I Call Bullshit. Outsourcing Your Social Media Voice
I'll make this as straightforward and concise as I can (trust me, I'm completely aware of just how long winded I am)
No less than three separate articles crossed my desk today regarding this topic, one that was written by a friend of mine. There have been countless others over the last few months as well as a lot said on this topic on the various twitter chats. The long and short of it is this, they all say "DON'T OUTSOURCE YOUR VOICE!", meaning that you can let outside agencies handle various logistical matters, etc. related to social media, you can let them write those posts that will simply be scheduled and broadcast, but DON'T under ANY circumstances allow someone on the outside to engage in dialog on behalf of your company.
Are you kidding me? I can see how on the face of it this makes sense. Social Media dialog can be a very personal thing, and if you best understand your organization you should be the one having that dialog right? Sure, if you want to. But it's also fine with me if you say "I don't get it", or "I don't have time for that nonsense", or "I'm a real stick in the mud and have nothing to say".
Listen closely, just because you are inside of a company doesn't mean you automatically have a clue about how to execute your "brand voice". It doesn't even mean that you understand it better than an outside agency does. Hell, I'd wager at LEAST 50% of the agencies understand the nuances of your brand voice better than you do. Don't forget, it was likely that agency or one like it that you turned over your entire brand to. They are the ones who spent those days and nights scouring every possible meaning of a line on your logo, the demographic studies, the customer feedback panels, etc. They are the ones that had to try and explain it to *you* so that you would buy it. Yes, that brand now represents the way *you* want your company to be represented but you didn't depend on someone internally to do it you handed it over to someone on the outside. And all of a sudden you can't depend on someone on the outside who has more social media expertise in their little finger than you will ever have to speak on your behalf in such a way as to support your desired brand voice? Seriously? Tell me this, if all this is true then exactly why do we hire beautiful, well spoken people with acting experience to do our TV commercials? Wouldn't the internal person be able to portray your company best?
And yes, before you bring it up, I realize that the above scenarios don't reflect all types and sizes of businesses. But i absolutely stand by the fact that any company, of any size, can outsource social media if they so choose...and i mean *all* of it. There is no example of risk in doing so that you can bring up that I can't throw a real world analog with exactly the same risks back in your face. Feel free to try.
I feel the same way about this as I do all of this talk about "Transparency". Authenticity I can buy, transparency on the other hand is a load of shit. But that's another rant for another day.
Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
