Plenty of businesses unsure of how to get the best out of social media turn to outside agencies to do it for them. It’s an understandable decision, but not necessarily a good one. Here’s why.

Lack of control

Your social media presence is part of your public face, sometimes the biggest. Handing over your Facebook and Twitter accounts to social media experts leaves you at the mercy of their ideas about your business.

It’s not just about possible blunders, it’s about ensuring the right tone and image is put across, something that it’s very difficult for people outside your business to understand the way you do.

You’re at the mercy of the agency’s internal processes, meaning your accounts may be looked after by more than one person at the expense of consistency. The regularity of your posts may also suffer at the hands of other clients.

Authenticity

Social media is very focused on the idea of ‘authenticity’. It’s often seen as a direct channel to a business owner or celebrity without having to go through PR agents, managers etc. If people suspect you of inauthenticity your following will suffer for it. It could even turn into a PR disaster.

Success in the social sphere depends on you being genuinely interesting/informative/useful within your niche. An expert on Twitter is not an expert on makeup, and no amount of hashtags will make up for that.

The most successful social media practitioners are the ones that establish themselves as an ‘authority’ in their field. That is nigh on impossible if your account is controlled by someone outside of your industry.

Usefulness

Most social media experts know the ins and outs of the platforms in such a way that they can maximise your reach.

All the other aspects of social media are best served by someone within your own business – using it as a customer service channel, using it to listen to and build relationships with customers and influencers in your industry; these depend on a detailed knowledge of both your business and the industry you work in.

Social media experts may be able to build you a reasonable following, but they won’t be able to utilise it effectively once it’s there.

Experts do have their place, but as consultants, not as your public face.

Image Credit: alasdair

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 8:50 am and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.