Social media is free. This is commonly accepted. I participate in several personal accounts with all the usual suspects: Facebook, Twitter (three different handles), LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest—plus a few other niche platforms—and I’ve yet to spend a cent on any of them. I also work with many clients to establish or nurture social media presences for their businesses. Establishing accounts for these businesses was also free in the fact that the social media platform did not charge a fee for the business to own an account. But this is where the free-ness of social media, and social media marketing, becomes a bit more complicated, and even a misnomer.

It turns out that having social media is not synonymous with doing social media well.

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