A digital turning point in marketing

Who should be concerned and whom does this debate actually affect? First of all, this question is not only directed at young founders and startups. We would also like to address this to companies in general. This includes those who have been in business for many years and are firmly established with their target group. Because as a result of global digitalization, we are at a digital turning point in the business and marketing world. Its impact can be decisive for your future.

Digitalization Opportunity or risk?

Right now, it is important for companies to join the rapid development of the business world and recognize the potential of digital transformation.

Regarding sales and especially marketing, it is advisable to open up to modern distribution channels. In this way, you can meet the requirements of digitalization. Moreover, today's sales strategies offer completely new opportunities to increase your value creation process and consequently sell products even more specifically and efficiently. Social media marketing means more than just posting "little pictures"! To bridge the gap and return to the core question, we emphasize that social media marketing in particular is an integral part of a contemporary corporate strategy. As is often believed, the "trend" is not just a mainstream movement that disappears just as quickly as it arrived.

Marketing via social media is part of a strategic marketing mix. This describes an instrument for achieving organizational objectives through communication. A powerful definition with powerful potential behind it!

We have prepared further details on social media marketing and how you can apply it successfully separately in our magazine. This is because this topic is even more complex.

Inhouse team or agency What is what?

In our article, we first describe the option of building an inhouse team for social media. For this purpose, we appoint internal employees, for example from the marketing department, as social media representatives. In this case, it would also be conceivable for you to bring a social media manager from outside into your team.

Next, we look at the second option, which is to commission an external social media marketing agency. This agency also has a complete social and creative team. This includes its own graphics department, film crew, and photographer.

Do you already notice a difference at this point? Based on this first "simple" comparison, we can already draw conclusions about aspects such as the scope of professional social media marketing. At the same time, the amount of necessary resources becomes apparent in relation to the number of actors and their expertise. This could make the choice of an agency appear advantageous.

However, in order for us to reach a well founded result here, a more detailed examination using in depth information is required. Only in this way can a careful analysis and evaluation of both positions succeed.

Inhouse team: Where can you start with your company?

For you, the solution begins at the strategic level. Here we take up the defined corporate and marketing goals. If these are not up to date, you should redefine them now at the latest.

Internal capacities are particularly relevant for obtaining information. This is where you can immediately see whether your resources are sufficient to meet the necessary marketing requirements with an inhouse team.

What follows after comprehensive information gathering and thorough analysis? In the next step, we want to bring internal competencies and marketing requirements to a common denominator. In general, the more access you have or can gain to current trends and social know how, the higher your objectives may be. Sensitivity and the utmost care in calculation and joint coordination are therefore required.

Professional social media marketing agencies: They start where inhouse teams stop!

However, if you have correspondingly high expectations of your social media marketing from the outset, you can only realize this with the support of a professional social media agency. Above a certain level, the effort, required know how, and many years of expertise within social media marketing exceed the services that can be provided by an inhouse team.

Furthermore, the quality of the results should always depend on whether your decision falls on the internal variant or outsourcing. This is because the modern distribution channel via social media is one of the few marketing instruments that allows us to measure success exactly. Furthermore, we will give you a brief insight into the consumption of resources with regard to personnel and financial means. These must by no means be calculated too narrowly for the implementation of social media measures to realize your defined objectives. A corresponding deficiency would be directly reflected in your results.

It should also be considered here that social media is primarily aimed at communicating with other people. Your online presence directly reflects the behavior and character of your company. CI, Voice of Tone as well as all actions within social media must be carried out with care! On the one hand, the public aspect, which is directly connected to social media, must be particularly observed. On the other hand, we also consider the factor of necessary resources, which is the prerequisite for high quality content and thus successful social media marketing.

Basic prerequisite: Financial resources and valuable working time

Regarding the required capacities, a certain number of employees is required on the one hand. Only in this way can you do justice to the upcoming tasks based on your desired goals. It must not be forgotten at this point that this is associated with a certain amount of financial resources and valuable working time.

Depending on the orientation of your targeted social media marketing goals, more or less effort is required here. However, to ensure that you can withstand your competitive position in the long term and, moreover, gain real competitive advantages, resources should not be spared here.

With this, we round off Part I of our article comparing an inhouse social team and a professional social media management studio for now. In Part II, we would like to visualize, among other things, the effort behind effective social media marketing. We also look at the individual important elements of a specialized social team.

In the planning and implementation of your social media marketing strategy, we would be happy to support you. Contact us at any time for this purpose. We look forward to getting to know you!

Your Social-Emotion Team!