10 areas to spend most of your social media budget on (and why)

When it comes to social media marketing, a lot can be done on a budget, and sometimes even for free. It costs nothing to create an account and start posting, but there are other aspects of social media that will likely require some investment. And whether you're working with limited funds or have a much larger budget at your disposal, choosing the right areas of social media marketing to devote the bulk of your budget to can help ensure you're on track. success.< /p>

To narrow down the areas you think deserve the most attention, consider the following recommendations from members of the Young Entrepreneur Council. Below, they share 10 areas of social media marketing that they believe deserve the bulk of your budget and why.

1. Quality pictures

Much of social media marketing is visual-based, with Instagram being the most notable example of a photo-based social media platform. Good photos that show your company's competitive advantages or your pleasant work environment can do more for your business than a page of customer testimonials. When you want to use testimonials, make sure they come with a good photo. A well-written photo caption is a powerful marketing tool, and it should complement the quality of the photo it's centered on. People don't read social media so much as they browse it, so you need to really engage users visually and then use almost poetic photo captions to get the point across. No one has the time or inclination to read a long essay about your business. - Kyle Michaud, Carolina Dozer

2. Social commitment

Companies are brilliant at social listening, automation, and social tools, but most take social engagement lightly. You can only reach your customers on social media when you communicate with them, sometimes in real time. Customers respect this and feel much more aligned with your brand when you're easy to reach and communicate with. There are other areas to spend money on, like content creation, management tools, and design, but all of that effort only counts when you're ready to engage with your customers on social media. Authentic communication has a lot more influence on your customers than good social content. -Vikas Agrawal, Infobrandz

3. Analysis tools

If there was one thing I would prioritize in a social media marketing budget, it would be analytics. It's important to know how your business is doing in terms of what's reaching and what's not reaching your target audience. Analytics can help you determine the direction you need to take to evolve your marketing strategy and stay relevant to your audience. If businesses don't track the root of their success or failure in a marketing strategy, they won't know what steps they need to take to continue to engage their audience. - John Hall, Calendar

4. Ad spend

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