Should You Outsource Your Social Media Efforts?

6 days ago by Leyl Master Black 0

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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

According to a recent MerchantCircle survey of 8,500 small businesses across the U.S., more than two-thirds of small merchants are using social media to market their business. At the same time, one-third of these companies say that lack of time and resources is their top online marketing challenge. Together, these two data points underscore a growing need for social media support among small businesses.
 
But hiring a social media consultant may not be as straightforward as hiring other types of professional service providers, such as a web designer or an accountant. For one, you may not be clear on the value or immediate impact of social media relative to other marketing channels. You might already be handling this yourself and aren’t sure if it makes sense to get help. And unlike one-off projects such as a website redesign or tax preparation, social media support is typically an ongoing monthly expense.
 
Here are four questions to consider when deciding whether to outsource your social media:

1. Can effective social media drive your business growth?

Randa Yezak of Southern Jewlz spends three hours per day on social media sites.

Just like with any other marketing effort, it’s important to look at the potential impact of social media on your business goals before investing time and money in the process.
 
For some small business owners, social media is the lifeblood of their business and warrants the time investment. Randa Yezak, founder of women’s apparel company Southern Jewlz, spends at least three hours a day on social media marketing. 
 
“I have a young clientele that utilizes Facebook all day, every day,” says Yezak. ”When updating between my Facebook, online store or e-mail list, Facebook is always first!” This approach has helped Yezak grow her fan base to over 11,000 Facebook users.
 
But while investing in social media might make sense for an online merchant or local restaurant, a small tax preparation service or local plumber may have more difficulty justifying the time and effort. These businesses may get a better return on their time and money by ensuring that their business shows up in online searches, or by engaging with customers for positive reviews.

2. How well is your social media working today?

Assuming that social media is important for your business, chances are you’re already engaging and seeing some results. You’re posting regular updates, you’re connecting with fans and followers and you’re getting creative with your social marketing. Some small business owners strike the right chord from the start and see their social media fan base skyrocket, and they want to continue driving this on their own.

  Yezak attributes a big part of her social media success to the personal connection she creates with her customers.

  “The majority of my customers are just like me. I’m a 23-year-old business owner with a funky boutique, so I always make everything sound really fun and sassy,” says Yezak. “I have not justified hiring a consultant yet, because I like to stay up-to-date with Facebook myself.”

  For many business owners, though, it can be tough to continually come up with new ideas and programs to engage fans on their own. It’s also not easy to keep up with the ever-evolving capabilities of Facebook and Twitter — and stay on top of new third-party tools and features — and still have time to run your business.  

  An experienced social media marketing consultant has the advantage of thinking about social media 24/7 — with multiple clients, they’re also sharing the cost of staying ahead of the curve. They not only know what works, but they also have the luxury of experimenting and trying new things with different clients. 

3. Could outsourcing free up your time to focus on business operations?

 

Consultant Kesten Migdal works with PROBAR on its social media programs.

While there are many ways to find efficiencies in your social media efforts, the fact remains that effective social media takes time. You need to respond quickly to fan queries and thank people for their retweets and posts. You need to monitor your social media channels for complaints and immediately attend to these. And these are just the basics — actually engaging, growing and monetizing your fan base can take several hours a day or more.

  Even if you’re pretty savvy when it comes to social media, you wear many hats as a business owner… and you probably want to have a life outside of work. For some businesses, the choice to outsource social media comes down to the relative value of their time.

  “A big part of our growth will come from new product development and expanding distribution channels, and this takes a lot of dedicated focus. At the same time, we want to make sure that we’re building a thriving community, engaging customers and broadening awareness of our products,” says Trisha Layton, marketing coordinator at PROBAR. “We believe we get much more leverage on our time by focusing on the things that we can’t outsource and working with trusted partners in areas where a consultant can be just as effective, such as social media.”

