Outsourcing itself is nothing new. Firms have long hired outside vendors to handle marketing, advertising, public relations, media buying, event planning, web design, printing, and many other services that are deemed by companies as “necessary functions best left to experts”. And when it comes to the time-consuming tasks of social media and public relations, seeking outside expertise is a smart idea. So we call it “in-sourcing” because the key is to integrate your outsourced services with your team and mission cohesively, fluidly, and successfully.
That’s what outsourcing does: Sell digital products creates an efficient 24/7 team of experts for your organization, removing workplace inefficiencies such as time, expense, and inexperience when strategizing, creating, planning, implementing, maintaining, and coordinating the intricate details of a successful PR campaign
Benefits of Outsourcing Your Public Relations/Social Media
Public Relations & Social Media is 24/7, not 9-5…
In a digital age, news, developments, and crises happen instantly and spread through social media even faster. Any positive or negative effects on your organization need to be reacted to just as quickly; as such, the reactionary nature of PR and social networking requires a 24/7 work ethic and involvement. The days of pitching media and writing press releases for eight hours a day have been trumped by trends of sending brief messages throughout the day. If you don’t have staff that reacts instantly to positive, negative, or lucrative developments, even when off typical 9-5 work hours, your organization could be left in the dust by competitors and could be pushed to the back of consumer’s minds. Hire a person or firm that understands the 24/7 nature of PR and your organization will be well-prepared for developments and happenings that are good, bad, or ugly.
… and is one of the most time consuming workplace tasks.
Social media, when performed incorrectly and inefficiently, is a huge time sink. Simply posting news items on wall’s and feed’s or trying to build your number of “Like’s” and “Tweets” isn’t enough to maintain a competitive presence in the media landscape. Creating profiles and maintaining blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Digg, and dozens of other social networking accounts can be time consuming tasks that drain your organization’s and employee’s time for other important tasks. Worse, having employee’s involved in social networking may lead to slacking off on their own social networks, reducing work focus and ethic. Time is the biggest advantage SM agencies offer to the workplace and for companies without the resources to adequately bring a dedicated social media expert on board, outsourcing is the best option. Outsourcing your to an outside agency allows your organization to keep employee’s time and energy focused and efficient.
Saves costs (making your dollars go further).
Saving money and stretching your dollars further is a juggling task on every firm’s mind. In tough economies, firms need to do more with less. Budgets for PR and social strategy can be very tight, especially during a slow economic recovery. Yet smart companies and organizations understand that when times are tough, public relations and social media are important cost-effective alternatives to traditional marketing and advertising campaigns. By outsourcing those tasks, your firm is able to work within your budgetary framework, reduces overhead and operating costs (such as office space and employee benefits), and increases worker efficiency by allowing them to focus on more important and concentrated tasks.