What’s the real cost of social media? Last week we looked at an interesting infographic on the value of social commerce and today we wanted to share another interesting infographic on the cost of social media. So how do your social media costs compare?
These stats, which have been aggregated by Focus.com, show some good insights into how much brands are paying, on average, for their social media strategy and activities.
The second half of this infographic shows some good stats on the benefits of social media, including a comparison of what an average Facebook fan will spend on certain brands compared to a non-fan. On average it shows that a Facebook fan is 28% more likely than a non-fan to continue using a brand and that fans are 41% more likely to recommend a fanned product to their friends. What’s a Facebook fan worth to your brand?
Some very powerful stats at the bottom, with brands like McDonalds, Nike, Playstation, Nokia, Motorola and even Star Bucks generating over 100% more revenue from a Facebook fan than a non-fan…
Who thinks their clients need to invest more in social?!
Fantastic post. Has anyone seen any stats on the value of the website visitors to the company broken down in to visitors that like company’s Facebook page / follow them on Twitter VS the ones that are don’t?
Interesting, but correlation doesn’t prove causation. In other words, there’s no evidence engagement through social media CAUSES people to spend 30% or more over those who aren’t fans or followers. The $100/hr “social media strategists” would like you to believe that it does, but it seems just as likely to me that people consuming large amounts of a company product already are more likely to connect over these platforms.
I’ve misread research before but it looks like the stats on “the value of a twitter follower” are the wrong way round! ROI is 43% but seemingly the return is smaller than the investment? Alternatively twitter really is a rubbish place to spend your money.
How does this apply to small businesses and/or independent contractors who invest in social media campaigns?
[...] links come across my reading today that deal with social media marketing. The first one, from Digital Buzz Blog, provides a nice visual chart regarding the price big companies spend on social media and, more [...]
[...] DigitalBuzz blog [...]
[...] de mai jos. Nu am depistat sursa originala, dar l-am gasit la Guy Kawasaky, pe PSFK si pe DigitalBuzz. Pe scurt, autorul subliniaza costurile si resursele care sunt scapate din vedere atunci cand se [...]
[...] well-thought out infographic developed by Focus attempts to shed some light on the cost of branded social media strategy and [...]
Like Patrick I’m interested to know if the Twitter ROI figures are the wrong way around?
I’m a big proponent of SM marketing – however the figures for the average spend of facebook fans can’t solely be attributed to SM. Someone who likes a brand enough to ‘like’ it on Facebook obviously likes the product/service/brand quite a bit already, hence would spend more on it on average.
[...] couple of days ago, we came across a very cool infographic on the cost and return of social media. Though it’s posted in full below, these are what we [...]
[...] The Real Cost Of Social Media Cufon.refresh(); May 25, 2011 | ENAccording to focus.com; On average it shows that a Facebook fan is 28% more likely than a non-fan to continue using a [...]
[...] well-thought out infographic developed by Focus attempts to shed some light on the cost of branded social media strategy and [...]
[...] Digitalbuzz [...]
Nice post, it offers some good information however i would be dubious of believing that because people like something on facebook they are 28% more likely to use a product. I would probably say that the person was already more likely to use the brand before they got round to liking it if they were willing to go to the trouble of liking.
Monthly value of follower $2.37 – If you post on minifreelance ( search in google) you get one fan / follower for just $0.50 – You make more profit in just the first month.
Notice – This strategy will work only in the beginning. Eventually you would like to get natural fans.
This infographic is misleading. It implies that Facebook creates heavy consumers of products which is at best only partially correct. For example, frequent consumers of Coca Cola are quite likely to identify themselves as such on facebook with a ‘like’. But that doesn’t mean that they drink more Coke because of Facebook. The recommendation has a marketing value, but its not one that Facebook can sell you.
The value of Facebook lies in peer recommendation, online word of mouth and targeted advertising. The former is free and should be part of an integrated marketing approach rather than a dedicated independent strategy. The latter should be evaluated exactly as you would any other online ad, so for Coke, the ONLY chargeable thing that Facebook does is identify Pepsi consumers and target them with Coke advertising.
This talking up of Facebook is nonsense. Come back down to earth where the real people and real value are. Facebook facilitates an online conversation which is sometimes about brands. It does not own that conversation any more than AT&T own your phone conversations.
The guy who callously and publicly dumps his girlfriend on Facebook cannot blame Facebook for his behaviour any more than you can shoot someone and then blame the gun. Marketers should beware this sort of thinking – social media can be a great tool, but it is not a magic wand, and it does not represent a step change in buyer behaviour.
Social Media esp social networking sites, at the beginning attracts users mainly hence primarily they should not be used for sales. They should be used to add value (e.g. brand loyalty, insights from research findings from conversations that indicate new actionable segment). How well the current followers and fans perceive and personalize the brand would influence their growth (followers and fans) and level of usage into the future. This could be exiting use of the brand, sustain current level or increase usage. The level of connection and identification with the brand directly will influence their referrals through evangelistic at opportune times.
