The bigger your brand becomes, the more difficult it can be to manage your own social content. For many brands, posting just once a day doesn’t produce the results they’re looking for, but brand and content marketers might not have the time to do more than that. Outsourcing social content creation can be a great option for brands in that situation, but there are a few steps that need to be taken to make the transition as seamless and effective as possible.
Determine tasks ahead of time (if possible).
The better idea you and your team have of the tasks you’ll be outsourcing, the better the outside team will be able to make recommendations and fulfill your needs. Clearly assigning responsibilities ahead of time will help prevent confusion later on. Fortunately (or, perhaps, unfortunately) social media is constantly evolving. As more features and abilities become baked into each social network, the responsibilities you choose your outside team to have will probably grow. The team will undoubtedly be ready and anxious to take advantage of these new features, so be sure to establish how you’ll handle these new opportunities as they arise.
Understand how much control they need and how much you can give.
There are a variety of tools you can use to give outside teams access to your social presences. Although third-party apps are great, they are also often limited in what access they can give users. If you’re only looking to your team to be content creators, this can be just fine. If you’re looking for them to create ads, tag Facebook pages, or post to a network with limited third-party access, though, your outside team will probably need greater access than the third-party management systems can give. Make sure you understand ahead of time what they will need and how much access you can give.
Establish review processes and workflows.
Understandably, your team will probably want to review the outside team’s posts before they go live. If they need that approval, make sure that workflows and review processes are clearly established from day one so that new content is received and reviewed by the right person. If a workflow isn’t established, it can result in untimely posts, missed messaging and inaccurate editorial calendars. Take the extra time to make sure your team’s workflow is well understood.
Coordinate posting and scheduling to avoid post overlap.
Although you want to outsource the bulk of your content creation, there will probably be spur-of-the-moment opportunities that will pop up that will be best for your team to just take care of. To avoid post overload and overlap, make sure that the team knows to coordinate with your outside team. It will help ensure your individual posts’ visibility and prevent repeat messaging — something your fans will definitely appreciate.
Nervous about giving out your brand’s social login credentials? Learn how to keep your accounts safe and what steps to take if they’re compromised.
