Is it Okay to Outsource your Social Media Marketing efforts?

[kurbain]

Outsourced Social Media: Oxymoron?
My guts tell me that a client should be doing their own social media content posts. My passion for transparency and honesty tell me that posting social media content for another business is a conflict of interest. After all, the power of social media resides in the ability to be oneself and gain the trust of others.

But, is there room for some outsourcing if it is handled correctly? My short answer is: “yesâ€. My long answer is: “it’s a necessity for some.â€

I am working with an industry where technology gadgets are not fully embraced, writing ability is limited to short “call-to-action†copy, and customer engagement is done face-to-face with charisma and charm. I am talking about the car selling business.

What translates in face to face charm by inflection of voice, giant white smiles, and lots of showmanship does not necessarily translate in content through social media. Someone whose sole purpose is to close the deal does not always have the tools to converse with the community without accidentally attempting to sell something by force of habit. The need to just chat and listen is there, but the ability is not [always].

The task of communicating effectively for someone who can’t get the right message across on their own has been a booming industry since the beginning of time. Famous people “write†books using ghost writers, big brands use ad agencies to design their image across the board, and everyone has a PR Agency or Talent Agent to help promote their skills and services. Why should social media be any different? If a business hires me to handle their social media efforts, why is it different from them hiring a full time employee? It’s not, if I do my job well. In fact, it’s better, if I do my job well.

It all goes back to the common business advice given across the board. “Delegate what you don’t do well or don’t want to do. So you can focus on what you are passionate about.â€

What do you outsource that saves you time, energy, and money, while improving your business?

 

[joe.pistell]

I'll put it another way...

How many rebate and discount announcements does it take to make your Social Media campaign... useless?

It's fairly well established that Social Media (SM) is a branding exercise, yet the Dealers DNA is all about getting cars over the curb by the end of the month. Dealers are wired for ACTION... not planting daisies and rainbows.

Communicating a branding message requires a unique talent that is rarely found in the dealerships roster. Hell, most dealer managers are so busy they don't realize that that SM is a branding medium and for a SM Campaign to have any branding message of value, you need a special SM voice with a special SM message to make anyone "not in market" want to read your SM work.

I agree, no... I HIGHLY agree that dealers should focus on what makes them great and delegate the rest (incl. SM).

 

[kurbain]

Hey Joe!
When you say that, I think of the Tootsie Roll Pop commercial... lol. One....Two...Three...CRUNCH!

Nicely put. I like how you describe SM as a "Branding Exercise", and you are right about that being where the big misunderstanding is occurring. Thanks for "highly" agreeing! Have a fabulous weekend!

 

[KoreyB]

SM = one-on-one conversation and takes A LOT of time. Useful in a regional setting, but takes time.

 

[Mitch Gallant]

I don't think it's ok. Either don't do it at all, which will save you tons of time or do it in house and get involved. No it's not going to sell you many more cars (in the short term), but it has been very useful for service follow up and retention. Only someone within the community or the dealership is going to come across authentic when asked pointed questions or be able to respond to community posts... where they've been a part or know all about an event, using it as a conversation starter.

I guess my main concern is, if you lose credibility it's all over and people seem to have great bullshit radars.

If you're not authentic or credible I think you're missing the buss. Only way I could see it being any kind of a good idea to outsource is if it had a strong SEO value but even then you run the risk of hurting your brand.

 

[kurbain]

I appreciate your opinion on the subject Mitch.

I think it is important to note that when hiring an outside firm to tackle your social media marketing efforts it is imperative that you hire a group or person that is passionate about your business and social media. These people will A. Be transparent about the fact that they are your social media voice, and B. they will spend a lot of time getting to know you and will in fact have your voice when they reach out, especially in relation to community events. They will in essence become your partner, not just another vendor. Having someone else help implement your ideas and plans does not make them any less yours.

Your opinion that social media is "not going to sell you many more cars (in the short term)" and is just "very useful for service follow up and retention" and should only be outsourced if it has "strong SEO value", is evidence of why it is beneficial for dealerships to seek outside assistance. If they share your view of it, then they just have not witnessed the power of it yet and therefore won't use it properly. We've been able to sell more cars, retain more service customers, and spend less on marketing/advertising with the help of social media.

I don't think very many dealerships would say no to cutting their costs and selling more in the process. And by doing it with the right people on your side you in fact gain trust and credibility -- which is one of the main reasons why social media marketing works well for car dealers. Buyers notoriously distrust their car dealers, so by gaining trust with conversations that are not about selling and not a direct link to selling, we make the customer aware of your expertise and your personalities. People buy from those they know, trust, and like. Becoming all of these things through social media and other outreach is invaluable, leading to a long term increase in sales.

I would argue that if a dealership cannot be bothered to do any community outreach that does not lead to an instant increase in sales, then they are going to struggle to gain trust and credibility from those around them anyway. Only seeing the bottom line is a quick way to chase customers and prospects away. I have seen dealerships with this attitude change their mind and in-fact change their authentic selves once they dive into the conversations.

 

[Katie]

This is a super interesting thread. As a freelance service provider, I personally won't sign on 2 clients who are in the same market. If I'm doing work for an automotive dealer, then I won't do work for another automotive dealer in the same field (i.e. Toyota, etc.). That's just coming from me.

Since outsourced social media is what makes me money, I'd say "Yes!" but the idea is to make sure youre choosing the right people, with the right passion, etc. Even moreso, someone who will dedicate their day to your company only and not many others.

 

[Alex Snyder]

Now that I'm sitting in a seat that looks at things from a higher perspective I can say outsourcing is a tool some dealers absolutely need (not necessarily talking solely about social media).

To put things simply: Dealers want to sell and service cars. They can't do either without a customer (or car) physically present. If they have staff that can do more than just sell or service a car, then that employee is a bonus. If that person isn't on a dealer's staff, then he needs to outsource if he isn't going to hire....or just stay out of whatever that thing is all together.

P.S. From my old seat, I would have said "never outsource" because I'll do it myself.

 

[merritt]

I really don't see the need in outsourcing your social media to anyone. There are some great free tools out there that even show stats on your efforts.

One great example is Hootsuite. HootSuite - Social Media Dashboard for Teams using Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin

You can control many different accounts including fan pages/multiple twitter accounts/linkedi/etc. and pick and choose how each is distributed.

Say you are a large dealer group and you have 5 Nissan dealerships, 7 Chevy, and so on... you can pick and choose what campaign filters through individual accounts. If you use their link shrinker, then you can actually track your traffic and get quick glances of which social sites they are coming from.

Also... you should be able to link your data from your inventory management tool to feed directly to your facebook/twitter/etc.

Not trying to sell anything but we also built an app that has a real time filtered search of inventory on Facebook
example: Welcome to Facebook

Bottom line is that there is no need to out source this stuff... They make it really simple to automate a lot of it- including adding timers to the posts. That way one person can make a bunch of different ones for multiple accounts and then they will post at certain dates & times.

(above is IMHO)