The answer is - it depends on how much time you have for social media.

With the buzz surrounding social media many companies are now trying to figure out how they too can take advantage of social media.  What companies realize as soon as they go on the different social sites is that maintaining the different accounts and updating them regularly takes a lot of time. 

But because social media presents companies with the opportunity to reach a wide audience for so much less than traditional media, companies really don’t want to abandon their social media campaigns.

You can decide if you want a specific person to manage your social media accounts or if you want the endeavor to be a team effort. 

Of course assigning a single person to manage all social media accounts makes it easier for the company to monitor and manage all social marketing efforts.  You can assign someone from your marketing or corporate communications team to manage all the different social media accounts for your company. 

Just remember that all social activities should be part of an organized brand-building campaign. The person who will be working on the social media accounts should be aware of your company’s goal in social marketing and should be guided accordingly. 

As CEO or business owner, you can also choose to manage your social accounts.

But between thinking of new products and ways to sell your products and all that needs to be attended to in the office, do you really have time to manage your Twitter and other social accounts?

If you are operating on skeletal staff with only the most essential employees to keep your overhead costs down, then the most sensible thing for you to do is to outsource the social media management to a competent and reliable virtual assistant.  Hiring a virtual assistant will allow you to engage in social marketing without the need to hire a full-time employee.  While most social networks are free, building communities in these networks and developing contents can take a lot of time. 

If you don’t have time to invest in social media, then you also won’t experience much success with it.  You always need to deliver fresh content to your followers for them to continue following you.  Delivering fresh content also helps in grabbing consumer mindshare.

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