I follow a number of social media blogs, have my twitter favorites, get traditional email newsletters from associations I belong to, and always look for credible sources of research to back up the dearth of ‘info’ on the web. And while there is a tonne of helpful info, and savvy readers can sort out the credible sources, there is one claim that continues to bug me! It’s that frequent line that “social media is free, it doesn’t cost you anything”.
I disagree. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Time is money, ” an anonymous quote I found years ago, “Nothing in life is free, unless the thing in question is without value.”
Today, in a little 3-tips item I read, this claim was made “To effectively measure your word of mouth marketing, you’ll need to identify what the baseline conversation about your brand looks like. You don’t need a big budget to do it — tools like Twitter Search and Google Alerts won’t cost you a thing…”
If you mean are the tools free — yes they are, if your only measure of investment is dollars spent — then yes, you don’t have to spend money to use twitter or google alerts; there is no direct expense against your bottom line. But what about the ‘indirect expense’? We know with travelers ‘time’ is a precious commodity, I would argue the same is true for you, your employers, and your partners.
I am a fan of social media – but for professional purposes strongly advocate the ’strategic use’ of these tools so that the proper training is allocated, and a proper shift in the distribution of effort in ones work day is purposeful and aligned with a marketing strategy and validates the contribution of the employee. If you have a work plan signed of by a boss or supervisor, make sure it is documented. Free tools are great, and there are more of them all the time, so even ‘choosing’ takes time – time to learn, but the real opportunity cost is the time to monitor, time contribute in meaningful ways, time to defend you activities with colleagues who don’t know/understand the value, and time to analyze the many wonderful stats that are easily accessible. Once you use a tool say ‘google analytics’ then you can inform effective decision making.
Often when we use the term ‘opportunity cost’ it may be viewed negatively, if you are doing X then you loose the opportunity for achieving Y. I would suggest with social media that you invert this thinking. If I invest in X online social media tools, the opportunities I could realize will be Y with very specific target markets, for specific outcomes. This then becomes positive and the metrics of success not only validate the investment of time, they can be used to help educate others in the organization who do not have direct responsibilities for sales, marketing, or the managing the customer experience (and those who simply get it).
The rapidly increasing number of online tools, to complement traditional media and marketing represent choices we must make as businesses. Do you research on which tools will align with your marketing strategy and managing your customer experience, then select, train and maintain. And like a car, remember tune-ups, trade ins and new models are all part of the future. Don’t get left behind, unless you ’strategically choose to’ or unless you are in the antique business1
