{"id":6125,"date":"2016-05-06T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T11:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6125"},"modified":"2016-05-06T21:03:12","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T21:03:12","slug":"get-it-right-the-difference-between-social-spend-and-advertising-spend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/get-it-right-the-difference-between-social-spend-and-advertising-spend\/","title":{"rendered":"Get it right: The Difference Between \u201cSocial Spend\u201d and \u201cAdvertising Spend\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Social spend\u2014you can\u2019t escape the term in the marketing world, but what does it really mean? Most of the articles and statistics you see on social spend are narrow in focus\u2014it\u2019s all about ad buys<\/a>. From that perspective, social spend sets a new all-time high every year. In 2015, the estimated social ad spend\u00a0checked in at nearly $24 billion<\/a>, largely thanks to\u00a0mobile advertising<\/a>. This year, it will surely be even higher.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, ad spend and social spend aren\u2019t the same thing at all\u2014yet they\u2019re purported to be the same in news headlines. We need to differentiate between ad spend and overall social spend, but many times outlets that re-publish these articles create misleading titles, such as: \u201cFacebook Named Most Effective Social Channel by Marketers,\u201d which was truncated from the original article\u2019s headline, which was \u201cFacebook named the most effective social media platform for advertising.\u201d Totally different subject. If you\u2019re going to talk about social ad spend, talk about ad spend\u2014don\u2019t get lazy with titles or try to make them more sensational.<\/p>\n

I get upset about this because if you look at social strictly as a traditional advertising medium, you\u2019re going to miss out on the most important qualities that set social marketing apart. The real \u201csocial spend\u201d comes in your investment in your social marketing team, and your commitment to training your employees on how to \u201cbe\u201d social. That\u2019s a really difficult concept for many brands to grasp, because they\u2019re trained (by the news hype) to think about social purely from an advertising mindset.<\/p>\n

Get More Return on Your Social Spend by Taking a New Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paid advertising is not a bad thing in isolation, but the media hype around social misses the point. It\u2019s just not the only way to invest in social resources. An engaging, innovative social team is an investment that isn\u2019t considered in the numbers that are touted in these articles, yet that focus moves the brand from capitalizing on passing interest, to building meaningful relationships and engagement that builds trust and loyalty.<\/p>\n

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\uf611<\/a>Here\u2019s an easy way to look at it: Try naming the last five ads you encountered on Facebook \u2013 or even just one of them. Now, name the last five people you engaged with directly through the same channel, directly or vicariously (by paying attention to a conversation\/engagement). Which list is more memorable?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Purchase Ad Spend; Invest in Relationships<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what social is really all about, and it\u2019s where you\u2019ll find the most value over time, yet when most executives think of social, they think in terms of campaigns and cost centers rather than long-term investment in social capital. Until brands get that right, I\u2019m afraid it\u2019s still an uphill battle to change brand mindset around social spend.<\/p>\n

So when the next wave of social spend numbers hit, please take them with a grain of salt. In the end, it all comes back to Return on Relationship<\/a>. Even the best ads are no substitute for real, person-to-person social interaction. We\u2019ll be much better off if we focus on the people, and invest social budgets in a sustainable strategy for building relationships\u2014not just as a different type of ad spend.<\/p>\n

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Previously posted at TedRubin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social spend\u2014you can\u2019t escape the term in the marketing world, but what does it really mean? Most of the articles and statistics you see on social spend are narrow in focus\u2014it\u2019s all about ad buys. From that perspective, social spend sets a new all-time high every year. In 2015, the estimated social ad spend\u00a0checked in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1965],"class_list":["post-6125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tedrubin","tag-ronr-noletup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6127,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions\/6127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}