Yesterday, we posted about social media analytics. Today, we address budgeting issues related to social media marketing.
As the following infographic from Salesforce indicates, there are several factors that must be taken into account; and social media marketing budgeting is important for companies of all types and sizes.
I found it very interesting to the pros/cons broken down by category as well as the costs per media platform. I think it is a huge misconception amongst individuals the actual cost of marketing through those specific platforms. As discussed in the previous article I also find it very interesting to study the analytics of these platforms. I wonder how demographics play a factor in each specific platform.
I am surprised to see the costs associated to using each social media platform, given that its free to use, – would people pay to get a twitter account created? I still believe that there is more value in the analytics part of it than just creating digital footprint. If you are not learning from the content posted on social networks then even though you have an active digital footprint you still might be setting yourself up for failure.
Social media started off as a low cost alternative to traditional means of advertising. With the growing cost of social media marketing it looks like it has now transformed into the new “traditional marketing” costing companies an enormous amount of money. It’s funny how everything comes full circle.
This is the wave of the future as the vast majority of consumers spend their time on social media. Years ago consumers listened strictly to the radio, that has evolved into television and subsequently social media. You can go virtually anywhere and see people looking down on their phone on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram. etc. Why not use this as a means to promote your business and it is a lost cost alternative to television. Superbowl ads could run millions of dollars for a couple second spot, where millions of customers could be reached. For a television ad that is affordable to a small business the hours it would be seen isn’t optimal. As the forms of media and communication evolve so must the ways to market.