Do you really understand social media? Understanding social media is not a difficult thing at all. However, some businesses still can't figure it out. They can't figure it out because misconceptions are spread all over the internet concerning social media.
Getting more involved in social media now is better than waiting until later because it will get to a time that it will seem more confusing and even more difficult for businesses.
If you hold any of the beliefs below, do away with it and jump on board before you miss the train.
- Misconception #1: Blogging is a tool: Blogging is a business strategy, not a tool. A blog is rather the tool used for blogging. A blog also helps you integrate your other strategies like social media marketing by linking to other strategy enhancing tools like social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube. Yes, social media marketing too is strategy. All the strategies you use in your blogging and social media strategies are just sub-strategies of blogging and social media which are your main strategies for success in achieving this or that.
- Misconception #2: Social Media is about numbers: Is it of essence to build 40,000 Twitter followers and 20,000 Facebook fans who don't buy from you? Social media is about relationship building and influence. Sorry, but having a large number of followers doesn't mean you are influential. One-to-one relationships build influence. Good relationships later lead on to influence. If you have 200 Twitter followers who listen and engage with you, you stand a better chance to get a sale from them than from 40,000 people who don't send you @ messages about anything of your business' interest. It's best to follow the people you want to talk or listen to (a.k.a. your target audience) than follow just anybody.
- Misconception #3: Automation Means Using Tools: No, measurement rather means using tools. Automation means your fans and followers will do your work for you. They will be your evangelists and will recruit more fans and followers for you. The number one quality required here is patience. If you rely on tools to build your fans and followers, you will most likely recruit web robots who also want you to buy something from them. Would you rather waste time gathering status update spectators or you want to utilize your time to build a more targeted following?
- Misconception #4: Be present everywhere: So you've been told to have a Twitter profile, a Facebook fan page, a Youtube channel, a LinkedIn group, Digg profile, etc. Well, are your customers gathered there? Do you have the resources to manage your business on every social media and networking site? Before you put your business on any social networking site, be sure of what you want to achieve with that profile; customer service, more leads or maybe sales. After setting your goal, stick to it. If at any point you find any trouble getting the results you want, perform a social media audit.
- Misconception #5: There is no ROI: If you are not getting any ROI, then you are either doing something wrong or you're not measuring things right. Dell has been able to make over $6.5 million on Twitter alone. Avaya also made a $250,000 sale using Twitter. Small businesses are also using Twitter to bring in some ROI using social media. To make social media marketing work for you, you need to communicate your intentions well with your followers. Dell's @delloutlet clearly tells everyone they will be selling. We all know what an outlet means. If all you are going to do with one of your Twitter accounts is to just give discount coupons, tell your customers about it. So anybody who follows you knows you'll be tweeting coupons from time to time. Secondly, ROI is not just about money or profits. If your aim is to get leads or newsletter subscriptions, your ROI will be the number of leads you collect. Then your ROI on those leads will be the number of leads you convert to sales. Social media can be a channel for both lead collection and direct selling. You need to communicate it well. Plan your campaign well. Remember, the most important thing in marketing is communication so don't forget to plan about what you want to communicate to your followers.
Now that we have gotten these wrong ideas taken care of, where are you headed to with your social media marketing campaign? In your experience, what other misconceptions have you found?