Comments on: Adding Color to the Outsourcing Social Media Debate: What Not to Outsource

By: Infinit-O

Infinit-O — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 04:16:57 +0000

Thanks for the great article. We are an outsourcing company that has done what you said: “a business can leverage third party services to scan the Web and help filter and flag comments about its brand by defining the inquiries”. From experience, many businesses have benefited from having us do these type of work, not because it cheaper or they do not want the added work or that they do not have the capabilities to do it in-house. We also serve as an objective participant of sorts, that can challenge deep rooted conceptions of their business, just by showing what people are really saying about their business through social media.

By: Caroline Dangson

Caroline Dangson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:38:13 +0000

Thanks Erik. Yes, social media enables communication at speed and scale like no other medium which is what increases the risks and consequences (to Marc’s point above). I agree with your point that campaign creation involving social media can be outsourced to a partnering agency.

By: Erik Posthuma

Erik Posthuma — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:40:10 +0000

Companies often look at social media and liken it to PR, customer service, market research, marketing, etc. And then companies think that they can outsource their social media just as they outsource their PR, customer service, etc.

What makes social media so different is the speed at which it operates. A negative comment on the social web requires a close to immediate response. The only way to really reach this is by keeping the community management responsibilities in house.

I would like to add another point to “What can be outsourced.” and that is campaign creation. Integrated marketing campaigns, must include social media. The development of this can be done by a solid partnership between agency and client.

By: Erik Posthuma

Erik Posthuma — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 03:31:42 +0000

Hi Giles,

Your comment accentuates even more how important it is to keep the voice in house. As you say: “…the real art is deciding what tags to use.” This “tagger” or moderator is the one responsible for dispersing any online brand conversation into the company and then collecting appropriate responses.

How important is that…incredibly.

By: Marc LeVine

Marc LeVine — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:11:30 +0000

Here’s the thing with outsourcing “transactional” assignments. It must be a 3 tier system to work properly.

Whomever is assigned these DUTIES (Tier One) must have someone to report to that is assigned the ACCOUNTABILITY (Tier Two).

Above that person is the one who has the ULTIMATE AUTHORITY and is fully accepting of the CONSEQUENCES for delegating the RESPONSIBILITY (Tier Three).

All in caps are important and sobering words/concepts, but none are as thought provoking and serious as the RISKS and CONSEQUENCES involved.

If all the above can be taken in and fully digested, the mission can go forward.

By: Sara Scarborough Graham

Sara Scarborough Graham — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 17:29:22 +0000

Great post, Caroline. I just got back from an industry conference (I work in property management), and one of the big discussions was whether or not to outsource social media. One speaker suggested almost exactly what you have: that elements of infrastructure/development can be outsourced, but that for authenticity’s sake, the listening and responding “should” happen in-house. I know companies who manage their programs internally, and some companies who outsource the bulk of their efforts – but many property management companies simply haven’t jumped into the fray yet. I’d suppose the same is true of many other industries as well. It will be very interesting to see how things develop over the next 6 – 12 months.

By: Caroline Dangson

Caroline Dangson — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:09:49 +0000

Hi Regina. Thanks for participating in the debate here and sharing your experience. I’ll admit my opinion is formed by my experience working with larger organizations. Your comment is helpful in supporting the argument that the size of the organization does matter in making the decision to outsource social media.

By: Bryan Menell

Bryan Menell — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 14:28:02 +0000

You are spot on Regina. The great part about being a small business is that one insightful person can add a ton of value to the team. This gets more complex at scale, and that’s really what Dachis Group specializes in; working with some of the largest enterprises in the world.

By: Regina Walton

Regina Walton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:50:37 +0000

I disagree because people outsource their social media to me. Social media is new and what people should or shouldn’t be doing, I think, is still an open question.

What people should be doing is what works and what gets them closer to their goal.

I work with entrepreneurs. Since these are individuals and not huge companies, I can get close to them. It’s essential that I learn about their businesses in detail. Of course, if there get direct questions they need to answer, I make sure I get feedback from them before replying.

Maybe in the case of big enterprise your advice works. However, for my clients, they’re very comfortable with me being the hands-on manager of their outgoing message. I’m a freelancer, but I’m definitely part of their team.

By: Giles Palmer

Giles Palmer — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:29:06 +0000

nice pice Caroline. I think you have it down pretty well. One other thing I would add is around the moderating activity. We at Brandwatch (a monitoring company based in the UK) are seeing an increasing need for what can best be described as ‘fitting’ the conversations on the web into the organisation. Or to use a rather ugly word i heard recently Operationalizing the data. The way to do that is to categorise them into different business units. We’ve developed a simple tagging system to do it. But the real art is deciding what tags to use. ie which business unit or person within an organisation needs to know about the mention. The client organisations want clean relevant data, but what we have found is necessary is an upfront period where they get involved in the categorisation, and we learn from them. Armed with that information we can effectively take on and mostly automate the task saving time and money.

I hope that small insight is useful

Best wishes
giles