The times of social media networks, in which you only shared holiday pictures and chatted with your friends, are long gone.

Currently almost every company has a business account on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or even TikTok. That’s because these platforms are perfect for generating traffic and sales. At the same time, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult for brands to achieve the desired results with social media.

Many will give up their efforts, believing that likes and shares have nothing to do with real business. But you know the saying: If you don’t take any risks, you don’t drink champagne.

If you don’t want to miss the opportunity to acquire new customers through social media, you need to invest in proper social media management. But does that mean you should hire an in-house specialist or outsource social media services?

Read on to learn more about the pros and cons of in-house versus outsourced social media management and what would be the best choice for your business.

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First things first: what is social media management? The term includes all tasks associated with maintaining a brand’s presence on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. That Main tasks of a social media manager (or leadership team) include:

• creating and publishing content;
• Acquiring new followers and retaining the audience;
• Responding to comments, messages and other interactions;
• Analyzing and reporting results.

Successful social media management requires a professional, holistic approach. Regardless of whether you decide to outsource social media management or hire an in-house specialist, here is their role:

• Developing a strategy: The social media manager describes how he would promote your brand. An excellent social media strategy should include information about the timeline, expected results, and advertising costs.
• Create a content plan: You plan releases ahead of time to ensure they follow the strategy at every step.
• Create content: You prepare both the visual content and the text for social media posts. They may need to outsource graphic design or photography.
• Content publishing: They choose the time when their followers are most active, post and engage with the audience right after publication.
• Moderate comments and messages: You answer questions, resolve doubts and handle potential complaints.
• Collaboration with Influencers and Opinion Leaders: You reach people, offer collaboration and manage the collaboration process.
• Tracking Statistics: They monitor and report the results of their work.

Internal social media management can help your company grow in many ways. First of all, you always have an in-house specialist or team at your disposal. As a manager or entrepreneur You can monitor the progress your work and ask for updates at any time.

In addition, internal specialists participate in the development process of your brand and make them better understand the ins and outs of the business. For example, if your business is somehow complex or unique, it’s better to ensure that everyone involved is keeping up with the details of your strategy and operations. In contrast to external agencies, internal specialists can do this.

Bringing a social media specialist or team into your own company means going in with confidence business development. It allows you to experiment freely, implement different digital strategies and make social media marketing an integral part of your business.

Another advantage of the in-house social media management is that the Communication is smoother and faster. While external teams usually set their own response time rules, you can always turn to the internal specialists. You can talk to them in the office, in an online video chat, or through your company’s instant messaging software. You will get the answer in no time.

Last but not least is hiring a full-time specialist mostly cheaper than outsourcing the same services. So if your budget is limited, you should consider this option and Understand the disadvantages of internal social media management.

Having a specialist or team in-house requires more work from managers and business owners. They need to spend more time on supervisory, administrative, or employer branding tasks. It will be your task to create tasks and provide all the means that the specialist will need to achieve satisfactory results.

Compared to agencies that work with multiple clients from your niche, The experience of internal specialists may not be as extensive. As a result, they may lack a broader perspective of the market. In addition, if you allow yourself to hire only one specialist, you must decide which skills are most important to you and your company. In contrast to a whole agency is a specialist versed in a limited range of skills.

Sometimes the internal specialists work on several tasks and projects at the same time: They design posts, react to comments on Facebook ads and take over writing articles from the content manager who is on sick leave. as an effect, You can lose your focus and bring weaker results.

Suppose you are new to social media and there is no one at your company competent enough to judge the results of social media specialists’ efforts. In this case, you should hire virtual assistants with experience in social media management or an agency that specializes in this. They have all the knowledge and resources to manage your brand’s social media in a way that brings real profits and saves you from unnecessary burdens.

Once you have signed a contract, The outsourced agency will focus on delivering results. You decide how to meet the commitments and you don’t have to worry about setting up tasks, overseeing the process, or providing equipment and software.

Hiring an agency is also good if you already have an in-house social media specialist or team, but You have to take a load off their shoulders. For example, you can outsource certain tasks and not complete the social media management in such a situation.

Now that you know all these advantages, let’s move on to some disadvantages of outsourced social media management that you should also be aware of.

It is more difficult for an agency to understand your internal processes or the details of your strategy and operations. Therefore, you cannot share confidential information with you. You may also be reluctant to share the passwords for your social media accounts, but there is an easy way around this problem.

If you don’t want to share direct access to your company’s social media profiles with the agency, you can ask them to manage your profiles through a third-party tool like NapoleonCat. Such software allows you to grant access to selected profiles and aspects of social media management. Most importantly, the agency can manage all your social media in one place that you can easily monitor.

Working with a social media agency can include a wide range of services too expensive for small or medium-sized companies. You need to review your resources to make a financially wise decision.

You have to reckon with that too a longer reaction time. Agencies typically work with multiple clients and cannot be available to you on-demand. If you decide to outsource services, remember to agree on how and when you can communicate and what the maximum response time on the agency side would be.

So what’s better?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Knowing the pros and cons of both options, you must make your own decision that suits your resources and works for your business.

In summary, here are the main differences between a full-time employee and an agency:

• An employee always has a deeper understanding of the specifics of your product or service and can quickly solve urgent tasks. Nevertheless, there is a risk that they will lose focus and bring weaker results.
• Working with a social media agency means having access to a whole team of specialists with comprehensive skills and a comprehensive promotion approach. But without detailed knowledge of your business, they may not be able to take a broader perspective of business development.

Author’s biography:

Kasia Slonawska is a passionate content marketer and growth hacker. With three years of experience in the social media niche and a writing education background, she’s eager to share tips to help businesses grow on – and through – social media.