SEO Hosting Blog

A new report from Social Media Examiner’s Michael Stelzner has found that social media outsourcing has increased 128% in the past two years. In 2012, 32% of marketers said they are outsourcing social media marketing.

All sorts of social media marketing tasks are being outsourced, including:

• Design/development
• Analytics
• Content creation
• Monitoring
• Research
• Strategy
• Status updates
• Community management

Maybe you’ve been thinking about outsourcing your company’s social media marketing. Should you? As you know, there are risks and benefits to doing so. You could certainly save a lot of time and resources when handing your social media marketing over to an expert, but if you hire the wrong person or company to manage your social media marketing, you risk doing severe damage to your brand.

So, when does it make sense to outsource your social media marketing? Every situation is different, but here are some general guidelines to consider.

• You lack the time to stay active on social media—Effective social media marketing takes time. Remember, social media is about connecting with customers and building relationships. This takes time. You can’t halfheartedly do it and attempt to build meaningful relationships with your target audience. So, if you already have a full plate, don’t add social media marketing to it. Consider getting some outside help.
• Your current social media efforts aren’t paying off—Have you been managing your own social media marketing with no success? If you’ve given your way an honest shot and it just isn’t working out, turning to an expert could be the smartest move.
• You don’t know how to leverage social media—Maybe you don’t know a whole lot about social media. Maybe you can’t understand how sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest can be used to build your brand. If you need help connecting the dots and making social media work for you, outsourcing probably makes sense.
• You don’t know have a strategy or a way to measure results—Like any other type of marketing, social media marketing is most effective when you have a strategy. What do you want to achieve? How are you going to do it? How will you measure your results? Outsourcing your social media to the right person or company can help with all of this.

Do you outsource any of your social media marketing? Why or why not?

To many, Digg is the Holy Grail of social media marketing. If you can find success on Digg, you’ll get tons of traffic, links, and improved online visibility. It’s certainly a great reward, but few who try will be successful. The main reason is because wide-eyed self promoters sign up on Digg without a clue as to how everything really works.

All you need to know about Digg, you can learn from viewing the front page. Here are 7 important lessons I learned from the Digg homepage.

1. It starts with the headline- It’s been said time and time again, but it’s worth repeating. If you don’t have a great headline, no one will ever read your content. Look at the Digg homepage; nearly every article that goes hot has a captivating headline. I’m not even interested in half the topics on there, but the headline is so interesting it makes me want to read more.
2. Stay current- Stop writing about the same old topics from 5 years ago. If you want to have any chance at being successful on Digg or any other social media site, you have to remain current. Social media users crave the latest information. If you can be the first to break a story, you stand a good chance of being successful. Of course, that can be easier said than done. (more…)