Social Business: Analysis – Part 7: Investment

Social business is not a “marketing shortcut”, i.e. requiring low time and money investment while paying high dividends in branding and sales. For social business to be effective, an investment proportionate to it will be required.

But how much should you invest? The short answer is “That depends”, but I’ll try to give you some direction here with a number of examples on three levels:

• High-Level Strategic activities such as social business strategy. customer/brand planning and integration with corporate (marketing) activities.
• Mid-Level Operational activities such as organizational roll-out, presence management and brand monitoring.
• Low-Level Day-to-day tasks on platforms like blogs, Twitter and Facebook.

High-Level

Social Business Strategy: $20,000 – $200,000

Includes:

• Analysis of the company’s social business position
• Determination of goals/objectives and related metrics
• Mapping of goals/objectives to strategic initiatives
• Aligning of strategic initiatives with current company activities
• Plan for internal approach (required people, technology, policies)
• Training and coaching

Obviously, the range is huge but you can imagine that it really depends, for example on your company’s size, your current social business position, the existing expertise and what you’d like to achieve with social business.

Mid-Level

Community Engagement: $10,000 – $40,000

Includes:

• Training and coaching in social media monitoring
• Training and coaching in social media presence management
• Training and coaching in social media communication and engagement
• Training and coaching in content creation
• Training and coaching in social media measurement

A lot of the cost here will depend on your strategy and things such as your current knowledge, the complexity of your market, the amount of corporate branding that needs to be aligned and the extent to which external parties (such as agencies) are involved.

Low-Level

Blogging: $10,000 – $40,000

Includes:

• Creation and styling of blog
• Creation of content
• Interaction
• Search Engine Optimization
• Training and coaching

Facebook: $6,000 – $30,000

Includes:

• Creation and styling of Facebook Page/Profile
• Creation of content
• Interaction
• Training and coaching

For both blogging and Facebook, the investment will depend on whether you’re building something from the ground up or whether you’re looking to restructure something that already exists. In addition, the amount of content and the decision to create or outsource content will play a role.

Let me be clear that these figures are purely indicative and a result of my own experiences and that of people I asked. However, I think these figures are realistic and should give you a rough idea of what it would cost to go into social business.

If you have questions or remarks, let me hear them in the comments!