A few common phrases you might hear when talking about how to budget, strategize and allocate resources for a healthcare social media effort.

• “We can just hire an intern, they know all about Facebook.”
• “How much time could it possibly take to get a 140 character message out there?  These two sentences alone are more than 140 characters—piece of cake.”
• “YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are all free, why should I pay anyone to manage that?”
• “We see this as a corporate communications function so let’s just assign it to our corporate communications director.  What?  Added compensation?  This is part of the new job description, she certainly has the time.”

Of course, these are all a bit tongue-in-cheek but you get the gist.  There is a common misunderstanding about the amount of resources required to effectively engage in social media.  Rich Meyer wrote a post today that points to an eMarketer report that says this perception might be shifting.  The report indicates that 41.6% of marketers list time and resources as the biggest barrier to entry for social media.  Not surprisingly then, 37.8% of marketers list “not allocating proper time and resources” as the biggest mistake they made in social media.

At this point, it seems like beating a dead horse, but social media is not easy.  Before you ever get involved, you need to properly plan, set a strategy and align your internal social media team.  These are just the building blocks of starting a social media engagement and don’t even scratch the surface of the planning required for success.

I’ve made this analogy several times before, but it bears repeating in the context of the resource question.  Social media can be boiled down to the simple dynamics of a relationship.  In its simplest form, social media is starting new relationships, building on existing ones and fostering long-lasting bonds.  It sounds a lot like relationships in our real lives doesn’t it?  Like any relationship, social media takes commitment, honesty and above all else—hard work.

And like any relationship, social media is not easy, but the payoff is rewarding.

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