Is social media marketing really free? Is it really a low cost alternative to traditional advertising for your small business? Social media marketing may be more expensive than you might think.

There are a lot of opinions about marketing and advertising being expressed online these days. The internet is filled with people who are blogging about advertising your small business. Many aren’t shy about sharing their opinion – even if it’s not based on real world experience.

Some of those are saying that advertising is a wasted expense for your small business. They say you shouldn’t spend money on advertising because social media marketing is “free”.

They say that all you need is a Twitter account and a blog to promote your small business.

If you think social media is the free and easy way to promote your business – you might want to think again.

It’s easy to see the “appeal” of social media marketing. After all, “conventional” advertising requires the small business owner to write a check to pay for the advertising. Since small business owners are ALWAYS on the look out for ways to minimize the the number of times that they have to write checks – it’s easy to see the “appeal” of social media marketing.

However, before you, the small business owner, decides to cancel your traditional advertising contracts and sign up for a Twitter account and a free WordPress.com blog – there are a few things to consider.

While it may not be prohibitively expensive in terms of cash outlay, it can be extremely expensive in the amount of time and energy one needs to invest in the medium.

Blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all touted as popular social media marketing tools, yet each requires a considerable investment of time and energy for any to yield results.

While you can place an ad in a newspaper and be assured that X number of subscribers will be exposed to your message, there are no such guarantees when it comes to your blog. Without a considerable investment of time and energy into not only creating content, but promoting and search engine optimizing your blog posts, blogging can easily be the least productive use of a small business owner’s time.

So the first question you need to ask yourself, as a small business owner who is considering whether or not to invest in “traditional” media advertising is this:

DO YOU HAVE MORE TIME THAN MONEY?

If the answer is yes, then you’re probably an ideal candidate for social media marketing.

Just be forewarned that there is a STEEP learning curve to learning to use ANY marketing tool effectively. It’s important to draft a marketing strategy – complete with objectives before you embark upon your social media marketing campaign. Even then, social media missteps can be deadly. It’s best to sit back and observe before jumping into the fray.

If, on the other hand, the answer to the question above is no, then you may find that investing in traditional forms of advertising may be the best investment of your time and money. Traditional media advertising is “passive” while marketing via the web is definitely “aggressive”.

Of course, having a marketing strategy in place is the first step in deciding whether or not social media marketing is a viable option for your business. Without a marketing strategy – you’re gambling and not marketing your business.

Kathy Hendershot-Hurd is a social media marketing consultant who is passionate about helping small business owners master the web. In 1997 she launched Virtual Impax and she’s written a book, Beyond the Niche to help small business owners create an effective marketing strategy for their business.

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