In part one of this series, we unfolded the approximate cost of a social selling program for 20 salespeople selling to three primary vertical markets. In part two, we will share the fees you’ll pay if you sign up with one of the most popular social selling platforms. Let’s dive in!

How much do the various social selling or employee advocacy platforms cost exactly?

Pricing is one of the most significant factors before companies want to commit to a social selling program, but details on specific costs aren’t easy to find. That’s why we put in time and effort to break out prices and general information about what you get for the top six platforms on the market:

1.2EveryoneSocial

EveryoneSocial has three tiers starting with their newly announced (in 2022) Free Starter Package that allows marketers to create unlimited posts, user-level analytics and integrations into messaging platforms (Slack/Teams). Their paid subscription named Teams has a two-week free trial period and then costs $24/month per user. Above and beyond the free package, Teams provides account-level analytics and leaderboards of all users, automated emails to users and UTM tracking on shares. EveryoneSocial also offers an Enterprise package that presumably includes tiered-price breaks on a case-by-case basis.

Support is provided by a resource center active online. Monthly billing is set up for active users. Users who are inactive for more than 30 days are dropped from the bill.

2. Firstup (Social Chorus and Dynamic Signal)

Firstup has pivoted away from social selling and now focuses on workforce communications with an element of social advocacy. The brand promises hands-on account management and support to help organizations reach their goals. Firstup stands out with robust reporting and an award-winning mobile app.

At last glance in late 2021, we gathered their pricing to be as follows for their business’s social selling or employee advocacy module (note: below example was Dynamic Signal pricing Q4 2021): $23/user/month.

3. Oktopost

Oktopost focuses on social advocacy and social selling, emphasizing the many marketing enablement platforms with which they integrate their analytics.

From a pricing point of view, they do not offer a free version. The list price per user per month is $49 with tiered price breaks to remain competitive with other social advocacy tools such as EveryoneSocial. Oktopost has many corporate clients. Some of them are quite large and receive associated price breaks.

For support and integration with the many marketing platforms such as Salesforce, Hubspot and Marketo, Oktopost relies on agency partners who they connect with their clients. These agencies are mainly based in Europe with a global footprint.

4. Bambu by Sprout Social

Bambu is simple and relies on self-service and limited analytics that focus on marketing metrics around team shares. Built as an add-on to Sprout Social’s social service for corporate accounts (à la Hootsuite), the company offers a free version for 20-100 users to try. While Bambu does not publish pricing, we have seen enterprise versions in the $25/user range. Bambu is focused on employee advocacy but can easily be used for social selling. The sweet spot is getting company information for employees to share in their hands easily and efficiently.

5. GaggleAMP

Pricing for GaggleAMP is between $12-25/user/month. This pricing includes advanced analytics, a full range of social sharing actions, self-service content selection and setup. The tool also provides a higher-end service for 1,000+ users, including account manager support. This service, however, requires a “call for quote.”

GaggleAMP also provides training in social media topics and presumably the use of their social selling platform for a discounted price. Yet, this is extra to the platform and user license.

6. Seismic LiveSocial (acquisition of Grapevine 6)

Pricing for the Seismic LiveSocial social selling or employee advocacy program ranges from $15-25user/month. All prices quoted assume annual billing paid in advance to get the best discounts.

However, this is just one module of Seismic’s sales enablement portfolio. Primarily, this company focuses on social selling with LiveSocial. Analytics and the mobile app are priority topics when talking to enterprises.

What you need to know about curation and creation of social media posts

The second cost variable for any social selling program is the curation and creation of social posts. This process includes finding the content that the team will share, formatting the visuals and media type and creating a usable social blurb or post that users can post online. Our study shows that if you leave the writing of the social post up to the employee or salesperson, the post is 1,000 times less likely to be shared by the social selling platform user.

Whether you use internal resources or hire an agency to create the posts weekly, this needs to be part of your budget. If you ask an agency to create content, the cost will likely be $3,000 per month for 10-20 posts per week, loaded into any platform mentioned above.

Programm-Management

The final pricing element for a social selling program is the program management cost. Some platforms offer account support at higher levels. However, in general, you will need a program manager to ensure users stay engaged, the content hits the mark, users stay trained and analytics and reporting are created to determine ongoing ROI. This work can be done for ten or fewer hours a week and will cost an average program of 150 users or less $2,000 per month.

Return on investment

How do you measure social selling ROI? The benefits of social selling usually start as intangibles like brand recognition and relationship-building. In the long run, these relationships can result in a longer lifetime value of a customer, a larger average order value and more frequent purchases. These are measurable quantities that lead to increased sales and profits.

There are also more traditional ways to measure social selling ROI. For example, you can check the following data:

22222• Number of accounts reached.

22222• Audience engagement.

22222• Level of site traffic.

22222• Number of leads generated.

22222• Number of clients that have signed up or started conversations.

22222• Total revenue.

The information gathered in this article gives you a good overview of what prices you can expect from different companies in the social selling industry. It also helps you understand what necessary elements are not included in the various service bundles.

Have you already implemented a social selling program? Did you use a paid platform or create your own system? Share your experiences with us in the comments! If we haven’t addressed all of your concerns, feel free to ask any questions you may have about social selling. We’d love to hear your feedback!