Many companies are wrestling with the dilemma of whether to retain social media management within the organization or to outsource it to a proper digital marketing agency.
Hiring a social media agency to manage the company's social profile can be expensive. Add to this the apprehension about turning over a very critical part of company communication to an external agency. Therefore many companies are opting to manage their social media internally instead of engaging a social media agency.
As in many such things, it comes with its advantages and disadvantages. So if you have to decide between taking your social media internal or outsourcing it, here are a few key differences.
| Internal Social Media Management | Agency Social Media Management |
|---|---|
| Close supervision and decision making regarding messaging and posting | Long loop in getting approval for key communication pieces. |
| Access to internal company news and information networks. | Agency depends on a SPOC to get information about internal company information and decisions. |
| Quicker responses to queries directly addressed to the company | Agency has to depend on SPOC to get answers to queries related to company services and products. |
| Cost effective as agency margins etc are not involved. | Relatively expensive as agency margins and other costs come into picture. |
| Unlikely to have access to design resources to post well designed creatives and infographics | Will have access to design team to post well designed creatives and infographics |
| No scope for cross client learning and limited to one company interactions only. | Learning from multiple clients increases scope for learning from different strategies. |
| No access to expertise and knowledgebase within the company for digital marketing | Access to expertise and knowledgebase built specifically for digital marketing. |
| Dependent on hiring an employee with a skill set very different from the company core competencies. | Employees and company core competency is aligned due to the nature of the business. |
Being a digital marketing agency handling many clients we are clearly biased towards our own services and are proud of the services and advantages we give our clients. However we have seen a few instances where keeping social media internal have worked well for companies since they kept their expectations limited and accepted the results their employee could generate.
In conclusion, considering the high level of competition across industries today and the seriousness with which companies have to take digital marketing, it is always advisable to outsource to a full service digital agency.
