We’re often asked whether or not companies should do their own social media, or outsource. As a consumer, I’d like to think that the answer is always to do it in-house. And from the perspective of many business owners, outsourcing your social media marketing sounds like an expense that could easily be avoided. After all, how long is it really going to take you every day to send out your own tweets and Facebook updates?

While it's certainly true that most business owners and marketers could make the time, the reality is that most don't. For those who aren’t able or interested in making the commitment, the result is often poorly-written, rambling, or thinly veiled sales-oriented messages that don't do much to help their online marketing plans.

That brings us to the biggest reason to consider working with an outside team for your social media marketing: They can help you stay on schedule, and on message.

When posting to Facebook and crafting tweets is someone else's job, you're free to give some thoughts on direction and then get back to running your business. At the same time, by putting it in someone else's hands, you also get the benefit of adding a professional touch to your communications.

The end result is a social media marketing plan that's more consistently and effectively executed, saving time and ultimately money. In the absence of being able to do it yourself, isn’t that the best outcome?