How Free is Social Media?
I think we can all agree that the days of saying that social media is FREE are well and truly over. We now realise that a successful social media strategy takes a lot of time, and for many of us time is something we just don't have.
A recent Social Media Marketing Industry Report revealed that a significant 59% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more and 33% for 11 or more hours each week. That's a lot of time, considering that social media isn't our only job. For many of us, social media is something that has been added to our already full plate.
This has led more people to start outsourcing aspects like content development because they simply can't produce enough content to generate results in the time they have.
One of the first questions asked is whether they should include the cost of employee time and salaries and outsourcing costs into their social media programming. They want to understand whether the time spent on social media is worth the expense.
It isn't because they are trying to launch a war against social media. It is simply a matter of prioritizing resources to the highest-performing initiatives. And if social media can't be quantified to show a return to the organization, it gets harder to justify the time and budget that it is being dedicated to.
Creating SEO pages on your website to track success, incorporating competitions that can only be accessed via Twitter for example and special offers only available on Facebook is a trackable way in which you can make the equation of converting the increased number of followers into Pounds and pence.
Content is king - with the more relevant and targetted content you generate and the greater the coordinated social media programme you develop will often lead to increased followers and eventually to increased sales.
It the time generating and schedulling this content that comes with the hidden costs (not thought about costs) both in time and in money that need to be considered before embarking on any campaign.