Social Media is Free, Right?

Posted on September 28, 2009 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

One of the most annoying statements I have heard recently is that social media is cheap (or even free).

It can do and be a lot of things but one thing it is not is cheap!

It is "cheap" only in the sense there is little or no cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) associated with it as with old media, like newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, out of home (OOH), etc. Sure, you can set up a Twitter or Facebook account and even create a blog for zero bucks. But there is a huge cost in time attached to maintaining a social media presence, especially if the effort is serious with goals and measurable results. And the more complex the campaign, the more time expensive it becomes.

Not only does the agency need to devote a considerable number of billable hours to setting up a social media presence and then monitoring and managing the effort, but the client must also make a time commitment to help set it up, supply training and even content for those responsible for executing.

For the client to both initiate the design and administer the execution on their own, they can expect to at least double the commitment they would have had if they had commissioned an agency. A serious social media campaign is probably one half of a full-time employee dedicated to the process. A really good, social media savvy, company executive can take on the project but will need to dedicate a major portion of his week to it, like maybe 10-20 hours a week. Do you have that kind of time laying around begging to be used?

You either pay someone outside the company to do this or dedicate someone inside the company to do it; either way it is not cheap, but it can pay huge dividends for the right client/product.