Learning how to market your business on social media is a skill that not every small-business owner has time to tackle. Understandably, many small businesses start out doing the bulk of their social media marketing themselves. In time, however, you might find you need the help of a team.

Even then, hiring full-time or even part-time employees isn’t always the answer. When you consider the costs of payroll, insurance, benefits, human resources and other employer responsibilities, sometimes outsourcing your social media marketing ends up being the better choice.

Business owners who aren’t willing to delegate responsibilities — thinking they know their business best and therefore should do everything themselves — are in for a rude awakening. If you’re not outsourcing your social media marketing, there’s a good chance you’re either missing some key opportunities or expending too many internal resources on this part of your business.

Let’s take a look at the potential pitfalls you might encounter when you’re aren’t outsourcing your social media marketing to an agency like Rallio.

Read more: The Truth About Social Media for Small-Business Owners

Pitfall #1: Time

If you handle your social media marketing yourself, ask yourself if you have time to do all of the following:

• Create daily content for Facebook and Instagram, with carefully crafted captions (say that fast 10 times), hashtags and local photos of your people, location and products
• Boost that content using precise targeting of your desired customers by geography, interests, demographics and other factors
• Address every single comment, reaction, direct message and online review with thoughtful, friendly and sometimes clever responses

And these are just a few of the daily responsibilities of social media marketing. It takes time not only to accomplish these tasks, but also to build a relationship with your local community. 

And if you’ve got that kind of time on your hands, it’s highly likely that other areas of your business aren’t getting the kind of attention they deserve.

“But I can do this at night, after hours!” you exclaim. Two thoughts here:

1. Social media doesn’t just happen at night or in your off hours. In fact, especially now during the pandemic, people are spending more time online at all hours of the day, more than ever before. If your social media is working as it should be, then you will have customers engaging with you and expecting quick responses all throughout the day. So if you’re a dentist in the middle of a procedure, we’re guessing you aren’t going to want to set down that drill to answer your DMs. (Your patient won’t like that much, either.)
2. Is that how you want to spend your time off? Or would you rather take that time to rest, recharge and prepare yourself for the new day ahead?

Pitfall #2: Money

Inevitably, succumbing to pitfall #1 means you will fall victim to pitfall #2: money. As we all know, time is money!

So how much is your time worth? As Entrepreneur states, “Time is the one resource all of us have, but it’s also painfully finite in nature. You can’t bank it — all you can do is invest it wisely.”

The article goes on to say that your time appreciates in value as your business does. “So, as your business grows and develops, sooner or later the monetary value of your time is going to surpass the importance of money. It’ll be more important for you to invest your time in moving the business forward because your time is going to be worth more.”

That’s why it’s so important to set up the proper processes and systems right from the start in your business. As for social media marketing, outsourcing might make the most sense because all of the systems will be in place already. Agencies like Rallio are experts at plugging any kind of business into those systems and setting the business up for success.

Read between the lines: The agency doesn’t need to be an expert in your particular business, product or service. They need to be experts in duplicating the success they’ve seen working for their other clients. 

At Rallio, we work with businesses in a variety of industry sectors. Would it surprise you to learn we have clients in everything from pet supplies to automotive tires? 

That’s because we have the systems and processes figured out already. We simply get you set up and then pair you with a strategist who gets to know your business on a more personal level. 

Pitfall #3: Writer’s Block

Constantly coming up with new ideas of what to post on your social media pages can lead to frustration, exhaustion and good ol’ writer’s block. As a result, you might start resorting to low-quality — dare we say boring — content.

It’s easy enough to download a stock photo and post it on social media, or maybe simply post promotional offers over and over again. Your audience isn’t going to respond to this type of content, because you’re not adding any value to their feeds.

People go to social media to socialize and keep up with what’s going on in their community. They’re not there hoping for a sales pitch or to become your “lead.” 

They’re more likely to respond to an autobody shop that posts helpful maintenance tips, for example, versus one that only posts promotional offers. 

When you outsource your social media marketing, the writer’s block problem is solved for you. You can let someone else ponder over just the right caption for your cool photo of your backyard barbecue or the latest socially distanced team event! 

Pitfall #4: Inconsistency

Pitfall #4 may come into play for a variety of reasons. Lack of time or writer’s block can lead a business owner to post nothing at all. 

Additionally, you may find you’re inconsistent in engaging with your community and giving them the attention they want.

When your efforts are inconsistent, you’ll fail to grow on social media. You’ll also miss out on opportunities to build relationships with your audience and practice great customer service.

Outsourcing your social media marketing eliminates the inconsistency problem. There will always be someone who has your back — whether for posting fresh, quality content or following up on customer engagements.

Pitfall #5: Not Keeping Up With the Times

Social media platforms, and the audiences that use them, change frequently. Consider the recent global events we’ve experienced: Many businesses had to change the way they operate and truly rely on social media to either keep their businesses afloat, or to take a strong stance on social justice. 

Without social media, it would have been nearly impossible for businesses to continue connecting with their customers.

As experts in social media marketing, we were able to help our clients pivot. Businesses that lacked that kind of partnership may have found it difficult to keep up with the ever-changing times.

There are other types of changes that occur in social media, too. Technology evolves, and so do the recommendations for small-business owners looking to market themselves. 

At Rallio, we’ve made it our business to not only keep up with technology and current trends, but to make sure we’ve got our clients’ backs at all times. That’s a relief to any business owner, to know there’s someone else handling such an important part of their business. 

Bottom line is, you don’t have to fall victim to the common pitfalls above. Set yourself up for success and growth by outsourcing to Rallio, and you can continue focusing on running your business.