The cost of social media

Everyone says that social media is free and if you just take a quick look, it certainly seems to be. After all, you don’t need to pay anything to sign up for most social network sites and you can enjoy unlimited hours of interconnection for nothing. That doesn’t mean it’s actually free, though. In fact, social media does cost something, your time.

As they say, time is money and when it comes to promoting your business, that really is true! The time you put into social media is a cost and for every minute you spend working on networking, you aren’t working on something else in your business. While the benefits of networking online can be huge, it does take time to see those result and in the meantime, you aren’t being paid for those hours of working on connecting with worthwhile people.

There are, of course, monetary costs, as well, particularly if you have hired someone to take on some of the networking duties for you. Keep in mind that even big companies set aside thousands of dollars for their social networking budgets. You might not need that much, but it is something to keep in mind when planning your marketing budget.

It’s important to understand this ahead of time even before you start your social media strategy, because you’ll need to be consistent with social media, even when it seems that there aren’t many results. It can take months to see the benefits and during that time, you will need to stay on top of things, spending time each day to respond to messages and communicate with other business owners, potential clients, and gurus in the niche you’re interested in. Once you’re prepared to do this, you should be good to go.

Social media isn’t free. You will be paying with your time, even if you do everything yourself. When you’re on Twitter or LinkedIn, you aren’t working on client assignments, so that means you aren’t pulling in money, usually. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be interested in social media or that you should consider dropping it. It merely means that you should be aware of the cost when planning your networking campaign. Make sure you take into consideration how much time will be lost from other areas of your business while you are working on social media.