Social Media for small business....

[R-Audi]

For those of you with your own small business, how many of you handle your own social media vs paying someone else to do it? While I am sure there are a few tricks of the trade, Im not sure how to justify paying the cost of hiring it out.
Background... working with a company that is rebranding.. and had little to no social media presence prior.

Thoughts? Refferals on companies that do it?

[ercchry]

We've been talking about it, the benefit is mostly for audience building vs content

I have a friend who owns https://gatherr.ca/ so that will probably be what we try out once we pull the trigger

[ExtraSlow]

I use linkedin exclusively for my business, but then again, I don't really need to reach "everyone" with my content. We are an O&G training/advisory consulting business, and I do find linkedin effective for my desired audience.
Have used hootsuite a little for scheduling posts. Don't like how it formats a few things, so I manually post most of the updates.

[R-Audi]

I should expand on the business a bit more..

We are a Business Centre (rent out full service individual offices and suites) that has recently added a coworking space to one of our locations. All other competitors in the coworking space have large social media platforms, but also are geared more towards the tech/startup/artsy where we are going for the downtown professional type crowd. We are doing a full rebrand with new website etc and want to make sure all of our basis are covered...

[cycosis]

What social media channels are you looking into? What are your goals?

I tried outsourcing a couple of times but it always seemed to come up short. In the end, as the owner, you will know your business and customer better than anyone else. You will be able to create your own content that is rich and specific as opposed to explaining it in depth to someone else and hoping for the best.

When I get a bit more budget room, I will be bringing on someone full time who will live and breath my business. Before that happens, its just way faster doing it myself.

Facecrack has worked wonders for us.

[ExtraSlow]

Originally posted by R-Audi
I should expand on the business a bit more..

We are a Business Centre (rent out full service individual offices and suites) that has recently added a coworking space to one of our locations. All other competitors in the coworking space have large social media platforms, but also are geared more towards the tech/startup/artsy where we are going for the downtown professional type crowd. We are doing a full rebrand with new website etc and want to make sure all of our basis are covered...

That does sound like the kind of business that could benefit from a social media presence.

I can give you some idea on the linkedin side of things. Buy me a coffee and I'll tell you what I know. For the rest of it, I'm not an expert.

[A790]

I'll echo what others have said- in my experience, the most effective social media campaigns are the ones that you own. You know your business better than anyone else.

[DJ_NAV]

Link for company? interested in product/service you have.

[R-Audi]

I dont think I can post the website with Beyond advertising rules... pm me for info. (I couldnt pm you)

[Mar]

Let someone else do it, seriously. I use a great company Simply Elaborate out of Ontario, the girl is amazing.

[R-Audi]

I had a quick chat with the group that handles our SEO and website, and they recommended to handle our own Social Media accounts, and they would help out with tips. Once we are talking Social Media advertising (FB, Linkedin, Instagram) he said it would be more worth our time to pay someone.

Came down to that you cant see an actual ROI on Social media items (regular accounts) but you can gain a lot of views. In his mind it made more sense to spend money on things that you can actually track activity and click rates etc. Highly reccomended a blog... so we will see how that goes.

[A790]

Originally posted by R-Audi
I had a quick chat with the group that handles our SEO and website, and they recommended to handle our own Social Media accounts, and they would help out with tips. Once we are talking Social Media advertising (FB, Linkedin, Instagram) he said it would be more worth our time to pay someone.

Came down to that you cant see an actual ROI on Social media items (regular accounts) but you can gain a lot of views. In his mind it made more sense to spend money on things that you can actually track activity and click rates etc. Highly reccomended a blog... so we will see how that goes.

It's the right approach. Google is shifting local results to sites that have quality content and presence in the region. Having a blog that you fill with good content is a pretty easy way to improve organic traffic and boost overall SEO (so long as you post good content).

I've found that an active social media presence is beneficial for content sites more than it is for small businesses... unless it makes sense that the small business would have a larger social media following (like a design firm or something).

I mean, let's be real: nobody cares about a roofing company's facebook page. That money is better invested in PPC or re-marketing campaigns to supplement the PPC.

However, when I ran WYCA, and with some of my other content properties, I've found that even a moderate social media presence can really help with rankings.

Sorry, tangent.

TL;DR - Your web/SEO people have you pretty good advice. Do the blog.