Many individuals who are just getting into the game of social media have heard social media is free or cheap due to the fact that many platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are free to sign up for and maintain on a daily basis. Free to sign-up, but not exactly free to maintain.
“A significant 58% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week and 34% are 11 or more hours weekly. It’s interesting to note that 15% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media.” (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner)
As the old adage says, “time is money” and time is not free. Marketers who want to increase brand awareness and engagement do not spend just 10 minutes here or there Tweeting and posting. They take the time to listen to what people are saying regarding their brand, what the competition is saying, what consumers are saying regarding the competition, and more. Then they take the time to respond, question, and comment in a relevant manner.
“Those with more years of social media experience spend more time each week conducting social media activities. For example, 63% of people with 3 or more years of experience spend more than 10 hours a week doing social media activities.Only 41% of those with 1 to 3 years experience spend that much time.” (2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner)
Conversation in social media is not an overnight success like winning the lottery. It takes time, effort, and in turn money, spent on the people who “manage” the brand online. Those with experience in digital marketing realize the more time and effort spend in social, the greater the reward. Newbies, take note.
Other trending posts: Pippa Middleton
Awesome, I like your post.
A thoughtful insight and ideas I will use on my website. Youve obviously spent some time on this. Congratulations!
Good post, well put together. Thanks. I will be back soon to check out for updates. Cheers
Good post, well put together. Thanks. I will be back soon to check out for updates. Cheers
Awesome, I like your post.
Great blog you have here. So many blogs like yours cover subjects that arent found in magazines. I dont know how we got by 12 years ago with just newspapers and magazines.
This actually answered my drawback, thanks!
We loved your writing, please do keep it up!
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This actually answered my drawback, thanks!
Great article!
This is exactly why Social Media was No.2 in our recent survey on major time challenges people were trying to deal with.
Cheers,
Simon Phillips
“Mastering Time 24/7 – how to work less, deliver more and live a Great life.”
Using robots on Twitter greatly lowers your credibility.
Time is definitely money. I deal with a lot of executives and business owners and a large majority of them don’t understand that social media is not free. It’s like anything else in business development: There’s no quick fix. But done correctly SM can be very powerful.
I totally agree. I’ve been thinking, though, until when will the hype of social media in marketing last?
Hi Pam, what a great post! This is the first time I have seen the figures you quoted with regards to the amount of time marketers are beginning to use on social media. My company, Cherple, offers a product that provides social media to the billions of cell phone users who haven’t caught up to the smartphone era, yet have a desire to stay in touch with their family and friends from around the world. Utilizing out patent-pending technology via SMS (texting) we have seamlessly bridged the gap between mobile and web devices. This technology is provided to ALL mobile devices (smart or otherwise) making it easier for folks to keep in touch. Just wanted to say thanks for the great read and looking forward to seeing more from you!
I wholeheartedly agree with you that as you become more experienced in social media you use it more. You also broaden your range, as one social networks leads to understanding others faster. You also see the value. People who first start using social media dip their toes, and only later use it more extensively.
Thank heavens, someone has to write this! Unbelievable as it may seem, there are still a few folks out there who think that social media is free.. and they would even argue with you that using all these social networking sites is free. I agree with you about one thing: Time is money.. no matter how vicious it sounds.
Glad you liked my post and I couldn’t agree more with you!
I’ve just recently jumped into social media and it is a huge time investment. I’m enjoying it but yeah… I get flake from peers that don’t see the point in all that time. Maybe in 6 months I can show some great prospects for all this work!
Best of luck! Social media is definitely an adventure (and one that requires time like any business endeavor). I’m sure you’ll do great!
Interesting article. I wonder what marketing activities we don’t do anymore since we’ve switched to social media.