Budgeting
for Social Media Marketing
Alex
Tajirian
June 1, 2011
Given your social
media marketing strategy and tactics, how do you decide
on the size of your budget? The essay focuses primarily
on small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs).
Securing the desired budget
requires going beyond managements buying into the
benefits of social media marketing. You need to sell your
budget.
When starting out, keep the
budget small. Instead of trying for a big splash, limit
your risks and create what, in effect, will be a pilot program
that can show management that more outlays will be money
well spent. You are better off exceeding managements
expectations than you are underdelivering.
The typical argument for a
big launch is if we dont get on Facebook and
Twitter now, we will lose to competitors. But remember
that your competitors are experimenting too. When venturing
into new media, being ready for prime time is more the exception
than the rule. Without the right strategy and tactics, a
social media presence can hurt you, especially if you dont
respond appropriately to online comments.
Thus, you need to start by
identifying and selecting must-have social media sites and
content. Make sure that you include must-have funds to respond
to the risks from known and unknown events.
If you already have started
a social media campaign, then:
- Identify new content
options. Other companies, including your competitors,
can provide valuable insight. There is nothing wrong
with being a fast follower when there are no first-mover
advantages.
- Classify your content
and sites as either must-have or nice-to-have.
- Experiment
with adding nice-to-have content with the help of A/B
and multivariate
analyses
of the impact of content changes on the identified measures.
- Add new content with
the highest positive expected impact on the measures
until you exhaust your budget.
In conclusion, social media
budgets are determined iteratively. You dont need
to start with a big splash. Thus, start with a budget that
covers the cost of developing and maintaining the must-have
sites and content. Start adding sites and content that have
the strongest impact on the performance measures until you
exhaust your budget.