Is Social Media Marketing Really Free?

Most business owners know that they must make some sort of marketing investment for their business to be successful. Many times, especially with small business, the marketing budget is minimal to nothing. Small business owners understand the benefit of marketing, but if the impact isn't immediate they will often dismiss the marketing campaign as a bad investment. As an economical alternative to traditional marketing campaigns, many small businesses are utilizing the new wave of social media marketing, or "new media" in order to meet their needs. A good idea, but does this D.I.Y. approach to new media really meet the needs of small business? There are three main avenues of new media marketing that small business are currently utilizing with some success; Facebook, Twitter, and "check-in" websites such as Yelp and Foursquare.

Facebook: This social media website is top of the heap in the world of new media marketing. Facebook picked up where MySpace left off and everyone from toddlers to the family pet now has a Facebook page. Facebook is certainly a must for a small business marketing campaign. However, it is not free or easy. All new media campaigns still need a direction, by no means does the presence of a Facebook page guarantee more business, or even if someone will be your friend. The marketing campaign must include goals and concrete plans of achieving those goals. The lady who owns the "mailbox store" next to my business asked me the other day, "How do you get more 'friends'?" I asked her what she was offering, and she cocked her head and looked at me with blank eyes. The campaign must offer something to the public. There is no good reason for anyone to be "friends" with Starbucks Coffee, yet they have over 19 million of them how? The marketing department of Starbucks does not operate blindly. They hire professionals to design and maintain their Facebook and Twitter pages as well as have a solid marketing campaign backing everything up. So, how does a small business compete? Simply, they don't. Aubrey Almond of General Sentiment estimates Starbuck's investment in new media marketing to be around $23.1 million. "We typically see a large correlation between the size of companies and the values of their social media," says Almond. Like anything else, (input = output). That is, the more you put in to your campaign, the more you are likely to get out of it. For example, my friend at the "mailbox store" only has a few 'friends' but offers nothing and spends less than an hour a week invested in the project. My company on the other hand also does not have a professional marketing firm behind us but rather it is the responsibility of each store manager to maintain the new media marketing campaign. As a result, I spend about three hours a day guiding our marketing. Given my salary, this "free advertising" is anything but free.

Twitter: This is a smaller pond than Facebook, but many companies have found success in a duel pronged marketing attack. Something particularly attractive is that users can link their Facebook and Twitter accounts, i.e. Twitter posts, or "tweets" will be posted on Facebook and vice versa. From personal experience Twitter is much more high maintenance than Facebook. Sending out one "tweet" per day just doesn't cut on in this platform. According to Monkeydish.com, AJ Bombers, a Milwaukee Burger joint that is very successful with its activity on Twitter averages 37.2 "tweets" a day. A successful Twitter campaign needs more than one person sitting at a keyboard all day. No small business owners have the time to do this themselves nor the money to hire a Twitter jockey. The key to maintaining a successful Twitter campaign is to get employees, clients, and vendors involved with the project. Much like Facebook campaigns, the most effective Twitter campaigns are those which are performed by professional marketing firms, however hope is not lost. Again, (input = output), the more the managers and employees of a small company are involved with input on the campaign, the greater the output will be.

Check In's: Sites such as Foursquare and Yelp work very well with retail businesses. These sites allow users to "check-in" to a business via their smart-phone. The sites allow a company to set up a "rewards" system for each check-in. For example, "20% off with your first check in." Many of these sites also allow the user to post their "check in's" to Twitter and Facebook. For example, you can "tweet" your "check in" at Joe's Bar, and your friend down the street will know you're at Joe's and hopefully come visit you. These websites are much more low-maintenance that Facebook and Twitter, but they also have a significantly lower number of users. They both encourage business to set up a rewards campaign, but it is not necessary. The largest advantage to "check in sites" is that they deliver immediate and uncensored customer feedback. The best way for business to make their services or products better is to listen to their customers, and these sites are based off of review and rating systems. Foursquare even offers a form of marketing metrics. Statistics on gender and age range are kept for the companies to view in their user panels. The one obvious problem with this is that these metrics only apply to demographics of people who own a smart-phone…nice try though, the thought was there.

Now that the modes of new media marketing have been discussed, we come back to the original question. Are these marketing techniques relevant to small business owners? In a word, yes. Not only are they relevant, they are necessary to keep up with the pack. However, there are hidden dangers in these "free" marketing platforms-mostly because they are not free. They require time, labor, and thought just like traditional marketing campaigns. The owner of my company insists that I handle the new media marketing for our company. I have calculated that he is paying me approximately $1500.00 per month to do this job. The end question becomes where is your money best spent? I certainly have many other things to do at work than "tweet" our customers, and for what I am getting paid we could certainly pay an outside firm to do the job for us. I am honored and flattered that my owner thinks enough of my skill and talent to spear-head this project, but does he know the true cost of "free" marketing?