Unveiling the True Expenses: Social Media Management Costs for Businesses in 2023

Social media is big business. We all know that. But the question is: how much does it cost? Well, let’s break it down in basic terms for you.

How does a company measure its marketing budget or ROI? It’s difficult to calculate social media ROI because there are so many variables involved. But generally, companies will use traditional marketing tools like online and offline media to measure their ROI.

So why shouldn’t social media be included? The answer is simple: there are no true metrics for the way that social media works.

The reason it is so difficult to calculate ROI for social media is that it does not work like traditional advertising. Effectively, we can’t say that a company has spent $100,000 on ads but has generated $50,000 in sales because some of those customers may have just stumbled upon and bought from the company without using any marketing tools at all.

And that is where traditional marketing metrics fail us – we can’t accurately correlate traditional marketing campaigns with sales. But the truth is that buying social media is no different. If a company spent $100,000 to buy ads on Facebook this year but generated $3,000 in sales, then it has done the same as if it spent $100,000 on social media in general and still made $3,000 in sales. Neither case can be measured properly.

Factors Affecting Social Media Management Costs:

1. Number of Platforms Used: SMM campaigns require a lot of manpower for various activities. The more platforms you use, the more people you need to manage those accounts and respond to users. It also requires continuous monitoring and engagement. This is where social media management costs really add up. You will have to pay your team (or as many people as there are platforms used) monthly salaries, plus benefits like health care, vacation time, and sick days.
2. Number of Accounts Managed: More accounts mean more time spent, which eventually adds up to more costs and fees. When you are managing social media accounts for a large brand or company, you have to consider that you might need to assign an account manager or assistant to each of them. An account manager will be directly managing the activities of one specific brand. They will be responsible for posting updates on the social network channel he is assigned to, interacting with users on that platform, monitoring comments, dealing with reports from other users, analyzing statistics, and all kinds of daily tasks involved in keeping that account active and interesting.
3. Additional Tasks and Skills Needed: You might need to train your employees on some basic skills that you did not consider when hiring them. This could involve teaching them how to use a new social media platform or how to answer the most common customer service inquiries. You will also need a team of web content writers and social media analysts for posting stories and other updates on your brands’ accounts in addition to taking care of the day-to-day management tasks.
4. Location of Employer: Where your employer is located will affect social media management costs. If you are managing a local organization in a small town, this could mean constant face-to-face interactions with customers or community members. If the company is based in a big city like New York, you might find yourself having to go to meetings and business dinners several times a week or even flying to client locations several times throughout the year.
5. Results Needed from Social Media Management Programs: The results while working with social media will also affect social media management costs. A brand may want certain results such as increased traffic to a website or sales generated through increased social media activity. The cost of achieving these results could be high.

Value vs. Cost: Evaluating Return on Investment (ROI)

Social media management is not a one-time investment that will automatically create a return on investment. It is an ongoing cost and investment that needs to be evaluated regularly. The social media ROI calculation compares the cost of social media management programs with the expected results to be achieved. It should be done before making any substantial investment in the social media arena. This is why it is so important to have a sound strategy and know your goals from the beginning.

There are four steps involved in calculating your social media ROI. These steps include:

1. Define Your Goals for Social Media Management: The first step to calculating an ROI is to set specific goals for your social media management program. There are end goals like increasing traffic on your website, engagement with fans, and content sharing among other things. You need to define these as clearly as possible so that you have an idea of what you hope to achieve at the end of the process other than just spending money on social media management platforms or services.
2. Calculate Your Social Media Management Costs: To determine the actual cost of social media management, you need to calculate the total daily or monthly cost of running your social media program, including salary, offices, and administrative expenses such as office rent and utilities. It would also include some costs that are not directly related to operating your programs. For example, if you’re sending your employees to client locations several times a year for meetings, travel expenses, and accommodation are included in the calculation. Even expenses that are not directly related to running your programs such as a notary public or an accountant should be factored in here so as to accurately calculate the overall cost of running your program.
3. Calculate the Return on Investment (ROI): The third step is to calculate the returns from social media management. You need to evaluate the number of sales and leads generated by your social media programs. This you can easily do by tracking those aspects through analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook Insights. Other ways are available too for calculating sales, including surveys sent out to customers after they have interacted with your brand on a social media platform, or through on-site polls open to all customers or followers. This will help you evaluate the effectiveness of your overall social media program in terms of driving business growth for your company and will give you a better idea as to how much it costs in total.
4. Calculate the Return on Investment per Milestone: The fourth step is to calculate the return on investment for each milestone and determine how much each value-added social media activity adds. Keeping track of your progress towards goals will help you evaluate results so that you can measure success. It will also help you decide where to invest next and what should not be part of your future strategy at all.

Why Choose Bowman Digital Media for Social Media Management?

Social media management is a new phenomenon that has just started to gain more attention in the business world. It is also a rapidly growing industry that has seen huge growth in the last few years. As mentioned earlier, it’s important to know how expensive social media management is before you commit to it fully. Bowman Digital Media intends to help you estimate your budget for this kind of service by making sure that you are aware of the costs involved from the beginning and get transparency on your ROI ratio as well as your overall ROI. They will also help you determine what kind of results you want from having a social media department.