As your business begins to grow and you become busier than ever you need to be able to hire out the tasks that are critical to the growth of your business but could easily be handled by other professionals.
One of those tasks is social media.
The virtual world is expanding at a rapid rate and will continue on this trajectory. More and more companies are finding that there are great benefits to hiring virtual help.
Benefits of hiring virtually.
- You save on office space. Since the contractor is virtual they work off site. There is no need to spend money on utilities, desks, computers and supplies.
- Virtual contractors are usually highly skilled in their niche so there is no training involved. They come with individual valuable skill sets. In my case I live and breath social media. I stay up to date on current social media changes and trends so you don’t have to. I’m able to keep up with my clients social media pages/platforms and coach them on how they can manage them also by themselves if that’s what they choose to do. (Most of my clients like the tag team approach.)
- Savings. For some companies bringing on a full time social media manger is neither practical nor cost effective. A key benefit of using a virtual social media manager is the savings aspect. You save on the expenses of hiring a full-time employee. You save time on interviewing and hiring. You don’t need to worry about employee benefits, health insurance and tax savings. Independent contractors are responsible for their own bookkeeping and taxes. (Tip: Most social media services are actually tax deductible. I invoice my clients monthly or quarterly so they have records for their accountants.)
- Another key benefit from hiring a virtual social media manager is you can usually pay by the package. So there is no need to keep track of tedious hourly pay. Social media never sleeps so the chances of your social media manager checking your social media pages at odd hours around the clock are probable. Paying by the hour limits your online presence and isn’t always feasible.
- Customer Service. As I said above social media never sleeps. When your social media accounts are handled by an employee, they are limited to the time clock. They won’t be answering incoming customer service questions, maintaining reputation or putting out fires on the fly. In short you are missing 12 hours per day of possibly prompt customer service. Customers like speed. I’m not saying I’m going to be replying to a customer at 3 A.M. because I’m not. I too have boundaries, but my time clock is much longer than a typical employees would be.
- Save time. Social media can become very time consuming for business owners and other staff. This is time that can be spent on other revenue generating tasks.
- Because of the importance of every business having a social media presence it should not be overlooked. A virtual social media manager can create a personalized strategy and implement that strategy on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Google and other social media pages. They can also guide you on your ad spend and help with specific social media campaigns, guide people into your sales funnel, build relationships, research content, set up ads, monitor your brands reputation and engage with your audience.
The bottom line is you need to figure out what is best for you and your company. Sometimes hiring in-house makes more sense. Sometimes its a huge waste of money.
I like to tell my clients I’m adding an extra set of eyes, hands and ears to their business. As a virtual social media manager I save them time and money.
Even though I’m creating content, pulling content and working behind the scenes on their social media accounts, I encourage my clients to not take a back seat with their social media. I want them to lead the way, stay front and center through video and live streaming and let me fill in the rest. By them keeping in the forefront they help build the like, know and trust factor that is so important in marketing these days. People are becoming even more finicky and prefer to do business with people and brands they TRUST and KNOW.
Carol Lawrence is the owner of Social Media Help 4 U, a virtual based business that works with heart centered coaches, speakers, authors and business owners. Social Media Help 4 U offers conscious business services, providing intuitive and skill based social media management & consulting. Looking for social media assistance to grow your online presence and provide top notch customer service? Have a marketing budget? Look no further. Multiple packages available. Perfect for for the company who knows the value of a marketing budget and needs help putting their company on the social map! Contact her today! Want to learn more about Carol? Check out some of her references here and her packages here.
