Social media marketing ideas and concepts are everywhere with experts imploring you to implement what they feel is the right path! Can you really trust their advice? We decided to cut through the fog of advice and shed some light on the reality behind the most common misconceptions about social media marketing.
Myth Number One: Buying Followers will Grow your Business
Brands like Pepsico or Mercedes-Benz, are expected to have their fair share of followers but you’d be surprised to know that they’ve been in the news for trying to artificially inflate their online popularity by buying followers. When real people notice sudden spikes in likes or follows uncorroborated by activity on those accounts, it indicates bought followers – that doesn’t go down well. Just ask Pepsico and Mercedes-Benz!
Myth Number Two: Sharing Others’ Content is Bad for Business
In a Nielsen Twitter Consumer Survey, it was discovered that 34% of people following you on Twitter are likely to be looking for quality content. More importantly, 30% of your followers are likely to be there for access to exclusive content. That simply means, you need to combine original posts with interesting things that other people will like and enjoy.
Myth Number Three: Repeating Posts Shows Poor Planning
Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop and HolyKaw, believes that posting things multiple times does not make a difference. People who miss the first post can often pick up on the second. As long as there is value in that post, and as long as you are not repeating it too close to each other, you are likely to get as many eyeballs on the second post as you get on the first. The key lies in finding the right balance!
Myth Number Four: Comments, Likes and Shares Matter
In 2013, the average Facebook page would reach about 13% of the people following it. One year down the line, that number fell to 3%. Today, it sits somewhere near 1.2%, showing that just because someone has liked your page doesn’t mean that they are reading the content you post. In fact, companies like Eat24 found that getting rid of their Facebook page, which had over 70,000 followers, got them more news coverage and shot their app downloads by over 75%.
Myth Number Five: Social Media is not connected to Sales
Here are some simple statistics that will show you why this myth needs to be trashed – Brands that use Twitter generate twice the number of leads as their competitors. Companies with over a thousand Twitter followers get 6-times the leads of lesser brands. Social media lead generation costs are lower than average lead generation costs for almost 45% of brands employing it. If that’s not reason enough for you to shift to social media marketing, then nothing is!