4. How do you measure ROI?

The costs for social media support can vary widely — some social media consultants charge a flat fee per month for an agreed-upon scope of work, while others charge by the hour, at rates varying from $50 to $100 or more per hour. Whatever the cost, the bar for success will be set much higher when you’re actually paying someone to do it. Make sure you’ve established some measurable goals to ensure that your social media spending is moving the needle for your business.

  Examples of common social goals and ways to measure these include:
 

• Fan base growth: Hitting 1,000 fans or followers over a set period of time
• Customer acquisition: Getting 50 redemptions per campaign on social media offers
• Support of direct marketing: Adding 200 names to your e-mail database per month
• Engagement: Achieving 20% participation by your fan base (e.g. Facebook “likes” and comments)

What went into your decision to outsource your social media or keep it in-house?  Let us know in the comments!

More Business Resources from Mashable:

– 5 Design Trends That Small Businesses Can Use in 2011
– 10 Free WordPress Themes for Small Businesses
– 5 Beautiful Tumblr Themes for Small Businesses
– 10 Free Drupal Themes for Small Business
– 5 Big Social Media Questions from Small Business Owners

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How to Start

‘There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.’ ~Buddha

Post written by Leo Babauta.

How do you start something new?

Whether it’s beginning an exercise program, getting going with a task you want to complete, or creating a new business or product from scratch — how do you get started?

It’s one of the most intimidating things. It’s the lack of starting that kills most tasks and projects.

Procrastination is putting off the start. Your new venture gets put off because the start is too hard.

How I Started

When I started Zen Habits, I had no idea how to start. I looked at other blogs and it was intimidating what they’d accomplished: not only thousands of readers but hundreds of articles, a killer blog design, their own domain name, all kinds of services and ebooks and T-shirts and other things going on.

I couldn’t do all that — I had a job (two actually) and a family with six kids. So I skipped it all and did one thing: I chose a random name that felt right, and created a free account on blogger.

That was incredibly easy, and I felt great.

Then I did one more thing: I did a short post reflecting on some things I’d been doing. Basically just a journal entry. I was out in the world for the first time!

This was my start. It wasn’t hard — in fact, so easy I couldn’t refuse to start. Eventually I did all the things everyone else did, but that came later. At the start, I did just one thing, and then another.

Start a Task

If you read my Un-Procrastination ebook, you know how easy it was to read. Short chapters, easy reading, you could be done in a short amount of time. I purposely made it easy, so you wouldn’t procrastinate.

But then someone said, “It’s easier to read the book than implement it!”

Too true. Unless you make it even easier to get started.

How do you start on a task when you’re procrastinating because it’s too hard? You make it super easy.

First, pick a task. Is that too hard? Randomly choose one, to make it easy on yourself.

If you’ve picked a task and it seems too hard to get started, make it even easier: just do one minute. If that’s too hard, just do 20 seconds. That’s so easy you can’t say no.

Whatever the task, if you’re procrastinating, make it easier. The key is to just get started. If you want to go beyond the 20 seconds, keep going. If not, do another 20 seconds after you’ve taken a break and wiped the hard-earned sweat off your brow.

Start a Habit

How do you start a habit? Some people have no trouble starting — it’s the sticking-to-it that’s hard. But others have been wanting to do something for years and just can’t get into it.

Either way, you want to start as easy as possible.

Starting is the key to a habit. If you don’t start, you won’t ever make it a habit. So make it as easy as possible. Want to exercise? Just lace up your shoes and get out the door. Even just 5 minutes is all you need.

What if you want to do much more, because you’re excited? Don’t. Start as simply as possible. Why? Because the sticking-to-it is made much, much easier if you are doing a tiny habit. Try forming the habit of running for 30 minutes a day, and then try the habit of 5 minutes of running a day. Which do you stick with longer? I can already tell you the answer: the easy one.

If you want a habit to stick, start so incredibly simply that you can’t fail. Later, you can iterate on the habit until it’s at the level you really want. But start easy.

