Social media marketing may be one of the most sought-after methods to promote a brand in the digital industry, but still, there are a number of misconceptions engulfing the field. When implemented appropriately, social media marketing can be a major decisive factor in helping the business move forward and explore new horizons.
As for this blog post, we’re going to examine some of the major misconceptions that hold back businesses in acquiring social media in their marketing strategies.
- Every social media platform is same
What marketers should essentially understand is that each social media platform is unique in its own way with the different audience and content preferences. For instance, B2B companies locate success more in LinkedIn than Snapchat or Twitter. Similarly, creative and digital agencies find Instagram and YouTube more lucrative and feasible due to their focus on visual content.
- We need to come on all channels for best results
Understandably every business’s money, time, and resources in the competition are valuable. Social media is a strategic move and it is advised that companies pick appropriate channels and platforms to reach their market. However, it doesn’t mean you cannot acquire other channels in your strategy, but better stay with one faithful platform if it’s already promising you great results.
- My audience is older, and social media is only for youth
The fact is, not only for youth, but social media is for all age groups. Only Facebook alone evidently shows about 1.23 billion active users on daily basis worldwide, and it’s the most popular social media channel registering a market share of 64% of users over the age of 12.
- I don’t see any use of social media in my industry
Undoubtedly, social media is one of the best means to portray yourself as thought leaders by delivering industry related content on regular basis. In doing so, customers perceive you as industry experts possessing in-depth knowledge of your offerings and services. With the paramount number of social media users on the rise with each year, businesses can capture this intensely rich opportunity by turning the prospects into potential leads.
- Social media is free of cost
Initially yes, till the point of creating your profile. But the time and effort took to manage the accounts definitely incur a cost. Most of the platforms provide the option of placing ads on their networks. But to get the best out of your preferred channel, it calls for an investment. Today statistics also state that companies are increasingly extending their social media budget given their campaigns and business requirements.
- There’s no way to measure the ROI on social media
There is a multitude of ways to garner data from social media channels. Most come with inbuilt analytics, and besides that, you can also use several tools including Hootsuite, Buffer, and TweetDeck that help users in scheduling their content posts and collect data from each of their social media platforms. Website analytics also tell a quite lot which channel directs the most visitors to your website.
- More hashtags, the more the visibility
What users fail to understand is that the excessive use of hashtags annoys the audience, rather than impressing them. Simply speaking, social media is all about offering relevant and valuable content to the right audience. This is why the hashtags should be short, accurate, purposeful, and not more than 10 for each post.
- Social media is time-consuming
Whenever there is a new campaign ready to kickoff, in most cases it looks as if the learning curve initially is unjustifiable time-consuming given its worth. But once you have acquired a powerful CMS with content creation and posts scheduling done in a systematic manner, you’ll see that your social media channel won’t eat your time more than checking emails in the workday.
- Negative comments are harmful to my business
It’s all about optimism, where even the negative feedbacks bring you a chance to identify the gaps in your business and operational procedures. Besides that, responding to negative feedback also shows the followers that you are ready to tackle the issue for a better solution. The point is to focus on continuous improvement.
- I won’t be able to match my rivals’ profiles
Let’s bind the fact, our social media presence shouldn’t be necessary as much as our competitors’. Rather the entire focus should be on how your posts display your offerings and customer service as different, unique, valuable, and competitive over the rest in the game. Try to expel a unique message and purpose that should tempt your followers to acquire your brand. In short, never compare yourself to others. The business should always measure its performance and progress as compared to the goals and milestones set at the inception of their social media campaign.
- It’s not about quality, but my frequency of posting new content
Another important thing to understand, customers are not navigating to your page to see how many posts you have uploaded today, rather they are more concerned in what a single post contains. It’s about the quality and not the quantity. Remember, content creators should focus on creating valuable content for your business, and not simply focus on the frequency of new posts.
- Social media is just a short-lived craze
Absolutely not! Technology is advancing at a frightening pace, and we’re beginning to witness newer features and customer engagement tools with each year. But when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing, the approach is unbeatable and is not going to disappear anytime soon.
Author Bio
Elton Gadon is a social media enthusiast and has been working in the digital industry executing top-of-the-line online campaigns in different markets. Besides his passion in digital marketing, Elton is also an experienced content writing service provider offering academic assistance in a plethora of disciplines to students and professionals worldwide.
