Nike may tell you that you should just do it, but that shouldn’t necessarily be the case when it comes to your marketing efforts. You may have noticed that an increasing number of companies are taking advantage of social media channels as a means to increase brand presence and reach out to customers, but perhaps you don’t feel comfortable with Facebook and Twitter.

If you, as the company owner, do not want to have anything to do with Facebook and Twitter, but you recognize the potential value that such channels can provide for your business, then you probably shouldn’t partake in these strategies yourself. Instead, you can take one of two suitable alternatives. First, you could hire a freelancer who can handle these tasks for you. Feed this person with the appropriate information and they can manage your Facebook and Twitter company accounts for you.

Alternatively, you can look for someone in-house who can manage them. All too often, these kinds of tasks fall on interns and co-op students, but they may not be the best people for the job. Realize that managing social media is just as important as the “main” jobs that your marketing department may handle. In this way, it is much better to hold an open call among your entire employee base to see if anyone wants to volunteer to do it. The ideal candidate is someone who already has an active personal account, since he or she will already be well-versed in the terminology and how the networks work.

The same idea applies to the various other marketing efforts that you may be exploring, from corporate blogging to podcasting to guerrilla marketing tactics. Don’t assume that these efforts are “secondary” to your primary marketing techniques. They’re just as valuable and can prove to be just as effective… when used appropriately.