Start a New Venture

You’re finally ready to channel your powerful creative energy into a new project. Not just an ordinary work project, but one that will be a new venture for you — one that will start a new business, a new life, and make your mark upon this dense earth.

But you’re putting it off. There’s too much to be done, and you’re already busy. It’s intimidating to get started.

Start as simply as humanly possible. How simple can you make this new business? How simple can you make the product? Make it even simpler.

Let your new business or product do just one thing. And then make it do less of that one thing. Sure, later you can iterate and add a feature or two, but as you get started, do as little as possible.

You won’t be able to start, and in the start is everything. It is where new worlds are created, new journeys begun, new lives born.

‘There are two kinds of people, those who finish what they start and so on.’ ~Robert Byrne

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Previous post: Your Emails are Too Long

Your Emails are Too Long

‘If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.’ ~David Belasco

Post written by Leo Babauta.

One of the worst problems I’ve seen when people send me emails is amazingly common: they’re way too long.

I’m a fairly busy guy, but who isn’t busy? I try to be responsive but when I get an incredibly long email there is no way I’ll answer quickly. If an email is short, I’ll shoot out a reply as soon as I read it.

So why send long emails?

Here’s a rule: a long email is never necessary. Never.

Why am I writing this? Is it a rant against people who’ve emailed me? No, it’s a general problem that I’ve seen with email, and I hope this will help people write more effectively.

How I Use Email

I’ve written before about how I ditched email. That’s only 90% true. I still do email on a limited scope — mostly for people I collaborate with (partners, designers, printers, etc.). I also respond to customer emails (refunds, download problems).

For reader feedback and comments, I use Twitter. For family communication (like my family on Guam and other parts of the world), I use Facebook (I don’t “friend” anyone other than family, and have fewer than 100 friends on FB).

That said, my email problem isn’t unique to my situation. No matter how you use email, no one you’re emailing wants to read a long essay or respond to 10 questions. We are all busy, and we all value our time.

When I do email, I try to get through all of it quickly. I don’t like to be stuck doing email all day, so I get in, read and respond or archive/trash, and get out.

When someone sends me a long email, it’s likely to be archived. If I absolutely have to respond, I probably won’t do it that day.

Please note: this post is not just about me. It’s about anyone who is busy and who values his or her time. If you send that person a long email, you are saying you don’t value his time, and you’re saying you haven’t thought out what’s important. And you’re decreasing your odds of getting a response.

Why Long Emails Suck

A few brief reasons:

• It takes too long to read. I don’t have a lot of time to read, and by sending me an essay you are saying your email is more important than the other things I have to read.
• It doesn’t respect my time. When you send me an email, you’re making a request on my time (to read, process, respond). If you send a long email, you haven’t edited. You haven’t decided what’s most important. You are saying, in effect, that I have to do that instead. You’re sending a message that your time is more important than mine.
• You don’t get to the point. What’s the main point you’re trying to make? What’s your main question? Spit it out, or it will get buried.
• You ask too many questions. I won’t be able to answer all of them without half an hour of my valuable day. So don’t ask so many — just ask one or two.
• I won’t respond. If you’re looking for me to read the email right away, or worse yet, do something for you, good luck with that. I’m not a diva, but I also have things to do and can’t get to every long email. And there are many of them, not just yours.

Rules for Short, Effective Emails

Ignore these rules at your peril:

1. Keep it to 5 sentences. No more. I stole this from five.sentenc.es of course, but I’ve used it for years and it works. I usually try to do fewer than 5.
2. Figure out your main point. If you think you need more than 5 sentences, you haven’t figured out the key thing you want to say. Take a second to figure it out, and stick to just that.
3. Ask one thing. Don’t ask 10 questions, just ask one. Or two at the most. You’re much more likely to get an answer quickly.
4. Edit. If you stretched it to 8 sentences, cut out 3.
5. Link. If you need to refer to info, include a link to it on the web.
6. Post it. If the info you need to share isn’t on the web, put it there. Create a long answer or long background document (then edit it to the essential info) and post it online. Use your blog, or one of the many free tools for posting info. Create an FAQ if it’s useful. Link to it in your email.

