Ok, call me biased here, but at a recent talk I heard someone say “so getting and keeping your staff engaged in your social media campaign is difficult, time consuming and something you’ll need to keep at.  But should you subcontract?  No.”  Which is a rather strange thing to say to a room full of people trying to get subcontracts to do social media.  Perhaps I was too busy scoffing to hear his justification, but I’m pretty sure none came.

So I’m going to explain, instead why, yes you should subcontract, but leave it up to the subcontractors to keep your staff engaged enough to provide the content.  It’s a two way street, not a magic wand solution.

The difference between asking your staff to do social media and getting someone in to help, is that the person you get in to help knows the best, most efficient way to do it, and will do a lot of the donkey work.  Your staff will know what Facebook is, but probably won’t know the intricacies possible, and why would they?  It’s not their job!  It’s a bit of a large ask to get them to learn an entirely new trade, and I wouldn’t imagine it would do much for morale either.

Staff engagement is so important with social media, but let your subcontractor have contact with them (or even you) to find out what’s going on in the office, be it business or pleasure, let them come up with ideas, but don’t expect them to implement anything.

Social media is important, fun but most of all time consuming, you wouldn’t expect your team of architects to take over your accounts, so don’t expect them to take over your social media.  Getting professional help will protect your brand and probably isn’t as expensive as you think.