Is 20% of a PR budget for Social Media Too Much?

I was just reading today that storage equipment maker, NetApp is applying 20% of their PR budget to social media.  Is that enough?  Is it too much?  Well, it depends on what the whole budget is and what your goals are.  One thing is certain though social media works!

You don't need me to tell you that a lot of information gathering is done on the web.  When you publish fresh content that is of interest to the people you are looking to attract to your message, they'll find you.  And, when you're able to have a two-way dialog, the message is even more interesting.

While the perception of social media might be that it's free because sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube are free, it's not.  Understanding how to make it effective takes an investment in people who are going to make it work for you.  The same article I referenced earlier said that Dell has a dedicated team of about 40 people who interact with consumers through blogs, community forums and third-party sites. Spokeswoman Caroline Dietz was quoted saying that "There's been a realization over the last several years that your customers are going to talk about you online and you have a choice to join that conversation."

And when you have something interesting to say, people will pay attention and they'll share the news with their friends - good or bad.  This past weekend, a blog entry of mine "Survival for the Laid Off or About to Be" caught on all over that place and was picked up by several sites including Scobelizer's Friend Feed site.  I had more hits to my blog than I'd ever had before and they keep coming as the blog entry proliferates on the web in individual's Google readers and other places. 

For my thinking, maybe 20% of the PR budget is not enough to invest in social media if you've got a web savvy audience who is interested in what you have to say, but it's a good start.  Once you see what's working and what's not, you can always dial it up.

Comments

[Sarah Hamilton]

I agree with this post, Carole. Social media can be a cost-effective way to communicate with customers and prospects when it is, in fact, applied in a smart way. Achieving that takes smart people. The viral nature of social media is attractive because it enables fast proliferation of strong content...and it can have the same effect to discredit poor content.

[Peter Charland]

I'm curious why the discussion is constrained to the PR budget? Social networking has a broader external context than PR - customer self-help is one example. And it's an essential internal collaboration forum.

Given today's flat to negative PR budgets, the social networking discussion has to span more broadly to have a real chance of the funding and commitment a company could make to generate even reasonable returns.

Good topic Carole :)