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Outsourcing has become all the rage in modern day business. It has also become the topic of some heated debate. Many businesses view it as a necessary tool and a way to cut costs, while many others are outraged by the fact that is has forced millions of people out of work. Whichever side of the debate you may be on, it’s fairly safe to say that outsourcing is a trend that’s here to stay.
While most of us are familiar with the outsourcing of age-old tasks, such as customer service or IT support, most of us are probably less familiar with the outsourcing of more new-age jobs, such as social media marketing.
Social media marketing is a relatively new approach to marketing, with two of the most famous social media sites, Facebook and Twitter, being only invented less than a decade ago. Utilizing social media marketing can provide a company with countless benefits.
Long gone are the days of print, radio or television advertising, as the shift has been made into the social media and digital world. David Fischer, vice president of advertising and global operations for Facebook, revealed statistics based off campaigns done by Nike, Amex and Pepsi showing that social media is emerging as a very strong marketing platform for companies, according to Business Line.
According to Business Line, Fisher says the current trend of agencies treating social media as the salt on top – “Okay, we have done TV, print, radio, now let’s sprinkle a bit of social strategy on top” – will no longer work.
According to a survey by MerchantCircle, two-thirds of small businesses are using social media in some way to market their business. At the same time, one-third of the same companies surveyed said that a lack of time and resources is their chief online marketing challenge.
This is where outsourcing comes into play. Saving time and resources is one of the main reasons most companies resort to outsourcing, so it would only make sense to add social media marketing to the list of outsourced jobs.
Tasks such as web analytics, search engine optimization and web design have already migrated into outsourcing, particularly Indian vendors. The technical tasks of social media marketing are easily outsourced; the difficulty lies in the communication and creativity side of things.
“Marketers do not need to market their products any more – people will market it for them,” said David Fischer, according to Business Line.
That’s why there are countless start-up companies that are up-to-date with the trends and are specifically designed for social media marketing. These companies take on all the tasks and responsibilities that come with social media, and provide a reliable and efficient outsourcing option for companies who don’t have the time and resources to spend on this type of marketing. Marketing through social media is the wave of the future and with outsourcing becoming a norm in modern day business, these two will mostly likely go hand-in-hand and set the trend for future marketing strategies.
