Does your boss think that social media marketing is free? Don’t worry, many executives operate under this social media misconception. Putting together a realistic social media marketing budget if your boss is one of these managers who thinks that social media should be free can be a significant challenge.
Never mind that the use of social media to enhance your marketing can deliver tangible benefits to your target market and your bottom line. Social media marketing helps build relationships directly with prospects and customers who no longer trust advertising, supports the purchase process at every step where additional information is needed to persuade consumers, and enhances search optimization to improve results while decreasing search costs. The reality is that while marketing expenses may be low in the early phases of social media adoption, once you expand your social media efforts, these expenses will have an impact on your marketing budget and resources.
How to leverage other people’s budgets to support your social media marketing plans
The good news is that there’s a way to have a realistic social media marketing budget that covers your expenses and passes your firm’s approval process even if your boss believes that social media should be free. It’s called OPM, which stands for Other People’s Money. Understand that being open and transparent in business is important, especially where social media’s involved. But the problem is that getting your budget to align with your firm’s approval process may sometimes require some translation services. Here’s a chart to guide you through budgeting.
When it comes to ensuring that you get your social media marketing budget passed, take a cue from Shakespeare’s Juliet who says, “What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Are there any other costs that you’d add to this chart? If so, what are they and how would you classify them to get them through a corporate budgeting process?
Happy marketing,
Heidi Cohen
Tip of my hat to members of #SMChat for inspiring this post during this week’s chat.
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Photo credit: SashaW via Flickr
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