Scott Monty - Latest Comments in Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

GChat — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:11:07 -0000

Social media is a huge, inexpensive and quick way to reach out for a business of any size. What really is beginning to come round now, is the fact that you do pay for quality. Yes, paying someone to develop a viable Facebook or Twitter strategy may seem a rather frivolous outlet for company's productivity at first, but when the traffic starts coming in and the leads are flowing - no one is complaining. And in the age where most good are at least in part digital, should they really?

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Scott Monty — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:07:24 -0000

Not long. We're working on it right now.

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Carlos Corte — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:52:35 -0000

Great comments all .... very illustrating. In a large global company such as Ford, how long do you think it'll take to have social media initiatives started in the U.S. to reach all markets?

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Andy Clarke — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:33:04 -0000

Agreed. How do you convince senior management to fund a headcount for a Social Marketing activities, particularly in this depressed economy? @clarkemate

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Scott Monty — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:25:58 -0000

If he's Joe Average, odds are he'll remain Joe Average. As I said above, the forward-thinking marketers will get it.

Of course, the Joe Averages who are at least open-minded will need to be shown the way. And for that, there are plenty of examples of companies that are committing dollars to it; all you have to do is to look at the Social Media Business Council for which large companies are engaged. If a large company can do it, a smaller more nimble company can do it too.

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Kathy Bowling — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:17:36 -0000

So how do we convince Joe Average Business Professional that more funding for social media campaigns will lead to more success with them?

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Nelson — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:01:50 -0000

Mr. Monty,

I have heard this conversation many times in medium to large sized companies.

By taking a fraction of a large media buy and applying it to a social media initiative, marketers can create a disproportionate impact.

Done repeatedly, this can result in real traction for a brand. All it takes is a little bit of risk and a bit of creative thinking when it comes to budgets.

I thought it was especially funny.. is that the right word?... that you BOLDED the word fraction. The avg spends on traditional media continue to surprise me and many times could be spent so much more efficiently. Anyways. I thought I would share a couple links with you.

Here is one that shows research done on using social media:

http://www.marketingexperim...

Here is one for a community you might be interested in.

www.inSocialMedia.com

I have reposted this for the marketers there to read. I hope you don't mind.

Regards,

Nelson Bruton

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

brittonmanasco — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 13:36:49 -0000

Excellent post. Given the number of comments, I think you've also hit the raw nerve. I agree, as you suggest, that it's best to do demonstration projects and build momentum based on demonstrable success. Skepticism must be overcome with the results.

Britton Manasco
Illuminating the Future

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Shailesh Ghimire — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:23:16 -0000

Scott,

The perception seems to be that social media is cheap with no real cost. Which can be true in the sense that it costs nothing to set up a Twitter account. However, as you correctly point out the labor cost is where the investment comes in. I know there is a chart floating around on Flickr which gives an approximate estimate of how much time one needs to spend to have a good Social presence and to receive the results you desire. In some cases you're looking at upwards of 20 hours/week!

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Brett Tilford — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:01:43 -0000

Good post Scott. I think it can be difficult for companies to fork over money for this arena because it feels so unproven and risky. Of course with risk comes the potential of a big reward...

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

SEO Services — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:32:39 -0000

Nice Post. Thanks for sharing this information with us.

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

NickW — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:15:38 -0000

Good point! Any advice for handling the proposal when the budget you're taking away from is the highly trackable search and affiliate channels? Obviously ROI on these channels is ruthlessly trackable, whereas apportioning spend to a viral marketing campaign needs vast viewer numbers to justify itself, none of which is attributable to any subsequent registration or purchase and therefore cannot be allocated a similarly precise CPA. I realise this is an unusual situation but it's still key when your company is required to be DM-focused.

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Scott Monty — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:30:30 -0000

The risk I was referring to was more in the area of giving up some traditional media dollars and apportioning them to social media projects. Having worked with pharma, medical device and biotech clients before, I completely understand the difficulty in doing social media in a highly regulated environment.

Keep the faith!

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Ian Orekondy — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:22:41 -0000

"All it takes is a little bit of risk..."...for most of us (especially those of us working with clients in highly-regulated industries like pharma), it's critical that innovative search and social media strategies address the risks directly. Nielsen NetRatings has an interesting whitepaper on listening to consumers in highly regulated markets here. It's helping to keep me optimistic, as the string of late nights continues! http://www.netratings.com/e...

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

lhaus — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:40:53 -0000

Amen!

Great piece on DM too, congrats. Will definitely use this in our pitches. Have to say it's frustrating some times - I've actually been able to prove that a social marketing campaign not only delivered a lower CPC than banner campaigns for a client, but delivered additional engagement, word of mouth, etc. etc. and they still came back asking how to measure ROI. This post gives me hope.

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

LJ Jones — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:13:17 -0000

Here is some ammo for why we should take some money from the traditional media budget and put it toward social media.

"Nielsen most recently surveyed consumers on their attitudes toward thirteen types of advertising – from conventional newspaper and television ads to branded web sites and consumer-generated content. The Nielsen survey found that overall, consumers trust other consumers above all else!"

http://www2.acnielsen.com/r...

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Jaimie — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:57:23 -0000

Great post! I'm pitching this exact ideal to a client tomorrow!

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Scott Monty — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:46:34 -0000

Shh! Don't tell anyone - that very thing happened to me yesterday at Ford. It was a transformative moment!

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

servantofchaos — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:27:17 -0000

Agree about testing the waters. Of course, it also means taking some of that money out of the media budget ... and that means going against years of media-oriented thinking. It's time to snap out of those bad habits ;)

Re: Please, Sir, May I Have Some More (Budget)?

Will Wheeler — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:22:22 -0000

Well said, my friend!

Funny that I was involved in a conversation this morning with a client who was re-branding and curious about how much "this social media thing will cost" in the end.

I'm using this post as back up :)