What exactly is the real cost of social media? When it comes to social media, some people are followers…others are leaders. Those who “follow” the “leaders” are often the ones that expand the customer base. Hence, the power of social media, which makes it a necessary marketing tool.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. And there is also no such thing as free marketing, even if social media accounts are free.

An infographic by Focus.com uncovers some of the costs of using social media for marketing, “from staff costs to external fees, advertising and more, and discusses whether the ROI makes social media spending worth the cost.

The infographic reads, “With social media at the height of its popularity, advertisers and companies find it an easy and trendy means of expanding their marketing horizons. While many companies may be fooled by the free cost to open a social media account, many fail to consider the expenses that go into running a social media campaign. Do the benefits really outweigh the costs?”

According to the infographic, the total cost of a standard social media campaign is likely to run somewhere in the vicinity of $210,600. This takes care of labor costs for a social media strategist, good programmers and designers, the people necessary to make your campaign look great and be a success.

The infographic also explores the results that came from the social campaign for Old Spice called “Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Old Spice got a 2700% increase in Twitter followers, an 800% increase in Facebook followers and a 300% increase in site traffic.

Is being a Facebook fan of a brand mean anything? It turns out that it does. Fans spend more money on the brands that they are fans of than non-fans do.

In our minds, the average price of social media marketing is downright obnoxious. What small business owner can afford such high rates? Are solid social media campaigns limited only to startups that have major investment capital to work with?

Sure, companies that have the money to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually on social media campaigns can afford the biggest and best in social media marketing agencies — but they can also afford the biggest and best in advertising, product placement, PR and all other types of marketing.

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