Social media marketing: Can I just do it myself?

You can, but you probably shouldn’t!

Most people assume they can handle their own social media. After all, we all use it every day, so how hard can it be? The honest answer is that you can do it yourself, but you probably shouldn’t. Not if you want it to work well, stay consistent, and support the rest of your marketing.

The real challenge with social media isn’t knowing how to post; it’s keeping it going. It’s making sure it doesn’t slip down the priority list when you are busy running a business, dealing with customers, managing your team, and juggling a hundred other urgent tasks. Social media is almost always the first thing to be neglected, and once it drops, it is very hard to get the momentum back.

Why consistency matters more than anything

Think about social media like going to the gym. Most people can go once. It feels easy. You turn up, do a quick workout, and leave feeling great. The challenge is going again tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. The value is in the routine, not the single visit.

Social media is the same. Anyone can post once. Anyone can share a photo, a quick update, or a trend they have seen. But keeping that up week after week, month after month, is where it gets difficult. When you are busy, posting slips. A busy week becomes a quiet month, and before you know it, your accounts look inactive. Your audience forgets you, your engagement drops, and your reach falls away.

And once you lose that momentum, getting it back takes far more effort than keeping it going in the first place.

Other priorities will always get in the way

Most business owners have good intentions. They plan a schedule, map out ideas, and commit to posting regularly. But real life takes over. Client deadlines. Staffing issues. Deliveries. Finance. Operations. Sales. Product development. The list never ends.

Social media feels like something you will “come back to later”, but “later” rarely arrives. Without support, the channel gets pushed further and further down the list. That inconsistency doesn’t just look messy; it damages performance. It also reduces trust and makes your brand look inactive, even when your business is thriving.

Expert support keeps things moving 

This is where the right support makes all the difference. Just like having a personal trainer, expert guidance keeps you focused on the right things. You avoid wasting time. You use better techniques. You follow a clear plan. Everything has a purpose.

With a proper strategy in place, you begin to see results. You understand what works for your audience. You build momentum. And most importantly, you stay consistent.

Outsourcing keeps your brand active even when you are busy. And here is the best bit: at the gym, you cannot outsource your sit-ups, but with social media, you can. You still set the tone, the goals, and the direction, but someone else handles the day-to-day posting, planning, replying, designing, and managing. You stay in control without having to find hours every week to keep everything moving.

Outsourcing doesn’t mean stepping back. It means having specialists who keep things consistent, adapt to trends, analyse data, and make sure your presence stays active and engaging. You get the momentum, the growth, and the results without having to do every rep yourself.

What happens when momentum stops

One of our clients decided to take their social media in-house over the summer. We paused activity in July, so their team could take over. The final posts we created went out during August, so everything still looked active for a short time.

But once those scheduled posts ended, the reality of managing social media internally became clear. In September and October, no posts went out at all. With no one dedicated to keeping the channel moving, other priorities took over, and social media slipped down the list.

The impact was immediate. Website visits from social dropped to almost nothing, and engagement across the platforms fell away. Customers were still tagging the brand and sending direct messages, but without regular activity, these interactions went unanswered. The absence of updates also created uncertainty for users who were used to seeing the brand appear consistently.

Sales activities were affected, too. During the months with no posting, the business recorded lower monthly revenue. While other channels like SEO and PPC continued to perform well, the drop in social activity meant fewer people were entering the customer journey at the early discovery stage. This was seen by the falling total number of users recording early-stage ecommerce actions. Fewer orders and less top-of-funnel engagement contributed to a noticeable dip in average order value and overall sales performance during this period.

By November, we were asked to restart their social media because the loss of momentum had become too clear to ignore. This example shows how quickly results can fall when social media stops. Even with the best intentions, without dedicated time and consistency, it becomes very difficult to maintain a strong presence and even harder to rebuild it once it slips.

You can do it internally, but only with the right people

Some businesses can manage social media in-house, but only when they have the right resources. The key is having someone whose job is to look after it properly. Not someone doing it around the edges, squeezing it in between other tasks.

Good social media needs experience, judgement, brand understanding, and the ability to make decisions. It needs someone who can plan ahead, handle reactive moments, review data, shape ideas, work with design, and keep the momentum going. If you want strong, consistent results, this is not an entry-level task.

A junior can support the work, but they should not be expected to lead it, keep content consistent, on-brand, and in line with a strategy. If you want social media to work inside your business, you need someone with the skills, experience, and time to own it properly. When that person is in place, yes, you can do it internally. But without them, consistency slips and results suffer very quickly.

In all the years we have been managing social media for brands, we have only seen one example where the team has successfully taken their social media in-house. They hired a content specialist and the whole team have a focus on ensuring that their socials stay active. So it’s not unheard of for companies to do a great job with their social media, but in our experience, they are in the minority. 

So, can you do your own social media?

Yes. Technically. But the better question is: Can you keep it consistent, keep it strategic, keep it high-quality, and keep it going while running your entire business?

For most people, the answer is no. And that’s exactly why getting support is often the smartest option.