By Rena Bernstein

In a recent article at SmallBizTrends.com, Lisa Barone asked if it was “appropriate to hire outside people to be social for you”. I thought it was a terrific question, but there were several major issues that weren’t addressed so I thought I would discuss them here.

I personally feel that if you’re a small business owner that either doesn’t have time to engage in social media or who, is not familiar enough with the medium, then the best solution is to bring in a consultant that can get you started, help you form a strategy and organize a program as well as execute and or train others in you organization to manage your social media efforts.

Too many small business owners think that starting a Twitter account and having someone tweet the company web site a few times a day, is social marketing. Guess what? It’s neither Social or Marketing!

Very often full time employees either do not have the time or interest to get involved. For many, even if the interest is there, after a short while the novelty wears off and your social presence becomes abandoned — a fate worse than never have begun the process at all.

Honesty is still paramount in SMM if you want to gain trust, however there is no reason at all that you can’t hire someone to represent you authentically. Remember though, there are a few strings attached….

1) The person should be a pro. A professional inbound marketing consultant knows the ropes, will get the businesses complete background before beginning, will understand your market as well as the medium and can represent your company in the best and most authentic possible way.

2) A reputable social media consultant will be honest in terms of their name and will present themselves as a representative of the firm just like any other employee should, and not some made up alias. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a certified inbound marketing consultant so I admit that I am biased.

3) They should be completely familiar with your business, customers, products and any issues before going online. Anything they do should dovetail with all of your other marketing and branding efforts as well.

The biggest mistake that any small business can make is to hand over their social marketing responsibilities to an employee with little available time and no experience or knowledge in the medium. Worse yet, is to give the responsibility to some intern or low level assistant with too much time, insufficient knowledge of the audience, business or medium, and little long term vested interest in the outcome.

At very least, I suggest to clients that they bring in a consultant at least to get them started, organize the program and make sure that everyone involved within the firm is onboard and marching to the same drummer. They can also work with a few designated employees to train them in the appropriate and most effective SMM techniques.

Those are my thoughts. Now tell me what you think.

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