedule a time each day, even 30 minutes, where you’ll reply personally to conversations
Your team can keep a list of conversations, with URL, for you in a project management tool such as Basecamp

Monitoring & Reporting Page Statistics
Using Facebook’s built-in stats tools, have your team report on your page, specifically:
Demographics
Interactions
Popular Content
This will guide future updates / targeted messages

Facebook Ad Management
Have your team:
Write ad content
Do split testing
Monitor spending and CTRs (click thru rates)
Provide you with a monthly report on success

Outsourcing Google+
Finding Contacts
New users are coming on Google+ daily therefore keeping your contacts up-to-date is key
Your team can go into Google+ weekly / monthly and, using your address book, find new contacts
Your team can also look at the recommended users and organize those people into appropriate circles to give you more people to network with

Outsourcing Google+
Organizing Circles
Circles are key in Google+ to keeping your content relevant for the people you update
Have your team strategize around the best circles for you to keep
Have them organize your contacts into specific circles based on criteria you provide them

Outsourcing Google+
Crafting & Posting Updates
Using many of the previous content creation and posting tips, you should also note:
Google+ allows long updates to be added - almost blog style
Use the long posts sparingly but do include links / images to make your posts more interesting
Content-rich posts that engage conversation do well on Google+

Outsourcing Google+
Monitoring Comments & Conversation
As with previous sites, make sure that your team is tracking updates and notifying you where your personal interaction / engagement is required
You should also schedule 15-30 minutes per day to devote to reading other people’s content and commenting -- networking is key!

Affiliates & Joint Ventures
Launches / Promos / Sales - planning out all of the social media pieces and implementing prior to launch and incorporating affiliates + JVs
On-Going Affiliate Outreach - using social media to support affiliates with promoting your products / services on an on-going basis

Strategy & Execution
Your team can help you organize social media campaigns that involve many pieces
Write content
Organize the marketing calendar
Communicate with affiliates / joint venture partners
You should also invest in a social media campaign manager to help you facilitate these larger campaigns

Arkli
Used to pre-schedule blog posts, YouTube videos, Tweets, Facebook updates, etc.
Tracked by Google Analytics and internal Arkli statistics
Perfect for managing marketing campaigns that go out via social media
Has a WordPress plug-in that makes it even easier to use - right from the WP dashboard

Questions?
Ask Questions Live
Tweet Questions to @ErinBlaskie
Ask a Question at www.HowtoOutsourceSocialMedia.com

http://www.howtooutsourcesocialmedia.com	322
http://paper.li	24
http://us-w1.rockmelt.com	3
http://www.twylah.com	2
http://www.lifestreamincolor.com	2
http://a0.twimg.com	1

How to Outsource Social Media

by Erin Blaskie on Oct 17, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

6 Embeds 354

Statistics

How to Outsource Social Media — Presentation Transcript