By BDX Guest Blogger, Carol Morgan, mRELEVANCE

Any good homebuilder or business person knows that giving away something for “free” is a great way to entice new potential customers or even keep current homeowners happy. No matter the size of the gift being given away, people flock to free. However, we all also know that nothing in life is truly free, including social media. Yes, technically, social media is still free to use, but as time has passed more and more sites are converting to a “pay to play” model. And, since they have your business relying on them to connect with buyers and drive sales, chances are, you’ll end up forking over the money to keep on playing.

Look at Facebook for example, builders heavily rely on this social media giant to reach new homebuyers, connect with current homeowners, share information and more. Lately though, you may have noticed that it seems like fewer fans are engaging with your page. It isn’t your mind playing tricking on you; engagement has been limited. Now that Facebook has become a publicly traded company, they upped the ante by creating new promoted posts and advertising campaign features. Unless you’re willing to pay (an amount that is decided by you), then chances are you will continue to see less traffic and less engagement to your page.

You may be thinking to yourself that you’ll never buy in, but if spent wisely, this money is a solid investment. Statistics have shown that 16 percent of fans are reached organically on average per post on the site, and this number increases by 40 to 150 percent through paid advertisements.

An example of one business that is using this to their advantage is Atlanta Real Estate Forum. A product of mRELEVANCE, this Atlanta real estate news site has been promoting their weekly radio show posts for $10 a day, three days a week. In that time, radio show downloads have almost doubled, page likes are up significantly and these posts are reaching more than 50,000 people.

But, Facebook isn’t the only site that is “cashing in.” Twitter has started promoting users to pay for tweets and Tumblr charges for highlighted and pinned posts. They’re getting away with this because they know you’ll keep coming back for more, and of course, they’re in the business of making money too.

If your business is looking to effectively monetize your social media program in 2013, visit www.MarketingRELEVANCE.com to learn more about how we can help you.