A strange headline caught my eye recently. It asked the question, “Is outsourcing social media marketing cheating?” It’s hard to know exactly what that question means. Answering it requires that you first define what the question means by “cheating,” and what it means by “social media marketing.”

Usually, we think of cheating as giving oneself some sort of unfair competitive advantage. If that’s the idea, then I can’t really see how a social media campaign could ever be seen as cheating. There’s nothing the least bit unfair or unethical about keeping your customers engaged through social media, whether you’re doing it on your own or using the services of a local social media company.

And if that’s what we mean when we say “outsourcing,” then you’re doubly in the clear. Outsourcing to a local social media company is just a sensible decision to put your campaign in capable, professional hands. But bear in mind that in most cases, if you’re in Los Angeles you’ll want a Los Angeles social media company that you can work with closely.

But if we’re talking about simply outsourcing to the third world for criminally low wages, just remember you get what you pay for.