The Dark Secret of Social Media….it’s NOT free

Do a search on Google using the terms “social media free” and you get 242,000,000 results, then do a search on “social media costs” and you only get 92,200,000. Clearly 92 million is a lot of results, but the 2.5x difference seems to indicate a belief that Social Media  is Free. It is not – there are costs.

For the most part, these social media costs fall into the following general buckets:

• Internal Resource Costs – specifically the personnel costs required to initiate, monitor and respond to social media conversations; and the personnel costs required to create the content that is used. We are starting to see both new roles being created to focus on this area (e.g. social media coordinator, community managers, engagement specialists, etc.), and additional responsibilities being added to existing resource’s plates (leading to a reduction of focus elsewhere).
• External Resource Costs – agency costs associated with supporting and advising social media activities, and the creation of content.
• Technology Costs – the tools needed to Monitor, Contribute and Measure social media conversations. Many basic tools are free, but premium and integrated suites like Radian6 or Hubspot have fees associated. (Shameless plug: to get up-to-date info on social media technologies, follow my daily Twitter feed for the “Social Marketing Apps – Clutter Buster Daily Tweet” @ www.twitter.com/grahamlubie or do a search on #socmktgapps)

Companies are beginning to realize that there is a cost to Social Media. According to a recent Social Media and Online PR Report by Econsultancy, 54% of companies identify “the biggest barrier to better social media engagement is the lack of resources. Now the key issue for companies to address, is where will the Social Media budget come from? Existing programs or an expansion of marketing budgets?

4 Responses to “The Dark Secret of Social Media….it’s NOT free”

1. Amber says:

   December 8, 2009 at 2:48 pm

   Graham,

   Good on you for bringing up this topic. You're right that social media is NOT free, mostly because of the human resource costs.

   Listening and engagement efforts in social media should be considered with the same care as other communication initiatives, and resources need to be allocated to do it well (and for the long term).

   Where it lives and how the budget is allocated often depend on what the goals are for social media participation in the first place. Instead of a one-size-fits-all answer, companies need to be seeking discussions with their internal teams to talk about whether and how social media initiatives fit into *their* overall picture, and where.

   Thanks for the discussion.

   Best,
   Amber Naslund
   Director of Community, Radian6
   @ambercadabra
2. Graham Lubie says:

   December 10, 2009 at 1:03 pm

   Amber,

   I agree with your observations that the majority of social media's costs come from human resource costs (both internal and agency). Given that efficiency of those resources is critical, the investment in a powerful tool like Radian6, versus free alternatives, makes sense.

   Graham
3. Ted L Simon says:

   January 8, 2010 at 2:57 pm

   Graham,
   We all know that nothing that requires even a modicum of effort is free. So, it’s somewhat amazing how long it takes for a simple truth like this to sink in with companies when it comes to the social media/marketing arena (maybe it’s wishful thinking!).

   This is a very helpful framework for anyone who is serious about incorporating a serious social component into their overall business and marketing plans. I’d love to see it go even further, with more detail on org structure, roles, associated costs, etc. But, perhaps that’s for a future post, eh?

   Thanks for laying this out.

   Cheers,
   Ted
   @tedlsimon
4. Graham Lubie says:

   January 8, 2010 at 4:17 pm

   Hi Ted,

   Thanks for the comment and I am pleased that you see the Social Media Marketing Framework as helpful.

   Over the next month I will be releasing a lot more detail, examples and templates for the SMMF.

   Cheers,

   Graham