Social Media is NOT Cheap

There are much more to social media marketing than posting couple pictures or twitting some tweets online.

These days, if you’re not using social media to build your brand then you’re way behind the times. For business owners who wanted to expand their business online, social media marketing seems to be the most reasonable option. After all, opening social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, even LinkedIn is easy and on top of that, it’s totally free! But, wait! If you think that’s the end goal of social media marketing then you can never be wrong.

A lot of business owners often misinterpret the concept of digital transformation by having social media accounts. At such they are fooled to believe that since most social media channels are free, the cost of running social media campaigns would be very small, if not totally free. But in reality, there is more than just having social media accounts to run a successful marketing campaign.

Focus.com published an info-graphic regarding social media marketing and uncovers some of the costs, which include staff cost, external fees, advertising and more. The report reveals that in fact, the total cost of a standard social media campaign is likely to be around $210,600!

Here are some of the facts behind the notion of ‘free’ social media marketing.

Resources Equals to Money

As much as I hate to state the obvious, but I need to emphasize once again that managing social media channels is not a one-man job. Most business owners made this mistake of hiring and trusting a single person in the whole organization to manage ALL of the company’s social media channels. An effective social media marketing campaign needs at least continuous effort and support from a team.

From researching the market, collecting data, finding influencers that fit for the brands, content creation, to the actual execution of the campaign and after-campaign service which includes tracking and collecting feedback, all of these steps need to be done correctly to produce a truly successful and memorable campaign. And this is just for one marketing campaign.

At such, it’s only reasonable to say that employee salaries will be the largest expense in running a social media campaign. Social media managers and coordinators have become one of the most in-demand jobs nowadays, hence, the argument that social media is ‘free’ is technically flawed.

Tools For the Win

I agree that there are a lot of “free” tools online, but it doesn’t stop companies to eventually subscribe for the paid version of these tools. As companies grow, more social media marketing campaigns are likely to be launched. At such, companies will gradually need to rely on a lot of tools to keep up with the campaigns as time is of the importance. Whether they are tools to measure, monitor, or manage all of your social media presences, the number of tools you are using will depend on the scale of your marketing campaign.

Then there’s another fact that consumers become more demanding. As expectation grew, naturally consumers will expect better quality of your social media contents, which often, can only be achieved using the paid version of the marketing tools.

Quality Content is not Free

If you scroll through content made by influencers on Instagram, most likely you’ll be awed with the quality of their content. Breath-taking pictures taken in exotic holiday place, sometimes they even wear branded clothes and luxurious accessories. In actuality, such content costs plenty. Naturally, higher quality content will attract more customers, but it also translates to more money being paid.

There are a lot of efforts and money placed in a single post. From the cost of traveling, clothing, and photography, all of these require resources and money. On top of that, some of social media posts are boosted through paid promotional ads, which again can be costly.

Another potential cost comes from contests and giveaways. Many companies like to create contests and giveaway posts in order to generate traffic and improve their customer engagement. All of the prizes and items will add to extra cost of the campaign budget, not to mention the shipping fees and all the follow through to keep the participants and prospective customers happy.

Consultation Fee

Today’s digital landscape offers various tools and programs and as I mentioned, most companies often utilize free tools in hope of saving budget. But these free products usually have no support or training material for users, which can make it difficult to use. Moreover, when nobody in the organizations has the capital to solve this issue, most companies ended up looking for outside help from consultants.

Depending on the situation, it could be considered as an easier option because it is a one-time rather than a recurring expense.

Bottom Line

Social media is a digital portal for business to connect to billions of active social media users across the globe. Planning the cost and budget for your next marketing campaign will depend on various factors, from the scope of your campaign, the project management, to the actual execution of the campaign and how to measure the reaction.

A common misinterpretation of business owners is to think that social media campaign is cheap and hence many are reluctant to invest in this department. While it is true that you can probably launch a campaign on affordable budget, but without a pricey social media strategist, good programmers and designers as well as a skilled team to manage the campaign, it is very challenging to launch a successful one.