Is Social Media Worth Paying for?

I’m going to give a typical consultant’s answer here….

It depends!

Seriously!

What the value of social media is for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) was being hotly debated long before Twitter and Meta started talking about subscription services.

Their recent moves have only muddied the waters about social media’s ROI.

Previously, I’ve blogged about whether or not free social media would be a thing of the past.

Sadly, I think it’s going away.

Now, for purposes of this blogpost, I’m not talking about major outfits, such as Apple, Amazon, or Proctor & Gamble, paying for social media.

For them with their enormous advertising budgets, whatever social media decides to charge will be a rounding error.

I’m talking about SMB and professionals for whom the cost of being on social media was already starting to increase with either no improved or diminishing returns on their spend.

For this latter group, sharp pencils will need to come out to calculate whether or not it’s worthwhile to even be on social media let alone pay for campaigns. 

I’ve long been one of the few remaining proponents of achieving organic growth on social media.

Recent changes in costing is going to make this more difficult if not impossible.

For example, if paid subscriptions drive away consumers on social media, how effective could B2C promotions be?

Would even the major players like Apple and Amazon have to look elsewhere for their customers?

One interesting observation I’ve made since the onset of e-commerce was the loss of ads in newspapers and television targeted to consumers.

Much of this spend had moved onto social media.

Could we see it return there or somewhere else (I have no idea where at this point)?

One thing’s for certain, change is coming!

And, IMHO it’s going to happen fast and we may find ourselves looking back, dazed and confused, saying “So, that’s what that was!”

That’s it for now!

Please check out my 8 step approach for developing a social media program for more ideas on how to use social media.

Also, never forget to reach out to either ask questions or to ask for help from someone like myself!

In the meantime, thank you for following and reading my blog.

I look forward to any and all comments that you may have. I will reply to any comments made to this blog post as promptly as I can.

And, remember!

I do this for a living and if I can be of any assistance to either you or your organization, please feel free to call on me. Our initial discussion will be of no charge to you.