It has been long since i wrote something, and this post has been in draft stage for far too long now. At last i could complete it and here is my thoughts on some myths that surrounds social media which i have come across while talking to clients.
In addition to being the hot craze among internet users, social media websites also serve as great platforms for internet marketers and online businesses. Traditionalists shy away from developing their social media marketing (SMM) strategies, because of some common delusions that plague the reputation of social media.
Several myths have spread around regarding its effectiveness, but according to Social Time Reports – Instagram has grown by 50% in just 9 months, and SnapChat grew 56% in a year. This clearly suggests that social media marketing is the future, and it is here to stay.
If you are one of those, who are reluctant to jump the social bandwagon, because of your own apprehensions and floating myths about social media, then you might want to step back a bit and reconsider. Without social media marketing, your business will lose out badly to your competitors. Not only will it slow down your brand progress, but can also hurt your potential market share.
1st Myth – A belief that most consumers do not utilize social media
Many small businesses still continue to think that their consumers do not hang around on social sites. This is the biggest myth, which prevents majority of companies from interacting with potential consumers on social networking sites.
Even though social media sites were first developed to attract teens and youngsters, they have now rapidly transformed into powerful branding tools to engage with the users.
According to the demographics of social media, such sites attract people between 45 to 54 years old. Some brands argue that their consumer base comprises of senior users, and they are not using social networking channels. However, reports indicate that 71 % adult populations are FaceBook users.
Social networking has developed into a cultural standard, and people are signing in to their accounts everyday. If you are operating with an idea that your targeted market is not on social site means, you are missing huge potential consumer base.
Social channels have become an omnipresent form of communication, sharing, and communication, across all age groups. It is important for you to know that your competition companies will be using social media sites for targeting their clients.
2nd Myth – Objection of not having ways to measure social media effectiveness
This is another common objection given by companies for not participating in social media marketing campaigns. It is a fact that measuring social media efficiency is different, than how the how traditional marketing efficacy is analyzed. It does not mean there are no methods. Well, there are many new analytical tools, and you will need to learn about them, in order to identify what works and what doesn’t in your SMM efforts.
You can also use different tools for ongoing analytics and also to measure the campaign focused metrics.
Through ongoing analytics, the results of your overall social media activity can be tracked everyday. You can use the historical data with date range, to analyze the efficiency of your SMM strategies.
Through campaign focused metrics, you can get the clear picture of the impact created by your specific campaigns. In this category, one-time sales are also included. It may sound complicated, but you can find a number of tools that can make measuring a lot easier.
3rd Myth – No time for managing social media activities
A common delusion among many is that social media activities take a lot of time. It is the reason why many business owners, who are already overloaded with works, tend to deviate from it. The fact is that it is very easy to understand how to communicate on social media and maintain a dynamic presence on social sites.
You can make this process easy using numerous tools that are available online. The results of investing time and efforts on posting engaging and valuable content will go a long way improving your band name. You could also outsource the SMM jobs to professional service providers.
4th Myth – Social media means exposure to negative feedbacks
Businesses desire to keep away from negative comments. It is natural, but business owners experience negative feedback, even when they are not active on social media. When you receive negative comments, and if you are active on social networking platforms, then you can respond rapidly and have the issue addressed.
Ignoring social media means, you will miss the chance on opportunities to address the potentially negative feedback and comments speedily. Now, such non-responsiveness can damage your business more than just getting a few negative comments. Responding in public to consumer complaints, gives you an opportunity to display your organization’s excellent policy of timely customer service.
It is also true that brands occasionally get harassed by irate customers. If you are not doing something wrong, they will just end up looking silly.
5th Myth – Misconceptions about content
Sharing your competitor’s content is not a good idea – Contrary to that belief, experts believe that it is a good idea.
It certainly is obvious why this myth has occurred – why must you promote your competitor?
Well, sharing competitor’s content will help you in many ways.
