ocial media and digital marketing are important to promote your business. However, you don’t have the time to do it all yourself. So, what are your options?

• Hire an outsider to do it all for you.
• Hire an in-house employee with the knowledge and experience.
• Train a trusted employee how to do social media and content marketing properly and effectively.

Let’s dive into each of these.

In my 50 years of working as an adult, I’ve sold cars, timeshares, cookware, advertising, subscriptions, hotels, and even encyclopedias. No matter what I was selling, I went through intensive training to learn the product or service inside and out, upside down, backwards and forwards. I had to be able to explain why it was different from the competitors. I had to learn the customers’ pain points and be ready and able to fill their needs, solve their problems, and answer their questions.

There is no way an outsider can know your business like you know your business! Unless, of course, they specialize in your industry. Naturally, that brings up the question of how long they have been marketing in the self-storage industry.

The main idea of social media marketing is the social part. The only people who should be building relationships with your company’s potential customers are you and/or a trained staff member—someone who, like a properly trained salesperson, is an asset to your company.

A shyster is a person who uses unscrupulous, fraudulent, or deceptive methods in business. They usually overcharge. If they charge more than $1,500 per month to manage your social media pages, it’s too much.

Shysters purchase fake “influencers” on your behalf and charge you for it. Their “followers,” more than likely, are not your target audience. And they don’t provide monthly reports with monthly insights, analytics, statistics, and demographics—all of which are critical for you to know what’s working and not working.

Unfortunately, many small business owners don’t know what they don’t know. Don’t fall for too-good-to-be-true pitches or promises. No one can guarantee you the first page of Google or any specific growth. Organic strategies are the best, but they take time. Make sure they provide you with a customized strategic plan for your business and not some cookie-cutter plan they use for everyone. For the self-storage industry, you know that each facility is different because each location is different.

If you do decide to hire an outside freelancer or agency, make sure they are in the U.S. If there is an issue, you can contact the Better Business Bureau and get the problem solved. You have no recourse if they are outside the country.

Which networks are driving the most traffic to your website? You need to know this so you can adjust your social media tactical plan accordingly. If you see that more folks are coming from LinkedIn than Facebook, then you need to spend more time on LinkedIn.

Your stats will change as your following grows, and it will vary with the types of blog posts and promotions.

• They are usually very transient and leave when the internship semester is over, along with your company’s usernames and passwords.
• They are usually young, so they may be irresponsible and immature. Alternatively, you may get lucky and land a good, upstanding kid with integrity.
• They may not understand marketing on social media. Just because they can post on Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) doesn’t mean they know how to market on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Make sure they’ve taken the proper social media marketing courses and passed with good grades.
• They don’t understand basic marketing principles in general. Again, you must take into account their marketing coursework. Ask to see some of their assignments and term papers.

• Be a social media specialist who knows everything—all the ins and outs of social media marketing, not just how to post on Facebook or Instagram.
• Know how and where to keep abreast of all social media and digital marketing news and changes on Google and regarding SEO.
• Have a decent following on the major social media networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram) and be using them regularly. They should have a completed LinkedIn personal profile, which shows you they know what they’re doing.
• Understand the difference between all the networks (know the lingo, who their users are, and their cultures).
• Know how to use third-party tools to manage the social media networks.
• Understand SMART goal setting to be able to outline objectives.
• Know how to prepare a social media strategic marketing plan to help reach those goals and outline the strategies for each network.
• Know how to develop a tactical marketing plan based on the strategic plan to implement the strategy.
• Be a decent writer, communicator, and SEO copywriter (if blogging is involved).
• Be familiar with the self-storage industry or be willing to learn.
• Know how to handle customer service issues when they come up on social media.
• Be clever enough to know how to spin a marketing message and take advantage of what’s trending on social media without looking foolish or hurting your company’s reputation.
• Understand analytics and insights to be able to provide you with monthly reports showing what’s working and not working. Most importantly, are your goals being met?
• Consequently, they should be able to adjust the strategic and tactical marketing plans accordingly with new goals and campaigns.

In this day and age, ignorance is no longer an excuse. Marketing is an integral part of your business if you want to attract new customers.

All in all, the marketing basics still hold. Know your target audience. Do your research. Set goals. Plan and execute, then report and adjust.