If you are a small to medium-sized business subscribed to the notion that social media is a free ride to engagement, conversions and customers, snap out of it. Even during the good old days of emerging platforms and online advertising, those who were serious about social had a plan and budget to match. In the article Social Media is No Longer Free, Nicole Krug explains why you have to have “skin in the game” if social is part of your marketing strategy. A couple of highlights:
Let’s be frank. Even if you go back five years before all the ads and apps were available, social media has never been free. Sure it’s never cost anything to post a status on Facebook or pin a photo on Pinterest, but how much did it cost to produce that content?
No matter how simple your social media efforts are, it takes time and money to support social media campaigns. Depending how sophisticated your campaigns are, your expenses could include:
- Community Management
- Content Development – employee’s time or outside agency
- Monitoring & Engagement Tools
- CRM Integration
- Contests – prizes, apps to manage, legal input on rules
- Branding & visual design expenses
- Custom apps
- Video development
Making the decision to invest in social advertising is making a commitment. If your company dedicates a good hunk of money that is a statement that social media is important.
Since it would be silly to throw money at a random post, the decision to invest in social advertising should come with a new level of commitment to your overall social efforts. This means keeping people engaged once you’ve attracted them through ads AND being prepared to manage the response (both on social media and on things like order fulfillment).
Read the article at projecteve.com.
Game changers such as Facebook’s fan page reach and Google’s emphasis on content versus keywords, will have a profound impact on how you engage with customers/clients and prospects. All the more reasons to revisit your plan and budget for the content hub you own and control: your website. Remember, there’s no place like home to maximize your marketing momentum – but you still have to pay to play.
Have you invested in social? Is it an important, integrated part of your marketing strategy? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section of this post.
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Photo image credit: Rennett Stowe via Flickr under Creative Commons license