It shows your fans your determination to give them the most excellent information, even if it comes from your rival. Another benefit is that your competitor will also start sharing your content, because you too are a professional in their niche.
In this way, you can keep a close eye on your competitor’s activities, or build a relationship by actively engaging with materials they produce.
Only post brand related or promotional content – You can communicate with followers on social media but avoid pushing your products. Fans desire to listen to your discounts and promotional deals, but avoid including sales pitch on every post.
You can connect with prospective customers and fans on personal level on social sites, so try to post contents that will keep your fans engaged, Give them something that they can share and discuss.
Generating lead is impossible with social media – Posting quality and relevant content certainly generates new followers, who can be directed to your website through sales funnel.
Blog posts including 300 to 700 words are the best –
To write interesting information, you will to create contents of least 600-800 words, but there are no hard and fast rules on this matter. Blogs are meant for providing comprehensive and helpful information, which is why the short contents or snippets might not do the trick for you. Long articles and blogs perform better on search engines, because you get to cover more keywords.
6th Myth – Social media is just a broadcast channel
Traditional marketing program included social media just as a channel to broadcast their message. If you believe that promoting your brand or inviting audience to buy from you via social media is a good way, then think again. You can end up with lesser followers every day, if you persist doing this.
In fact, social media is for two-way communication with followers and audience. Therefore identify your fans and share reviews and photos. Even post real-time useful and genuine content to keep your fans engaged. You can even communicate with the people responding to your content.
7th Myth – Social media marketing strategies are waste of time
Creating accounts on popular social channels like FaceBook, Twitter, or Tumblr, is easy, but it does not mean that they guarantee your business success.
Businesses follow the trend of creating new accounts with most social media sites, instead of a selected few. They end up using inappropriate platforms, or send wrong messages to wrong people. The results will be certainly poor, and they start believing that social media is not right for their business.
Basically, they have to think strategically of what their purpose of social media use is, what their message is, who they are talking with, and what those fans desire to hear. Using social media without strategic planning is like walking in wilderness without a map.
Certainly, you may reach your destination, but you my even end up at a lot of dead ends. This can be time consuming and frustrating process, which can make you give up ultimately.
8th Myth – No one has an idea of what works right on social media
Social media is newer concept than blogs, so not may marketers understand how to use it for business promotions – So, what is right and what is wrong?
Actually, there are experienced professionals, but they too do not give you guarantees on the effectives of their strategies within a definite timeframe. The experts are aware that the strategy has a big chance to succeed, but it also depends on the content creation and targeting of audience.
A well-formed social media strategy takes into consideration your audiences’ natures, assesses your content, and ensures that you select the appropriate social media platform that suits your business promotional needs.
9th Myth – Social media is just for teens or youngsters
Today’s youngsters understand digital technology innately, while elderly people will have to put in efforts to learn new stuff. The belief is that elders are not capable of understanding how social media works. The truth is that their technological abilities, interests, and accesses, are not same as that of young people, but they are very much active on social sites in their own way.
Young people link themselves to their technology differently, but it does not mean that they have developed deep understanding of it, than the elders. Therefore, it is vital that business marketers understand this myth, because it will also affect recruitment and marketing.
They hire inexperienced or too young people to handle their social networking communications. They forget the fact that the experienced people recognize the business, market, and consumers better. They have the communication skills necessary to perform well on social media platforms. A good balance of youthful vigor and experience make great SMM teams.
10th Myth – Some believe social media is 9 to 5 job
This is absolutely wrong. Internet is open 24/7/365, so make sure your marketing message impacts the social media world meaningfully, because there is switch-off at any given point of time. Post the right kind of content and see your consumer-base grow even, if when you are sleeping at night.
It is suggested for all businesses to register for accounts on the right social networking sites, even though they is surrounded by myths.
This is a new platform and people are still learning about different ways to leverage it. Have a strong strategy planned, before plunging on social media, in order to see great results.
Let me know by comment if i have left something or if you have a different perspective. All point of views are welcome.
Dwaipayan Chakraborty 
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