need to hire a social media person for 30+ brands/products.. inhouse or outsource?

the company I work for focuses on local business first.

they pretty much brand themselves as the authority in local (national company with major media outlets in multiple states), each state has its own "brand" that operates based on the print brands markets.

whenever we speak to potential clients that ask us why they shouldnt hire someone from LA or some kid from india (Im in michigan, metro detroit, the motor city lol) I always tell them, ask your LA guy or indian guy, on the phone (if you can even get them to take a phone call), what 'downriver' michigan is. If they cant answer it immediately, then they dont know enough about your local market to help your local business in anyway.

downriver is a certain nickname for a large section just south of the metro detroit DMA. It also happens to be a strong tarket market for automotive, outdoors, senior living, etc, many profitable niches. Typically, we agree at that point that LA guy or Indian kid (no offense to anyone in idea, or any other outsourcing country) is not the right fit for the job.

I always end that conversation with the fact that the wrong decision in budgeting for advertising is the budget that is not applied correctly, regardless of dollar amount, because 3 dollars or 33 dollars wasted, is still money wasted, with a zero dollar return.

worst case scenario, find him some anecdotes of advertising/marketing/pr gone wrong due to some outsourced mistake in vernacular, or translation, horror stories always work.

Or find some kid locally to intern, to pay the outsourced wage to, who knows what hes doing but lacks work experience, then both of you win.

I don't think you'll get someone for 3$/ hour for the kind of work your company wants. Even if you get someone he won't know your company inside out like a local would do. If a local as the sufficient skills that you need, and he is creative then convince your CEO to hire him.

If not you can find someone on oDesk, but before hiring be very careful. See prior samples and reviews to know the person you are hiring is credible. There are some pretty awesome people around the world but I doubt you'll get em for 3$/hour.

hey guys.. In our case we are not targetting something locally. It is a bunch of products that we sell worldwide.

I think having someone locally is better is because we can work with them to do cohesive campaigns that will get us solid results and feedback to work with. Whereas someone far away will not give us much besides posting to those social media accounts.

Its not easy to find those type of worker only 3$.you need to increase your hourly rating.Its my personal opinion

$3 an hour for all those accounts? I don't think your company sees the value in social media to offer something like that. Even with all the automated tools to assist managers it takes time to create content that resonates and fits the voice.

Social media is the new TV.

I would look for someone on fiverr. At least you can test them out there. Contact few sellers and see what they can do. That is a very low rate it would be hard to find. Even in places like phillipinnes.

The better option is to hire someone in house or find someone local who has good knowledge and experience of social media management tool. Much of those tasks can be auto or semi-automated with right tools.

Very few CEO's Pres., etc. understand the power behind a well based social media platform, they are near sighted and don't see the money they are losing long term.
I just got “laid off” because they decided to hire a bigger company but the big company isn’t getting followers, you need followers that are either perspective clients or word of mouth assets, Your CEO needs to read the moz blog for a few hours and he’ll convert.
No what you need is a 75 a year guru that lives in the social media space not a $3 hr. sweat shop person.
Fricken shameful

Don't ask 'If I should hire a person in-house or outsource'.

As someone who is sitting at India and manages a good number of clients abroad, I can say that you need the best person to work on your social media tasks.

When you are working on a Facebook campaign, you are working in a platform where 1bn present. Depending on how interesting and engaging your content is, you'll get a proportional reach.

Don't ask 'If I should hire a person in-house or outsource'. Rather ask, 'Who is the best person to manage the social media'. If you find a person locally, hire him in house, otherwise go to a outsourcing person like me, end of the day, you need the best work.

I've gotten some great results using Odesk. I usually have them do the tasks you want as a test and the one that does the best gets the hired.