This post, by the way, is an example of the last rule.

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Thank you Leo..you are correct!

Surround Yourself with Passionate People

Post written by Leo Babauta.

Last night I had an amazing dinner with my wife Eva and my friends Scott and Jesse and their wives Chelsea and Joanna.

The gathering itself was simple: six people, simple healthy food, a little wine, a little tea, nothing else. Except that we lost ourselves in conversation so deeply that before we knew it, it was 1:30 a.m. and I was shocked at how quickly the time had passed.

The secret is also simple: when you talk with people who are passionate about what they’re doing, passionate about life and the people they love, it is transformative.

The people I talked with last night are incredibly passionate about what they’re doing. And yes, Brett, I mean passionate: excited, fired-up, feeling-strongly-about, thinking-about-it-all-the-time, can’t-wait-to-do-it-when-you-wake-up passion. When you talk with people who are passionate like that, you can’t help but get fired up yourself. You want to go out and do something exciting.

Passionate people not only inspire you, they give you ideas. They read books by other people who are passionate and full of ideas, and they recommend the books to you or pass the ideas on to you. Scott and Jesse, for example, are constantly meeting other passionate people, and that inspires them … and in turn that inspires me. It’s fuel for an intense fire.

A nice side benefit is Scott & Chelsea and Jesse & Joanna are some of the most health-conscious people I know — the dinner was extremely healthy and delicious, and I went away even more inspired to get fit and live a healthy life. I love people like that.

I’ve met a lot of passionate, smart, inspired people since moving to San Francisco — people like Tim Ferriss and Matt Mullenweg and Tynan and Corbett Barr and Oleg and Barron and more. It’s incredible to talk with people like that, and you can’t walk away from them without getting a bit revved up.

While I try to lead a life of minimalism, I’ve learned that minimalism can be done anywhere you go … and it doesn’t require that you move to a farm or give up your contact with people. Just the opposite: minimalism is about giving up consumption in favor of doing things you’re passionate about and having real relationships with a few people you really value. I’d much rather have a conversation with someone doing something amazing than go shopping.

You don’t have to live in a big city like New York or San Francisco to surround yourself with passionate people. They’re in small towns, but it might take a bit of looking to find them. Find small businesses who are doing amazing things, and talk with the people there. Look for startups, for artists and writers, for people who are obsessed with doing something really well.

If you can’t find them where you live, find them online. They’re everywhere if you look. Read books by people full of powerful ideas who are doing innovative things. Read their blogs, talk to them via email and Twitter. Start collaborating with people like that.

Be one of them, and inspire others.
—

Simply Your Family Life Booksale

Speaking of surrounding yourself with passionate people full of ideas … I’m part of a powerful book sale that you might find valuable.

The sale includes some of the top authors in the family life space with 30 ebooks worth over $450 — on sale for just $47 for the next four days. See the sale here.

A portion of each sale will also be donated to The Mentoring Project, which seeks to rewrite the story of the fatherless generation.

IMPORTANT DETAIL: This collection is only available from 2 p.m. on March 21st to 2 p.m. on March 24th. There will be no late sales offered.

It’s an amazing collection of books on family minimalism, cooking, green living, marriage, money, organizing, parenting, travel, working at home and personal development. I highly recommend you check it out.

The sale ends at 2 p.m. ET on March 24th, and there will be no late sales offered.

