Social media is taking over the marketing mix and I have a massive issue with that.

Focusing on social media doesn’t make sense for many businesses for many reasons which I am going to explore in this article.

To prove this, I am going to focus on the numbers and the data. Now I am not a numbers girl (I actually hate them). When my hubby mentions the word budget I cringe (and totally ignore him) HOWEVER when it comes to marketing, we cannot escape them because data is facts.

Now I am not anti-social media. It has its place in the marketing mix however there is way too much emphasis put on it.

Remember before social media existed. Businesses survived just fine (and I think actually had less stress too).

 

Let’s start with how much time, many people are spending marketing purely on social media

There are a few elements that we need to take into account when we look at the time it takes to market on social:

• Ideation (coming up with topics, ideas for creative and themes)
• Researching – which usually involves getting caught in the scroll hole
• Create the content – the images, text and CTA’s
• Create your content plan for the week or month
• Scheduling the content
• Any filming & editing of reels that need to be created
• Responding to comments
• Not to mention checking every time the red notification ‘bing’ comes up and then obsessing over how many likes or shares you got.

I’ve estimated that all takes approx 30-40 hours a month. Of course that will be more for some and less for others – this is an average.

Now if you multiply that by your hourly charge out rate this is how much organic social is actually costing. So, in the example I’ll use $80 an hour so the real cost is $2500- $3200 per month!!

NB: This doesn’t take into account creating ads either.

 

Now let’s look at the time it takes to do some other marketing tactics:

• Write a blog and post on your website – 1 hour
• Create an email blast to past clients or prospects – 1 hour
• Reach out to 5 potential collaborative partners including research – 2 hours
• Record and upload 3 videos to YouTube – 2 hours
• Attend two networking events or business events – 5 hours
• Optimise or make an improvement to your website 1 hour
• Add photos and reviews to Google my business – 1 hour
• The total number of hours spend is less than half as is the cost to you
  • I’ve estimated 16 hours per month to do all of those things coming out to $1280.

The other key difference is the number of eyeballs that see your brand. But using a number of tactics, particularly one like collaborations that get you in front of new audiences, then you will actually get in front of more people compared to your social followers.

So you can see how the numbers are stacked against social media as a primary marketing driver. It doesn’t make financial sense to put all your eggs in one basket.

Want to get a copy of my Comparison Chart? Download it HERE.

Benefits of these non-social tactics

• Get you in front of more people (we know that organic social is pretty much dead)
  • There is no point in spending so much time on social if a handful of people are seeing your content. The ROI is simply not there
• Bring more people into your network or made aware of your brand
• Quality not quantity – so more qualified leads that are warmer and with a higher conversion rate
• Ability to leverage these into more opportunities – guesting and collaborations lead to more of them
• You will see better results and return on the time you are spending on your marketing
• It will make you feel better about yourself – no more comparitinitis, feeling like a failure when your post doesn’t get many likes and feeling mentally exhausted from all the effort.
• Winning more new business – people do not naturally want to buy off social media. They might become brand aware but that is when you bring them into your own channels to nurture them and help them get to know you.

 

Social media is not a sales strategy

• It has become a strategy that has way too much focus on it.
• Why? Because the people that make money from it constantly brainwash you to believe this is true. They have a vested interest in it so of course they are going to say it is the bees knees.
• It is good for brand visibility but was never designed to sell.
  • The only pure business & professional network is LinkedIn – I don’t include LI in my standard social media rules for this reason.
• Social is part of a broader marketing approach and any good marketing strategist or event Facebook ad expert will tell you that.

 

So, if you are thinking that all sounds like a lot of things to do, don’t! It is all about prioritising and planning in your calender starting with the priorities for you

NB: It these numbers don’t accurate reflect you, that is OK, they are generalisations but you can clearly see how the numbers add up against a focus on social media.