Social media is a great way for authors to promote their writing, whether they are self-publishing or using a traditional publisher. Social media allows authors to connect with readers and promote their work to new readers. Authors can give readers a glimpse into the writing process, share sneak peeks of new works, and start conversations that can lead to long-term relationships.

You can either choose to run your own social media campaign for your work, or you can hire someone to do it for you. Here are the pros and cons of hiring someone to run your social media campaign to help you figure out what the right decision is for you:

Pros

Expert Advice

Creating a social media strategy can be more difficult than it sounds. You just post some updates and watch the followers flow in, right? Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than that. An expert can offer you advice on how to devise a social media strategy that works and can review the different options with you, giving you feedback on the benefits of each.

Faster Results

Hiring an expert can help you see results faster. Want more followers? Want more engagement with those followers? Want content that goes viral? A social media expert can give you those results much faster than you could accomplish them yourself — unless you get lucky or you just so happen to be a social media expert yourself.

More Time to Write

Keeping up with social media can be very time consuming, especially if you start to amass a large following. You have to manage posts, photos, comments from followers, attracting new followers, and more — and that’s for each social network on which you have a profile. Managing social media can easily take several hours each week. Hiring someone else to do it for you can free up your time for what’s really important: Writing.

Cons

No Personalization

The major drawback of hiring someone else to manage your social media campaign is that you are taking yourself out of the equation. People connect on social media to be social. With you. If someone else is scheduling your posts or responding to comments, they are likely to adopt a formal and impersonal tone, which can alienate your followers. If they try to imitate you, they can do a poor job and make interactions with followers awkward.

Expense

Hiring someone else to manage your social media can be quite expensive. Even the “budget” options can cost you a couple hundred dollars a month. Typical expenses can top over $1,000 a month. Unless you’re a big-name author who is selling a lot of books, it’s unlikely that you can afford such an expense.

Social media offers a number of benefits for authors, including creating buzz around their writing and establishing connections with readers. Hiring someone else to manage your social media could help you grow your influence more quickly. This list of pros and cons can help you decide if hiring someone to run your social media is the best option for you.

Did you hire someone else to run your social media campaign for you? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!

About the Author

Sarah Rexman is the main researcher and writer for bedbugs.org. Her most recent accomplishment includes graduating from Florida State, with a degree in environmental science.  Her current focus for the site involves researching online guides.