Cartoon: The Social Media Budget

For most organizations, the cost of engaging in social media hasn’t been integrated into the annual budget process. However, as more companies learn that tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are not a fad and they are not going away, they’ll start to realize that engaging customers where they are conversing can have positive impacts. As the level of engagement grows, organizations will need to begin adding social media expenses into their budgets as part of the cost of doing business. Like telephones, computers, and websites, having a Facebook page and Twitter account, and the appropriate headcount to support them, will soon be commonplace.

Until then, however, social media strategists will have to educate their executives about the importance of social media and the need to put ongoing funding behind it. The cartoon below gives a great example of those ongoing conversations.