Should you hire a social media agency or keep it in house?

A few months ago at a marketing conference in Miami, someone asked me a crucial question.

Given that I was “the social guy” in the room, of course, I was asked all of the questions related to social media, from, ” What should I do on Twitter?” all the way to, “Does anybody even use Google Plus?”

I answered all the questions based on my experiences, and each answer elicited a follow-up question.

Then came a question from a man who apparently wasn’t convinced:

“I understand social media is beneficial to any business, but seriously, no one in their right mind would hire a social media agency when they can just hire someone in house. Am I right, or am I right?”

Here was my answer:

Employees cost too much

No matter the company, there comes a time when every CEO decides to take his or her product or service to the next level. For this example, we’ll call this CEO Ray. Ray notices that all of his competitors are using social networks to engage with their fans and customers, so he decides to join in. He hires a social media manager (Chris) to handle his company’s social marketing and pays him an annual salary of $60,000.