Guest Post By John Constantinides
How to Determine What Size Your Social Media Budget Should Be
As the first half of 2015 is already behind us, many markets are already considering what the size of their social budget should be in 2016. Social media planning is important and so we wish to share with you some tips on determining the size of your social media budget for the next year.
Draw a comparison between spending and benefits
Comparing your spending with the benefits it brings should be an important first step in determining the size of your budget. While it may be difficult to connect each expenditure with an associated benefit, it is a key exercise that allows you to evaluate costs and outline the benefits that come with them. Don’t forget to pay attention to the tools of your trade. Although you can’t operate without them, you should consider cutting costs for things that don’t improve efficiency and do little to support your business tactics or overall company strategy.
Consider spending extra money outside the social networks Twitter and Facebook
There are too many cases in which advertising budgets are spent only on Twitter and Facebook. However, this is about to change as we are starting to see more and more platforms offering social media opportunities you can’t ignore. Marketers must consider testing new ad channels as they become available and allocate enough money in their budgets to support this. Put aside some money for new media channels so that when the opportunities present themselves, your company will have the needed funding to try them next year.
Sharable content is something worth investing in
Look at the type of content your brand produces currently and ask yourself whether it is shareable. In case it is not – discover why. Perhaps your brand doesn’t have the right amount of organic or highly-visual content at its disposal.
The truth that we all come to understand at a certain point in time is that it isn’t easy to write compelling content that both seems natural to people and they are always willing to share it. Sometimes the reason behind this is that the brand has a different and not immediately obvious agenda. It is crafty to be able to produce highly-sharable content that at the same time goes hand in hand with the business objective of the company.
Make some “room” for rising costs
Social media marketing costs are on the rise and you should know why – they are highly efficient. Your budget must account for these rising costs and your company should be mindful of the continual changes in the platform and the fact that more and more competition enters the social media space.
Below are listed the rising costs you will need to consider when planning your next budget:
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The development of visual content
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The ability to reach your audience organically
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Working together with influential people
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The fragmentation of social media and the need to manage more channels
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The mobile social programs and their development.
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Creating new content and its optimization
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Attracting and retaining social media talents
Account for new opportunities and programs
You may be tempted to create a budget solely focused on the generation of new content and its distribution in the social space because content marketing is efficient and the industry is always talking about it. What you should be doing instead, is putting together a budget that includes a variety of social tactics. It will help you approach your objective from different angles.
If you want your brand to be innovative and thrive in the social space, you must be willing to try out new things and modify your budget accordingly.
John Constantinides is an experienced entrepreneur, digital marketer and SEO strategist. Throughout his years of cutting-edge work in the digital marketing, SEO, SMO and web development fields, he has successfully developed multiple business ventures for SEO companies in Toronto and become an authority on search engine optimization, PPC and social media marketing.
