6 Reasons You Need A Social Media Expert

ByLaurel Papworth

Have you considered hiring a social media expert rather than doing it yourself? Looking to justify outsourcing social media? Here’s six pointers.

At the beginning of this month, I wrote about Influencers, and what they looked like online and off. Every social network has influencers. The reason why influencers are so important is because they stop you from having to “get” to every single community member yourself. They reach out for you. Do the hard yards, as it were. Not every influencer will have the same influence. But they are important none-the-less.

It’s no surprise that there are social networks of social media people – of course there are, people congregate around issues adn subjects and values they are passionate about. And blogging and tweeting and facebooking seems to be a pretty popular subject these days. But instead of going into the influencer list in more detail, lets adapt another list – why you need a social media expert – from @mediahunter Get Sticky blog on Why You Need An SEO Expert.

Because funnily enough, the arguments that work for hiring an SEO Expert also work for hiring a Social Media Expert. And for hiring any other kind of expert in your organisation, for that matter.

So here are 6 reasons why you might need to hire a Social Media specialist:

  1. You have too much to do and too little time to do it. Good social media takes time rather than $$$, is it the best use of yours?
  2. A fresh set of eyes. You probably stare at your marketing and PR strategies too much as it is and are possibly now blind to potential issues. A Social Media specialist brings afresh set of eyes to your campaigns with a single-minded view to improve your community brand relations.
  3. True expertise. Many people working around marketing and PR say they understand social media but to be fair in most cases their knowledge is basic and founded on their personal use of Facebook and Twitter. Social Media evolves on a daily basis and is increasingly complicated juggling may scenarios and relationships. You need a specialist who is up-to-date with the very latest social media strategies and tools and with good experience.
  4. Overcome internal politics. There can be a a lot of parties with vested interests in your strategies, all clamouring for your attention or priority. A Social Media specialist can present the FACTS and an unbiased strategy to achieve everyone’s goals in the RIGHT order.
  5. Education. You and your team can learn more about social media from a specialist, that will improve your knowledge and value to the organisation as well assist in communicating why and what needs to be done. A good social media specialist explains “why” and “how” as well as performing the tasks at hand.
  6. Better results. Unless you are a gun at social media then a specialist will most likely produce better and faster search results than you could achieve on your own. This is good for your company and good for you. And quite a lot less risky.

If you want to see the original 6 Reasons for Hiring A SEO Expert it’s here. As a good little social media expert, I just snaffled it for myself. 😀

What do you think? Can social media use the same rules for expert engagement that SEO does? If you hand your community over to an expert, are you losing more than you gain? What do you think?

(PS Sydney Morning Herald Social Media Breeds New Field of Experts )

23 Comments

  2. Pingback: Lesetipps für den 23. Juni | Netzpiloten.de - das Beste aus Blogs, Videos, Musik und Web 2.0

    1. what would they look like, Dear Vantage? I mean, the six reasons you can become one? A bit like the influencer post above? (longevity, awards, academic studies etc?) Or something else?
      I suspect some people would say “I am on Facebook with my family, I have a Twitter account I muck around on, I have a blog which I update a few times a year, sure I’m a social media expert” 😛

  4. Thanks for the low-down. That was very informative…but I too am left thinking ‘what did happen to Alexa Chung’s leather shorts?’

    This comment was originally posted onGirl With a Satchel

  5. … and Madison has an old Vogue US photo on the cover. Don’t have a go at other mags for using OS shots when you are doing the same thing !

    This comment was originally posted onGirl With a Satchel

  6. When the Editor of Madison talks about the magazine, it sounds like it would tick all the right boxes for me. Sadly, when I pick it up it just lacks a certain sparkle. A lot of features are bought in from overseas (how does that speak to Australian women?) and there’s a real copy-cat feel to it.
    I just don’t get what makes it unique. You can’t just say it speaks to Australian women without saying exactly what it’s doing to that end.
    Sorry to rant.

    This comment was originally posted onGirl With a Satchel

  12. I can see hiring a social media expert to be most beneficial to people who struggle with finding time to actually do it and also those who don’t fully understand the potential it can bring to their business.

    Also, if you are at the stage that you need to hire a SEO expert, then you might as well go the whole nine yards and consult with a social media specialists too.

    Nice post by the way 🙂 it helps those who are contemplating about making the step forward in social media.

  16. Pingback: Social Media: Warum Sie Spezialisten brauchen. | Next Generation Fundraising

  20. Great collection of concepts!

    Fresh set of eyes – yes a discerning, well experienced spare set of eyes that are well grounded in Social Media and good old fashioned marketing & business principles certainly adds value.

    True expertise – In the USA Linkedin Groups say they are tired of the Social Media experts who behave more like ‘Social Media car salesmen’. There are way too many so-called Social Media experts make it really hard for a relatively green market to determine who is not exactly true blue. For some reason good sense (criterion) has been thrown to the wind. They are fooled by scores of Linkedin recommendations, a highly tactical solution with inadequate strategy, by those with little or no online results, no marketing background and a great sales pitch. The truly experienced and well educated in Social Media would never call themselves gurus or experts as they so well how much they don’t know in an ever changing Social Media world. Our industry needs integrity.

    Overcome internal politics – I’ve seen several major time-limited projects of significance derailed by politics. Characterisitcs of weakness? Did not use Social Media expertise early, over consultation, with way many stakeholders, a lack of timeliness, ignoring market segments, seeking feedback from the poorly informed, under estimating the work required to create buzz, with project phases implemented in the wrong order with inadequate specialist input, leaving Social Media perilously late to achieve objectives.

    Education – I believe a good Social Media specialist goes beyond the how and why. They prepare the company for its go-live, minimise risks, faciltates a company’s readiness for Social Media.

    Better results – you are best to choose one who tests and measures away from Social Media consulting and clients. Then you have a real expert who gets proven results elsewhere, not just from a rising sector.

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