Where Should Brands Spend Their Social Media Budget?

Last post I proposed benchmarks for what percentage of a B2C marcom budget should be spent on social media. The next logical question is how to allocate that spend. Clearly every product, business goal, world market and end user target will impact that answer. Despite the recent gains in more seniors adopting digital habits, I still wouldn't use the Old Spice video strategy to reach 65 and over Americans. Context matters.

Two ways to spend

Looking at just traditional marcom efforts (leaving out functions like customer care), there are two ways to spend on social media marcom. The first is campaign spending. This is what we awere all trained to do. It is also the only thing any of the awards programs out there pay attention to. The second is the sustained, persistent support of always-on platforms Like facebook and Twitter. We call it everyday engagement. Call it whatever you want but it has a lot to do with successfully building a direct relationship with customers and followers.

They are not exclusive. They work well together. It's tempting to put all the money in the campaign spend - the big YouTube play, the cgm/ugc contest, the unique Facebook tab. This is what will get you noticed inside and outside the company. But without the foundation of the everyday engagement, you may never keep that hard-won fanbase.

Like any new venture, building a foundation in social media requires investment in the early years. To get the "center for excellence," and its primary programs, off the ground, you need to hire some staff, spend on some first-time expenses, and learn from experience. Most of the everyday engagement effort - creating and publishing content, monitoring cgm, responding to people and customer care triage - do not require a big one-time cost. They require a recurring cost in human time and some expense.

The First Three Years

Year one - in the first year of true commitment to social media marcom, you can expect splitting a budget with most going to campaigns

campaign 80%   everyday engagement 20%

Year two - now you can invest in some infrastructure. You have gained campaign success, earned points for social customer care Twitter handles, and generally proven to leadership that this is worth doing. Now is the time to get a Buddy Media or Vitrue license, trade-up on your Listening post, and float some more sophisticated campaigns

campaign 50%   everyday engagement 50%

 

Year three: - truth is you will never dial back on your everyday engagement. What you will likely do is ramp up your paid media integrations with your truly "earned" social media efforts. It may not be fair to lump those in the equation here but I have. That's what explains the flop back in favor of campaign spend.

campaign* 80%   everyday engagement 20%

How do you split your spending?

*includes some media spend. Take that out and your back to 50/50 or even 40/60

Comments

[Andrew Foote]

Insightful stuff as always, John. To your point about the importance of building a foundation, I was thinking your campaign vs. engagement spend percentages might look something more like this...

Year One - 20% campaign, 80% strategy/engagement: Marcom team and agencies integrate, form center of excellence to drive social strategy and SOPs. Company establishes digital footprint for engaging consumers and various stakeholders, delivering value/utility, sharing news/insights, managing issues, building relationships with influencers, supporting marketing campaigns, etc. This foundational phase = skill-building, testing, establishing credibility, and gathering insights to inform strategy.

-Year Two - 40% campaign, 60% engagement: Once the company has established its platform, it is now ready to overlay more robust and consistent campaign efforts on top of the always-on engagement.

-Year Three - 50% campaign, 50%: Listening and iteration continues. Dedicated team resources and budgets grow (both paid and earned). Engagement level stays consistent with increased focus on campaign efforts.

I realize the above is probably not a realistic scenario for many companies - especially CPGs - that are looking to demonstrate an immediate return. Most marcom execs don't have the time or patience. But I feel that before a brand can run off an execute back to back SM campaigns, it first needs to concentrate on walking and establishing a foundation for long-term success.

I know you believe the same, but your percentages threw me off! Help me understand your thoughts on year 1 - 3. Thanks!

[Erica]

I had the same thought as Andrew—in the first year a big campaign may bring in fans, but if there's little manpower to talk to them or content strategy to keep them engaged, they won't stick around.

Just the general everyday content development needed to be worth liking/following takes big resources.