Back in the day, in the pre-web, pre-digital, pre-Twitter era, they used to define publicity as "free advertising." (I say "they" because I never subscribed to that definition of publicity.)

That was, of course, wrong. Publicity is anything but free. It takes a lot of work and diligence to generate publicity, especially to do it right. And, that takes money — either to pay your own team driving the PR machine or an outside firm or consultant. It certainly is not "free."

Today, with social media as the next hot thing — and, in the opinion of many, including myself, the future of PR — there is a similar myth that social media programs are inexpensive. Equally not true.

A new media blogger, Jason Baer, recently posted on the myths of social media, and the common misconception that social media is cheap was his first point of six. (Baer’s "myth’s" post got a lot of positive play on Twitter and other sites, quite justifiably. Based in Flagstaff, AZ, Baer is a social media and email marketing consultant. BTW, have you noticed, especially on Twitter, the exploding number of social media "experts" out there? Pretty amazing!)

Needless to say, I agree with Jason on this particular myth point…and his others, too. My firm, THUNDER FACTORY, develops, implements and manages social media programs for a number of clients, and we charge a fair price for this work. In fact, a social media program pretty much equates to an ongoing PR effort in terms of fee (it typically requires an upfront set-up cost and then an ongoing maintenance and management fee, which varies depending on exactly what and how much you do the client).

For some clients, we develop the social media strategy and then establish the basic program infrastructure. Typically we would also help with ongoing social media monitoring, tracking and results measurement. We also have some clients who employ our firm to write the actual blog(s) and develop other content, based on their input and in line with a content development schedule we establish upfront. This content schedule is continually updated and refreshed to reflect what is happening at the company and in the world/culture/market.

Naturally, the fee varies by the amount of work we deliver, but I certainly would not call it inexpensive. That is because, as Jason Baer notes in his post, social media takes plenty of time and effort. Equally important, social media communications and engagememt is of very high value (in my opinion) and thus deserving of an appropriate recompense. There is no free lunch…even at Google!

But, even with all of that, some companies and organizations still tend to view social media as some kind of amateur undertaking. They really don’t take it all that seriously (yet…they will). Consequently, you often see companies (even big ones!), giving the social media outreach task to a low-level and definitely low cost "intern." Sure, that intern is being supervised, but, still, this is a bad reflection on the importance accorded the social media function by too many companies.

Believe me, Domino’s Pizza doesn’t underestimate the importance or power of social media anymore. Not after their disastrous (near death?) experience with two venal employees who created a disgusting video about Domino’s and posted it on YouTube. Prior to the crisis, Domino’s clearly was not a major social media proponent or participant. Hence, they were dangerously slow to recognize and understand the Force 10 Hurricane that was about to envelop the Domino’s brand on various social media sites, especially Twitter. They learned quickly and rebounded after about a day and half, but not before getting reamed online for the offending videos, and especially for being so flat footed in their crisis response. (Dealing with a crisis is never cheap. A company will pay pretty much anything to make it go away, or at least just respond effectively to it.)

Lesson? Social media is deserving of your A-Team efforts. It is now an increasingly important part of your communications universe (whether you like it or not), because people are talking about you and your brand online (whether you want them to or not).

Given all of that, you shouldn’t just relegate social media to your organization’s farm team. Certainly not just an intern (not that I have anything against interns), because social media takes more experienced people at the helm to manage it effectively and to good effect. And that is just on the "normal" days when the news and chatter is mostly neutral or even positive. When an issue emerges, you need real pros on the case or you could quickly have a full blown Domino’s like crisis on your hands. Then you will wish you hadn’t just hired an intern to handle your social media function.

None of this is inexpensive. That said, compared to all the other channels and tools for communications, monitoring and marketing, social media is still a pretty good value.

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