Will Social Media be Outsourced?

By Jacob Morgan

We all know that social media takes time, a lot of time, and for good reason. It's not easy to build relationships with people. Many companies claim they don't always have the time or the resources to start or maintain a social media engagement, so my question is, “Will social media eventually become outsourced (like many other jobs)?”

There are several agencies that blog or tweet on behalf of clients. If someone at an agency says that they are a part of the Adobe team and then tweets/blogs on behalf of Adobe is that ethical or transparent? The ultimate question comes down to how much of the social media process should be in house and how much of it should be handled by an agency or...India (if outsourced)?

I was actually reading an outstanding post on why social media will be outsourced to India. The post breaks down the components and explains why this will actually happen: (You can read the post here: Part 1 and Part 2)

I think the articles do make some valid points; however, I don't think we are seeing this trend (yet). In fact there are a lot of job postings for social media folks that are being sought either in house or domestically. I don't think that social media will ever be completely outsourced for a few reasons:

• There may be language barriers that hinder progress.
• Too risky to put a third party in charge of customer relationships and engagement.
• Users may sense lack of authenticity and rebel.
• Cultural issues may make for misunderstandings during communication.
• The real value of social media comes from interactions with real passionate people that represent the brand/company.
• Brand image may be tarnished for outsourcing jobs.
• The relationships with users, pr professionals, marketers, executives, etc. that are developed through social media, are too valuable to not have in house.
• Outsourcing social media will make it difficult to put out fires that arise at a moments notice. (Read what Scott Monty did with Ford.)
• Authority needs to be kept within the company. If a company outsources the whole social media campaign then the company will lose its sense of authority.
• Trust and credibility need to be maintained between the company and users/customers. Outsourcing a social media campaign can create problems in terms of establishing trust and credibility with a company that is outsourcing its relationship building to third parties.

While I don’t think that the whole engagement will be outsourced, there me be a few components that will be, and these components will revolve around gathering data, researching, and reporting. Let’s take a look at why outsourcing some of the social media components may be a good idea:

• The cost to produce is much cheaper overseas.
• Outsourcing can save companies a lot of time.
• The company may not have anyone internally that is capable of taking charge of social media.
• Outsourcing can make for a much more efficient social media process.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. What do you think are the pros and cons to outsourcing social media? Is there a component of social media that you think can be outsourced? You may also want to check out a post Lewis Green wrote not too long ago for MarketingProfs Daily Fix about why outsourcing a blog may be smart.

Jacob Morgan is a social media marketing consultant and runs a team of Technical SEOs. Jacob has founded a start-up in the social media space and has worked with brands such as Adobe, Conde Nast, Sandisk and Salesforce on creating search strategies. He is an avid and passionate blogger on all things social media and marketing related. He also loves meeting and building relationships with people so say hello and let him know if he can help you. You can connect with Jacob on: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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