I’ve come to a conclusion recently that all of this tweeting, blogging, Facebooking and YouTubing in which I have been deeply involved, from both a professional and personal standpoint, costs. It costs time, so it costs money. And I believe that while the social media channels are “free” and accessible to individuals without a red cent to spend using them, the amount of time and effort to maintain your social presence is significant.
Why isn’t this obvious? When you spend time on Facebook, when you should be outside playing with your kids, there’s a cost. When you tweet throughout a meeting, when you should be taking advantage of face time, there’s a cost. And when you maintain a blog, there’s the time and effort to be thoughtful, bring something new to the table, and then you have to market your thoughts if you want anyone to read them. All of this takes time and effort — brain power — and there’s always something else that you could or should be doing with your time.
Which is all well and good when you have time. Which you probably don’t. So, when companies think that social media should just be a minor footnote on a marketing budget (often perceived to cost less than PR, which itself is perceived as the most affordable marketing method), they should think again.
While there are free versions of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, there are certainly paid versions that enable brands to have a greater social presence. The top 100 brands in Facebook are spending $10 million a year, approximately, to maintain their presence in Facebook, and that includes engagement ads to build awareness. Witness the recent campaign to promote Pepsi Refresh Project, or even the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. Time and effort is being spent by soda companies and movie studios alike to produce fantastic content for consumers to engage with and to return to for more engagement. This costs money.
Tales abound of individuals and brands that have had hits in social media by growing awareness organically, and therefore raised themselves in prominence. These are the exceptions, not the rule. For every Kogi barbecue, there is a failed deli that tweets about it’s amazing pastrami. For every Lemonade movie, there’s a struggling artist toiling away in his basement while receiving unemployment checks after the layoff.
So where does this leave brands and individuals? If we can’t pay, should we not play? The answer, resoundingly, is no. Even if you can’t afford to participate in social media with a big budget, you should participate in some capacity. Brands and individuals who are not engaging in social media today are just not engaging. Period.
Sounds extreme, I know. But if you work in marketing in 2010, and you are not embracing the groundswell, then you are really a dinosaur. And we all know what happened to them. A meteorite. From the sky. Blew them all to bits and they had no idea it was coming. The difference between then and now is that we see the meteorite. The meteorite is social media. And it’s definitely on a direct path heading straight at all of us. You can’t avoid it. And it will destroy the old ways of thinking and leave a fertile place where new ways of thinking can flourish. It has always been so. We all pay, one way or another.
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