In this post, I would like to explore two major resource considerations when deciding as an organisation to adopt a social media strategy, Financial resources and Human resources. Going back to the Coke example (policy), they seem to indicate that this is a relatively inexpensive marketing tool (however, I would imagine that they would still spend a considerable amount, but this amount may be inexpensive compared to other marketing tools. They also seem to imply that anyone who works for Coke, who have done their social media certification can be an official Coke "representative" online.
From some of the discussions in class so far, I have noted that there is a clear want from a number of companies (where students are employed) to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy.
So.....
- How much does social media cost to manage as a business activity?
- Who is the best person for the job? (at the end of this semester any company will have 40 of the best qualified people for the job in the world, but in the mean time).....who is the best?
Ross
Great questions, Ross!
ReplyDeleteDespite what many think, Social Media Marketing is not free!
I'd love to see if anyone is able to find some resources that estimate the real cost of SMM? Share here, or in your own blog!
Hi Ross, I don't know how much social media cost, but I think that there are several costs associated with this new technology such as development costs, yearly ongoing costs, etc. However, it seems that the benefits are superior like increasing in site visitors, increasing in sales, etc.
ReplyDelete@Wags, I'm looking to find the real costs somewhere, will hopefully be able to post something by the end of the weekend.
ReplyDeleteI wonder however if any of the costs (or income) not directly associated with SM will be calculated in the price. For example, if a brand launches into SM and runs a really funny or interesting video on youtube, generating extremely high numbers of hits, makes the news that evening raising further awareness, is this calculated into the profits generated by the SM campaign?
I think both cost and profit should be calculated as visible and invisible part. The visible cost of SM is quite low, because post on blog, twitter, youtube is totally free, but the invisible profit like people's attention is very high, that's the reason marketers like to use SM: one of the most cost-effective and efficient way to promote
ReplyDelete@Terry, I agree, costs and income should be calculated taking into consideration the visible and invisible costs, however, this could be very difficult and therefore planning and determining how much of your budget to allocate to these activities will be difficult. As you mentioned some of the platforms are free, but the amount of time spent by staff members to maintain these aren't. So do you employ anyone who is an active SM user (hoping they know the ins and outs) and give them a set of rules or procedures (probably not the highest pay) based on strategies developed at top level, or do you employ someone who is highly qualified to develop SM strategies and manage the ongoing process.
ReplyDeleteRoss
So to find the true costs of SM is a difficult task, so many variations come into play, company by company, strategies vary. So to answer my own question, I don't think there is any one particular cost associated with an SM strategy, what you can say though is it depends on how valuable you believe SM is to your business. How much will it enhance your business operations to eventually achieve your marketing/corporate objectives.
ReplyDeleteI did however come across this Infographic blog which looks at all elements of an SM campaign and suggest that an SM campaign could cost around $215k. This is steep and looking at the companies early in the blog, you will see that they are looking at bigger companies which indicates to me that this look more at the costs of am SM campaign for larger companies, such as Dell (one of their examples).
I would love to know from anyone who works as an SM strategist whether you believe these figures to be accurate.
Ross