Some Common Social Media Myths

Social Media presence is essential for social media marketing success. Its importance has now been discussed to exhaustion. Specialists all over the world have almost finished researching on methods to make it more effective. But despite the enormous growth of business presences on social networking sites, there are still many misconceptions about how best to use social media. To help cut through the hype, here are a few social media myths dispelled.

Social Media Marketing is free: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, etc may offer their services free of cost. But does that mean all of your Social Media efforts are free? For marketers to carry out Social Media activities effectively, they need to hire specialists who can handle Social Media really well and also need to train the existing staff .When it comes to marketing, Social Media isn't just for sharing updates about what you had in your lunch. Many prefer to outsource their Social Media efforts to safe hands to get the best out of it. All this activity costs a great deal of money. Do you still believe it's free?

Social Media ROI is Intangible: Wrong. You can use a variety of methods, including mentions on blogs and in media, comments on the content, real-time blog advertising results and so on. You can get very precise statistics from a variety of sites, including Google Trends, Google Analytics, BackType, and Compete. Many available brand monitoring services like BuzzMetrics, Radian6 and Attensity can help you measure the level of activity on blogs and forums and attach a sentiment score for the conversations taking place about your brand.

Social Media Networks are a Fad: While many believe that engaging in Social Media Marketing is just a hype and it is not going to last for a long time, the reality is that while the face of social media will certainly evolve in the future, conversational marketing will not vanish. The internet is an inherently social platform. It’s this ability to connect with people throughout the world that makes it so appealing. To say that social media is just a fad is to say that communication is just a fad. Care to change your mind?

Social Networking is for kids: Amongst a certain age group of people, Social Networking is synonymous with some 16 year old teen’s Facebook feed. While there are still plenty of teens and ‘tweens’ cruising the net, social networks have grown considerably in a short amount of time. According to Vizz Media, the age group with the most users on Facebook is 35-54. Sites like LinkedIn are dedicated entirely to professional networking and a huge slice of the crowd there consist of people who are 25+. Is social networking just for kids? Think again.

Social Media Marketing can help generate traffic quickly: If you are looking for a huge fan following to your brand very quickly, then Social Media is probably not the right place for you. Social Media Marketing is a time consuming process which involves many factors for success such as content, targeting, presentation, approach, etc. Once a brand initiates a presence in any network such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, it takes time to build that brand's community and ‘likeability’ amongst target audiences. Just the way ‘Rome wasn't built in a day’, neither is a community on Social Networks. If you wish to conduct Social Media Marketing campaigns yourself or hire a Social Media Agency in order to promote your brand in the correct manner, not just spam the hell out of people, you must use conversational marketing to engage them. This is one way which help you attain a loyal fan following. Nevertheless, this process is bound to take a little time.

Social Media Marketing is a powerful tool and companies should not overlook its importance. Taking time to understand these communication platforms, create a strategy and develop a sustainable approach can be a difference maker for your enterprise.