Social media management can be frustrating. Have you noticed that despite your best efforts, your content doesn’t seem to be getting any traction?

You’ve tried what feels like a million approaches but nothing has stopped users from scrolling and pay attention to your content.

The number one reason businesses don’t see the results is their posting consistency. How often you post and how regularly has a huge impact on user engagement.

But, with all of the complexities of running a business, how can you stay consistent without dedicating hours of time to your social media presence?

Social media management takes time and daily effort. Responding to comments, fielding questions, and handling PR opportunities will be a task that grows exponentially as your business expands.

So, to help you figure out the best way to manage your profiles, we’ve broken down the pros and cons of the most popular options for managing your online presence.

The Most 4 Most Popular Options for Social Media Management

1. Managing Social Media on Your Own
2. Using an Existing Employee
3. Hiring a Virtual Assistantt
4. Outsourcing to an Agency

Managing Social Media on Your Own

While time-consuming, managing your social media on your own can be a perfect option for those who are tech-savvy and are familiar with how to use social media.

For those on a budget, this is by far the cost-effective option but relies heavily on your time and confidence in your skills.

If you’re unfamiliar with social media but are willing to learn and have the time you can develop useful marketing skills through free online courses like the ones offered on Coursera.

By educating yourself, you’ll gain deeper knowledge on the platforms, tools, and common problems, that you or future employees will need to handle.

Despite the temporal cost, there are some huge benefits.

By managing your social media on your own, you retain full creative control and keep your content on brand. If you lack creativity, freelance photographers and videographers can assist you in producing bulk content.

While creating content may be time-consuming, posting can be automated. Applications like, Later, are the DIY’er’s best friend. Save time by planning, creating, and accomplishing a month’s worth of posts in just one sitting.

If you happen to be the type of entrepreneur who is always busy, or someone who doesn’t have an interest in learning social media then this strategy won’t be a good fit for you.

So, what’s next?

Try Using an Existing Employee

An alternative option and one that saves you a ton of time is to hire an employee or utilize an existing one.

The ideal candidate should have enough time, skills, and drive to manage social pages without getting burnt out.

Current employees are a great resource because they are already familiar with the business’s branding and mission. If you have the budget, try providing staff extra hours to accomplish social media tasks. This option can benefit those looking to gain new skills or transition to a new role. Select employees who are open to learning, are creative and have been known to produce valuable content. Make it a point to be present in the early decision-making as they develop their own strategy or work with the one that already exists.

Hiring A New Employee

If staff time is stretched thin or there is little interest in taking on a new task consider hiring an outsider. A fresh employee may take time to train but often offers a new perspective which can be beneficial.

Additionally, it’s important to create a safety net for when your social media manager goes on vacation, is sick, or decides to leave the company. Consistency and output suffer when there isn’t anyone to take over. Create a backup plan that includes someone who is ready to take charge in case an emergency happens.

If you don’t have the ability to hire and your current team isn’t up for the task, the next recourse is to…

Hire a Virtual Assistant

One of the simpler and at times cost-effective options for busy entrepreneurs is hiring a VA or Virtual Assistant.

This alternative can be cheaper than an in-house employee and are a good fit for any business.

The important equipment of a Social Media Virtual Assistant: Laptop and Smartphone

The right VA should be familiar with all aspects of social media including ads and graphic design.

Unfortunately, since everything will be done online, you will still have to hire photographers and videographers for one-time projects in order to gather content that the Virtual Assistant can work on.

Even though it’s popular, this option can be time-consuming. It may be a while before you find the right VA. Some hires, even after vetting and interviews may not be a good fit. Miscommunication, language barriers, and style differences can all be reasons that you may need to switch to find a new hire and retrain them on your brand.

In addition, since they don’t know the depths of your business, the content can sometimes feel generic or fluffy.

If outsourcing doesn’t work for you or your vision of your brand’s social media growth, the last and safest choice is to…

Hiring an Agency is best for businesses that have a large budget as this is the most expensive approach to take but the price of their service is often justified by the output that an agency can produce.

Hire An Agency

Agencies are teams of experts with specialties in nearly every area of social media management. Their team members often include every service imaginable, from copywriting to animation and photography – they do it all.

With an agency, you often receive a higher level of strategy than the aforementioned options. They can supply analytics, insights, and suggestions on how to improve your content for the greatest ROI. Through them, you can leverage social media as a way to scale your business instead of just maintaining a social presence. 

The biggest benefit is that they create re-usable digital assets and produce premium content that often costs much more when individually outsourced. Depending on the service selected, they can also provide extensive research on your competitors, establish what’s possible for your brand, and can initiate advertising campaigns.

Tips when selecting the right agency:

• Remember to be clear on your expectations and vision because it will influence the results you receive. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or make adjustments as they set plans into action.
• Although agencies are known for providing full-service packages, some also offer other service options such as: training your employees on social media in case you decide to delegate the task to an employee, VA, or choose to a tackle it on your own
• Do your research and watch out for fraud agencies who lack experience and knowledge. Test their free training, workshops or utilize their trial option to get insight into their work.
• When testing the credibility of an agency, ask questions. Determine if they know the platforms your business is on inside and out. Ask about their tools, strategies, trending topic knowledge, and algorithms familiarity.
• And lastly, find an agency that has the right sort of experience, specializes, or has a case study related to your industry

These options might be overwhelming and, for some, it’s possible none of these options fit. If that’s the case there is one last hope

Whats Better Than an Agency for Your Social Media Managment Needs?

Employees can be expensive and doing it yourself is exhausting. The value that agencies provide is huge but so is their cost. Social media Management doesn’t have to be so difficult.

If you need fresh content that’s tailored to your business check out On Tap Social.

On Tap Social specializes in being a cost-effective option between hiring an employee or an agency.

We’re a team of passionate animators, graphic designers, writers, and data strategists that want you to succeed.

Need an ad hoc report? You got it. Want that design tweaked a bit? We’re on it.

Get the high-level strategy without the high cost. Choose from one of our plans, or make your own and adjust as needed.

It’s that easy.

Ready to make your old feed jealous? Put the tips we provided above on a test and schedule a call with On Tap Social