Social Media has many hidden costs
Just recently, I read a post on a well-known social media blog. The author was touting the advantages of social media compared to tradtitional advertising and making great use of the word "free". Is social media really free? I don't think so.
Social Media is labor intensive
Although there is no cost to begin a Facebook page or open a Twitter account, someone has to post to these accounts to develop "followers". Additionally, that person should have a certain gift for writing interesting, useful posts, or the social media audience quickly loses interest. In most organizations, a paid employee - with salary and benefits - is assigned this task. So, in that sense, it's not free.
Social media frequency requires resources
For blogs, it's been suggested that the optimnum number of posts is at least once per day. Twitterers are told that at least four times a day is best. That is a great deal of content. Unless you have a business that is retail-driven, and can continually post items such as "Beautiful Widgets for the home - 50% off", you are forced to try and actually say something that a follower wants to read. That's easy if you're involved with entertainment or sports, but more challenging if you work for 99.99% of the rest of the organizations in the world. In addition to the time actually spent writing, the paid social media employee will spend a great deal of time trying to come up with the next post, setting up meetings, talking to other employees - using resources.
Also, most larger organizations review anything that is being distributed to the public. So, now, another employee (a manager) is involved. He or she is constantly reviewing the outgoing tide of "copy" that is being fed to the public.
Social Media has a tremendous appetite
Unlike a Ronco oven, you can't set it and forget it. An unprepared organization quickly discovers that it has become a publisher. Attempting to send out relevent copy day after day becomes quite a challenge. Many Twitterers can't keep up and begin to send out inspirational "quotes" to fill out the slate. I don't know of many organizations that want to make the internal investment in social media simply to send out inspirational quotes.
Social Media attracts consultants
Many organizations, who have never had a "dialogue" with their customers, don't know what to say. Marketing is filled with consultants who will help them figure this out, but at a cost. Once again, we find that social media is not free.
Social Media is very, very challenging
Social media is so new, that most of us don't know much about it. We do know, however, that it is a black hole that eats up content and demands fresh thinking all the time. I would write more on this topic, but I need to start working on a blog post for tomorrow...and tomorrow...and tomorrow.
Marketing Ideas Ideas for marketers
Marketing Ideas Ideas for marketers
1 comments:
Very well said. I am just now becoming more active in social media, primarily as a way to advise my sister in her new business venture, and this is one of the things I've learned. There's a lot of sweat equity required for social media efforts! And the sweat equity required of me as her "consultant" will pale in comparison to the effort required on her part to keep things going. As I consider providing this service for other small businesses like my sister's, sure, my first question will be how much money they are willing to spend but my second question will be how much time are they willing to commit.
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