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3 May 2013

Social Media Marketing Myths: Exposing the Common Myths

Social Media Marketing Myths Exposed

Over the short history of social media a number of myths have cropped up. As with myths in other areas of life, these social media marketing myths have in some circles have gained the validity of facts. There are a number of reasons to explain the creation of these myths. The prime reason is due to the speed with which social media updates and evolves, making it hard to keep up with the progress.  So here is a collection of some of the most common social media myths in social circulation right now.

social media marketing myths

Social Media Marketing Myths – Google Plus is useless:

Simply put this just isn’t true. People who believe Google Plus is useless tend not see the multitude of uses for the platform. The platform has a lot of scope for SEO work, providing great value to any SEO campaign.  Also posts from the platform are being indexed in SERPs. Furthermore authors Google Plus profiles are being listed in relevant search results. All of which increases the traffic rating on listings for the page. Even if you are not receiving much direct interaction via your Google Plus page, you may well inadvertently receive a rise in your organic search rankings due to the level of your activity on the platform.

Social Media Marketing Myths – You should not get personal:

It is a fact that all content published as part of a social commerce campaign should be relevant to your audience. However this certainly does not mean that it is inappropriate to post content which depicts your brand’s personality. You can even go as far posting content which demonstrates your local manager’s personality. This is actually something you should be trying to do as much as possible. Why? Simply because it shows that behind your companies brand are a collection of real people. Make an effort to demonstrate this through showing a personal sense of humour, pictures of your employees and even links to unrelated news which is interesting to you personally.

Social Media Marketing Myths – Social Media is a source of free marketing:

Yes there are no fees or subscription payments to use or join the majority of social media platforms. However according to Hubspot’s 2012 state of inbound marketing report, 45% claimed social media had a less than average cost per lead. This was surpassed only by their blogs and the leads which it generated. Social media is just like any other avenue for marketing. In that resources need to be invested into social media marketing or social commerce. In order to have success with social media for marketing purposes you will need to invest time and energy into it. These resources may be free from a financial perspective, but social media marketing is not a free lunch, it takes effort and commitment. However the investment is most definitely worth the effort!

Social Media Marketing Myths – It is imperative to respond to any activity immediately:

A quick response is good etiquette, no doubt. However it is not essential. People understand that you are running a business and spending all day responding to social media communication is not conducive to productivity. So replying to people in good time is essential, getting back to people in a matter of seconds is not.

Like every rule, there are some exceptions. For example the company Verizon runs several Twitter accounts. One is exclusively designed to provide support to subscribers. The people who are running this page should respond rapidly to any points. Simply put that is the purpose of the page. To offer users speedy support.

Social Media Marketing Myths – If my friends and family like all my Facebook posts my ranking will increase:

From a theoretical point of view this myth has a certain amount of validity. However it reflects a misunderstanding of the inner workings of social media platforms. Let’s take Facebook; you can get friends to like every single post and piece of content you submit. However the EdgeRank algorithm which the platform utilises is far more sophisticated than that. It can recognise that the same people like your content, so ranks you accordingly. To reach a wider audience requires a variety of people interacting with your content whether by liking or commenting on the feed. This works two ways, firstly by growing your total reach, and secondly increases the number of newsfeeds you appear in, inadvertently increasing your audience.

Social Media Marketing Myths – Social Media is for the young:

It just isn’t true! Despite appearances social media is not primarily the stomping ground of the young. Statistically speaking it is far from the case. So, companies which think that their target audience are not represented on social media platforms are denying themselves of the ability to access with them on a personal level. The statistics tell a revealing story of the true Facebook demographic:

  • 30% of all Facebook users are aged over 30.
  • 52% of individuals aged between 55 and 64 have joined a social media network.
  • 93% of all adult internet users in America have a Facebook account.