Anyone use outsourced social media services for your business?

[cycosis]

I hate social media myself so I know I'm the worst to be running it.

Have you used an outsourced company to run your facebook/twitter/instagram/pintrest?

What were your monthly expenditures? Did it help grow your business or just artificially inflate your FB page likes?

My customers are moms or stay at home moms who are a key social media demographic and I have a big awareness problem in this city for my business.

Any help or recommendations is appreciated. The business is a baby gear store btw.

[anarchy]

Sent you a PM cycosis.

[UndrgroundRider]

Interested in this as well.

[cycosis]

The thing is, I get cold called all the time by little marketing companies in Calgary that offer Social Media Management packages that range anywhere between 400-2,000/month. I am trying to figure out the going rate and would like as much info as possible on people's experiences with these types of services.

[R154]

A790 (Cam) Is the man to talk to.

[Dalking]

Originally posted by R154
A790 (Cam) Is the man to talk to.

he pretty much knows everything about it.

[A790]

My advice: find someone familiar with your business to do it. Avoid outsourced companies that don't have either local representation or a connection with your business. Outsourced companies can be... problematic at best, disastrous at worst.

Replied to your PM. If you've got more questions ask away

[msommers]

What does a social media company do exactly?

[heavyfuel]

Originally posted by msommers
What does a social media company do exactly?

Spend all day tweeting and posting and cramming people's news feeds so you don't have to. I hate social media with a burning passion lol but for my business I'd never even consider it

[stillworking]

I personally don't care to be out there on social media, but I guess it's just the new reality. When Lady Gaga released Alejandro, I initially didn't care for the song but realized that it was going to be so mainstream that I should just like and accept it anyway because anything else would get me nowhere fast. Maybe it's a bad comparison, IDK.

My current thoughts say curate your own feeds since you will know what speaks to your customers best. Doing so will allow you to glean valuable insights from your customers, but also simultaneously keeping you in touch with your social currency.
If content is the problem, consider hiring freelancers or have your staff develop it for you.
Then again, you could always find a connected stay at home mom to do it and provide some guidance and content.

Here are links to interesting I found via social media today...
http://slymarketing.com/pinterest-marketing-strategy/

http://albertaventure.com/2014/10/ri...ampaign=buffer

http://www.postplanner.com/pithy-tips-for-linkedin/

[firebane]

I personally hate social media based companies. I don't have a facebook account nor do I use Twitter.

I found a really awesome company in the states with some really awesome products but guess what.. Facebook.

I was immediately and never looked back.

Don't rely on social media as your only means.. It should be a secondary means not a primary.

[msommers]

I assumed they would setup a Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page for your company and update it as new products rolls out. I just don't get how this is a $2,000/month business venture or rather who sees it being worth that much That's why I was curious about more of the specifics.

I'm taking photography a lot more seriously these days and have setup a website. It was previous to that development that one of our members had gained a lot of traction through Instagram, a venue I only knew had usually horrible photos with gawdy filters put on them. So I got on board despite me thinking it's (still) the dumbest thing possible. How you can take businesses seriously on the same type of mobile-only app where Kim Kardashian gets 1MM likes about her tuna sandwich I don't know. But that's the world we live in these days and it's real and it's new style marketing. Like some of the photographers have a large following on Instagram in Alberta, their pictures are moderate to poor, imo! But they're popular on social media and get opportunities to have Parks Canada fly them around in helicopters, for example, all expenses paid. So yeah, it's real and that's my competition

The sad part I've found with social media marketing (at least what I've seen and experienced so far) is that you just need to keep throwing your stuff out there constantly so it eventually/potentially shows up on someone's feed of some sort and then keep throwing it in their face until they gain just enough interest to follow and/or click what you're selling. Seems like a ridiculous venture but in my line of work anyways that's my reality lol.

[HiTempguy1]

Its all about quantity/volume, not quality. All you need is enough critical mass of mouth breathers and you've hit pay dirt.

Its like pop music... Put out ONE song, sell it for a dollar to a million people, you just became a millionaire.

[cycosis]

As I said before, I hate social media too. But, as a baby gear store, my target demographic is expectant moms or new moms who are stuck at home and live vicariously through their friends. Based on online reviews, it appears as many of them have nothing better to do than type all day long about what they like, don't like, store reviews, etc... ugh. Its not a case of whether I want to, I HAVE to.

[msommers]

Accepting that is good business practice, keeping up with the times sort of. I'm curious what you end up with so if you don't mind, can post or PM once everything is all figured out with services and costs etc?

[RX_EVOLV]

We have limited social media experience and disappointing results with one of our products. We sell a retail product to the professional health market, such as your chiropractic, massage therapists, physiotherapist, etc.

We came across alot of people who would manage our social medial by creating and updating our facebook page, twitter, etc. Also SEO optimization. We tried hiring one who managed our social media outlets for ~ 3 months. They even created short youtube videos and generated fake hits (somehow we got 3K+ views overnight with comments like "great product!"). However after 3 months we definitly weren't generating nowhere near enough leads, or seeing any growth to justify the monthly cost so we cancelled their service. I know 3 months is not a long time to judge the effectiveness of social media but we just weren't seeing the momentum and the cost was too much.

I would agree with some of the previous comments where you need to find a guy that knows your industry well, not just someone who has time to update twitter/facebook. Or maybe your investment can be better spent on Google Adword, Facebook Advertising, advertising with bloggers, creating a micro-community (facebook group, forum, etc), monthly newsletter, etc...