Pros and Cons of Outsourcing vs Hiring Employees for Social Media Marketing

The day comes when in your small business you can't keep doing the social media on your own. Who do you hire? A contractor, freelancer, agency? Or an employee? In these graphics and with this list you can see an objective outside opinion on your options. 

Pro Outsource:

-professional, trained

-will have goals to work towards

-utmost flexibility in your ability to be hands off and/or hands on

-cost control

-termination is clean and easy

-some savings financially

-have a sense of novelty and excitement to the project, they don’t live and breathe the business

-they have a vested interest in seeing the social and the business grow

Con Outsource:

-cost can be shocking up front

-SMM contractors have a habit of hiding fees

-risk

-if they have no experience with your type of business and they may miss the nuances

-not catching the vision, getting inside your brain

-getting comfortable

-contract, terms

-telling them how to do their job (Ex: demanding they come to a venue for media)

Pro Employee:

-direct, consistent communication

-see the business from the inside

-have the vision

-can be doing other tasks and supporting the business that way

-more likely to catch visual moments

-can ask them

-an internal person is going to ensure consistency across all platforms faster and more easily

-early cost savings

Con Employee: 

-need ongoing training and professional development

-comfy and lazy

-costs are hidden

-don’t have the outside perspective and other examples to work off of

-communication habits

-no skin in the game for success