As social marketing continues to grow in importance for brands of all sizes, should businesses consider outsourcing social media tasks to offshore third parties?
It might sound like a questionable idea to some, but doing so can decrease the costs of Facebook page management by as much as 60% , according to a post on All Facebook.
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In a guest post for the Facebook-focused blog, Adhvith Dhuddu, CEO of Bangalore-based social media agency AliveNow, makes the case that outsourcing is the way to go. While it’s not an altogether surprising call to action given his title, Dhuddu makes some valid points that are worth considering.
Some Facebook page management tasks are more effectively outsourced than others, Dhuddu suggest. In particular, developing apps, writing content and uploading media to Facebook are things that could be handled by an offshore third party.
What shouldn’t be outsourced are bigger picture tasks like creating a social media strategy for the brand.
“A company in India, Vietnam or the Philippines, cannot and will not be able to assess your brand, what you stand for, your customers and your market, and therefore cannot help in coming up with a strategy for the brand on social media,” Dhuddu writes.
Outsourcing May Cut Costs, But It Has Limits
Outsourcing social media tasks may prove cost effective for some companies, but it’s something that should probably be approached with caution. Not only should bigger, more strategic things be handled locally, but even some of the nitty gritty, day-to-day activities may be best handled internally or by a local agency.
As you’ve likely heard a self-proclaimed expert or two say, social media is all about conversations. For brands, that means interacting with current and potential customers in real time. How that conversation transpires is often critical to the brand’s effectiveness both in social marketing and in drumming up actual business.
For some smaller, local businesses, having somebody based in another country maintaining those conversations with customers may not be effective. Even if language and dialect differences are not an issue, there are often local sensibilities and market knowledge that only somebody living locally could have.
The answer to the outsourcing question will of course vary depending on the type and size of the business, as well as its market and industry. We suspect that for many businesses, there are at least some tasks that could be outsourced, as long as doing so results a significant enough amount of cost savings.
What do you think? Is outsourcing social media marketing a good way to save money or does it run the risk of alienating potential customers?
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