Previous post: 9 Mindfulness Rituals to Make Your Day Better

One Cyber Brick at a Time

Effects of Change

By Robert Ringer

At any given point in time, most people assume, at least subconsciously, that the world is static. Big mistake. Do you remember when it seemed as though …

• No one could possibly rival Sears … until Wal-Mart came along?
• No one could possibly rival Waldenbooks … until Barnes & Noble came along?
• No one could possibly rival CNN … until Fox came along?
• Nothing could possibly rival the fax machine … until e-mail came along?
• Nothing could possibly rival the Palm Pilot … until the Blackberry came along?
• Nothing could possibly rival the Walkman … until the iPod came along?
• And so on …

One of the most common effects of change is that it displaces people and businesses at breakneck speed. But change is a necessity. If a company becomes self-satisfied and comfortable with its main products and services, it is certain to lose market share to competitors.

Business in the 21st century is not for those who fear change. And there’s no need for that fear, because most change – particularly technological change – is going to be in your favor. Fiber-optic wire … band-width technology … the Internet … these technologies – and endless others – didn’t just level the playing field, they gave the little guy huge advantages that he didn’t have before.

Take the Internet, for example. Marketing used to be a prohibitive expense for an independent entrepreneur. Today, however, because of the Internet, a resourceful person can find a multitude of ways to market to millions of people at little or no cost.

How? Well, after many years of trial and error, I can tell you with certainty that there are no magic bullets when it comes to Internet marketing. Forget the inflated claims of marketing gurus about hitting grand-slam homeruns. Marketing on the Internet, like anything else in life, is about grinding it out … day by day … week by week … month by month … year by year.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a slow process. On the contrary, by utilizing the Internet, you can make infinitely more progress in a much shorter period of time than was ever possible in the horse-and-buggy days of direct marketing. Change can be your enemy or your ally. It all depends on your perspective. If you focus on the positive effects of change, you stand a much better chance of being successful.

It took me a while to get going in Internet marketing. Ten years ago, a friend said to me, “The Internet was made for Robert Ringer. There’s an Internet train leaving every hour, and you’d be smart to catch one as quickly as possible.”

I was involved in other matters at the time, and did not get on board. But in my mind, I harbored the image of Internet trains leaving the station, with Robert Ringer forlornly standing on the platform and watching them depart. I became increasingly concerned that I might be too late – that everyone else had too much of a head start on me.

Finally, in 1999, I caught an Internet train. Unfortunately, once on board, I set a record for making embarrassing Internet mistakes. The train I caught was filled with scam artists. All of them seemed to be thirty-two years old and searching for the next Homer Simpson to take advantage of.

Yikes – it was me they were looking for! Doh! I happily handed over my hard-earned money to a couple of spam scammers who quickly disappeared. I also managed to lose two websites to guys who assured me that their companies were established concerns that had been in business since Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio.

It wasn’t until I settled down, rolled up my sleeves, connected with legitimate operators, and focused on growing the business one cyber brick at a time that Internet marketing success started coming my way. And, to my delight, I discovered that not being on one of the earlier Internet trains didn’t matter. In fact, it was something of an advantage, because the Internet is like any other technology in that, over time, it becomes easier and easier … and less and less expensive.

What this means is that it doesn’t matter when you jump on an Internet train. You don’t have to learn everything the Internet pioneers had to learn. Regardless of when you take the leap, you will land squarely on the shoulders of those who came before you.

Which is why modern technology – especially the Internet – gives the little guy such an edge. In effect, he reaps the benefits of the heavyweight players who spend millions creating technologies that make it simpler, faster, and cheaper for everyone to compete. Better to follow the pioneers than to be one.

The more things change, the more they stay the same: Nothing happens until something moves, which is why taking the first step is the only way you can begin any journey. And the most important step you will ever take is to get started today. Don’t worry about which Internet train you catch. Just be sure to catch one. And, once on board, focus on building your Internet marketing business one cyber brick at a time.

Go to top of “One Cyber Brick at a Time: Effects of Change”

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Still timely advice from a consistent voice of wisdom and experience..I’d still recommend he upgrade his website though Gotta love Mr. Ringer..the man, the tortoise, the legend..