With social media emerging as an important tool to engage audiences and market products, it is becoming necessary to budget for its management. Corporations and large corporations have dedicated staff and budget line items for social media programs. According to a report from the Altimeter Group posted on Mashable.com, the average budget for “novice” social media programs is $66,000 and the average social team is made of 3.1 people. The monetary and human resources cost goes up from there.
According to the report, organizations should formalize social operations so that responses to the public are consistent and aligned with the organization’s communications plan. The report also recommends investing in online communities and systems to monitor activity on the social networking sites. In addition, the report suggests that organizations get more people involved in the social media world. Formalizing responses becomes even more important with many people using social.
These all seem like fairly standard recommendations, but how does the small organization run a robust social program without the devoted resources? And, how do you quantify resources needed for social if there isn’t a dedicated team?
Strategically Communicating 
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