[...] Infographic: The Real Cost Of Social Media window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: "117882754903536", status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement("script"); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; document.getElementById("fb-root").appendChild(e); }()); If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.Roberto HortalI am an eBusiness Director with many years of experience in great businesses across the world Born and bred in Benidorm, Spain, I started my eBusiness career with Nokia in Helsinki, heading Nokia’s Global Web organisation for a number of years in the 90’s and early 2000’s. In 2004 I moved to the UK to join easyJet as easyJet.com Product Manager. There I led easyJet.com into its current form at the frantic pace of low-cost. In 2006 I joined RSA as MORE TH>N Head of eBusiness. In 2009 I was asked to lead the effort of replicating MORE TH>N’s online success across Central and Eastern Europe for RSA.Website – Twitter – Facebook – More Posts [Translate] [...]
Interesting.
With our social media-bility at our company, we kinda took a more traditional approach. Really, in most cases social media falls under the ‘marketing’ category in the p&l statement anyway – and this prompt us to apply and gauge using ROIs.
My company believes that untrackable marketing is not really effective marketing. You need to be able to track returns and the only way to do that is have social-media only promos and offers and track return data through that. It’s as basic as when customers “mention” the social media offer, you track their absolute spend. A week/month/quarter later you’ll see in black and white how effective your social media ‘department’ is. No guesswork.
Furthermore, we already know that small to medium size businesses make up most of the business population. Obviously the cost + output is going to be significantly different to your ‘standard benchmarks’ of Nike and Google – and this, (in my personal opinion) somehow translates to the effectiveness sensitivity of social media – thus making social media analysis a little bit skewed at the top.
[...] (se il brand è credibile) e disposto all’acquisto in misura maggiore. Altre ricerche come questa invece, si spingono addirittura a dare un valore del 28% in più sull’acquisto di un FAn [...]
One thing that isn’t mentioned is the ability of a good social media/viral campaign to drive highly targeted, ontopic links from relevant/authority sources through to the main site. This one is a bit hard to measure but worth exploring
[...] must know by now why participation is important, but I like this infographic that puts some dollar flesh on the bones of that notion. Leave a Reply Name Email [...]
[...] The Real Cost of Social Media – Look past the small type on this infographic about the ROI of social media programs on the Digital Buzz Blog, which tracks the interactive marketing industry. The graphics tell the story: running social media programs isn’t cheap, but the pay off can be huge. The dark and light blue colors are striking against the black background; bar charts do a good job of pointing out social media programs’ benefits, and the juxtaposition of bar and circle charts keeps readers’ interest. [...]
Thanks for posting. This graphic provides a perfect entre for our firm to talk to clients about how they can take advantage of social media.
Catherine Weber
Tier One Partners
tieronepr.com
I must agree with those posters before me, e.g. Tom Wright, who feel that it’s not wise to think that social media “causes” higher customer loyalty to a brand, but more likely “reflects” existing loyalty. However, the online word-of-mouth advertising value of social media cannot be underestimated.
Since advertising credibility jumps up to around 98% when friends are bragging about something, it is plausible that one friend’s “liking” of something, such as on Facebook for example, could influence another friend/connection to like a company/brand without even having much experience with the company/brand. Some people are followers…others are leaders. Those who “follow” the “leaders” are often the ones that expand the customer base. Hence, some of the power of social media, which makes it a necessary marketing tool.
[...] Click image below to enlarge in new browser window. Reblogged from my friends at Digital Buzz Blog [...]
I like the infographic, but I wonder the integrity of the stats. I think it is a bit misleading and the current evaluation may be a bit inflated.
Its amazing because many companies are beginning to leverage social media and similar alternative methods of reaching out to current & potential customers. Recently, Ive read about this company, MagicBuz, that seems to be developing innovative methods of reaching people. Their clients seem to be raving about their performance. Their website is http://www.magicbuz.com if you want more information.
One of the things that’s missing from this infographic is the cost of any software to monitor social media, if you’re taking this seriously chance are a company will be using something like Radian6 to listen to the market then something like Hootsuite to reply from multiple accounts.
Stu
[...] среднем покупатели из приведенного исследования тратят на продукты бренда, где они являются фанами на [...]
“Fiber Twigs”! I love it! Yep, that’s what us old folks have to eat every morning. Sorry, Freddo.
[...] return on your social media investment relates directly to its real cost. The first part of this infographic shows what major brands are paying for their social media marketing strategy. The second part shows [...]
[...] return on your social media investment relates directly to its real cost. The first part of this infographic shows what major brands are paying for their social media marketing strategy. The second part shows [...]