Social Times - Latest Comments in Social Media isn’t a Free Lunch.

Re: Social Media isn’t a Free Lunch.

David Mullings — Fri, 23 May 2008 09:41:28 -0000

"Free lunch" does not compute in business because time is money and time is required to execute. The fact that recreational users of social media tools do not calculate the cost of their time does not mean that it is in fact free.

I hope that more PR firms get into social media and charge appropriately like Jeff above. I also hope that both they and advertising firms realize that you can serve ads on Facebook that target people based on their workplace.

I am running a campaign for my venture that targeted people at companies like The New York Times, Associated Press, MTV, Nike and others (the campaign focused on an article that called my venture the "closest thing to a Caribbean MTV on the web") and the click-thru response was good. Hopefully it has increased awareness of us within those organizations and could result in something big down the line (an article, an advertising contract, strategic investment, etc.).

Re: Social Media isn’t a Free Lunch.

Jeff Majka — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:44:46 -0000

Hi Anthony, I'm the business development guy for a PR agency. We first pitched a blogger relations campaign to one of our clients several years ago and were immediately shot down. We continued to bring interesting, creative blog relations and then social media ideas to integrate with traditional PR tactics to our clients and prospects...are were summarily shot down.

Starting last summer, clients and prospects started listening to our proposed ideas...and then started funding them. This was a major sea change.

Now, any conversation I have with a prospect starts with how we're going to integrate social media into their traditional PR campaigns. And yes, this means more budget...which, so far, has been forthcoming. My clients aren't typically start-ups. My experience so far has been more budget to fund BOTH traditional PR and social media, rather than a trade-off.

My two cents...

Jeff

Re: Social Media isn’t a Free Lunch.

Moksh Juneja — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:20:14 -0000

The other challenge that i see is showcasing that the client servicing team is in the process of building credibility in the online environment! It becomes very difficult to prove this also!