After hearing about and witnessing all sorts of odd and strange social media strategies/campaigns/discussions, I decided to address some of the big social media myths out there. I’m sure you know of several social media myths as well so please share them in the comments. Ok, let’s get right into the social media myths:
He who has the most followers or friends wins
False. Quality does not equal quantity. Just because you have 10,000 twitter followers or facebook friends doesn’t mean the quality of your relationships is good, are you interacting with them? are you providing value?
If you create a social media profile, people will talk to you
False. This is a big myth, a lot of people and some companies think that just by creating a facebook fan page or a twitter profile that users are going to want to talk to them, not true! You have to work to earn trust and you have to work to earn the privilege of having your users talk to you.
It’s good to be everywhere
False. Do you really think that if you join 100 social networks you are going to be more successful than someone who joins 3 social networks? Join as many networks as you can maintain and when I mean maintain I mean provide value and interact with those that are engaging with you. Join the networks that are relevant now the ones that are prevalent.
Leave comments everywhere, it’s good for SEO
False. As someone who runs a team of technical SEOs, I hate hearing this. Let’s think about this for a moment, Google has a whole team of phd’s (I have a few I work with) working for them, do you think that leaving a few comments with your desired anchor text is really going to propel you to the top of rankings? There is a lot more to SEO then links, and if you really want to know more then you can e-mail me. Leaving comments is a great idea but don’t do it for SEO, do it to add value to the conversation, that way people will want to visit your site to see what you have to say.
Social media is easy
False. Social media is far from easy in fact I would argue that social media is probably the most difficult aspect of marketing. Why? Because it involves building relationships, growing communities, continuous interaction, and human emotion. Relationships are never easy, and if you think that you can just waltz into the social media game and expect to get great results, well good luck!
Everyone loves me or my brand
False. People and companies alike are oftentimes shocked when they engage their users via social media only to find out that the users actually don’t have anything nice to say about them. Let’s be clear, if you get involved in social media you’re probably going to come across a few people who hate you and a few people that love you. The challenge is keeping the ones that love you happy while converting the ones who hate you into people who love you.
Social media works is a quick strategy
False. Social media does deliver results but if you are the type of person who asks “what can we see in one month from a social media campaign” then don’t even bother getting started because you will fail. Social media takes time, it’s not something you can flip on and off, if it’s on, it’s on forever. Social media is a never ending relationship building mechanism it doesn’t work on a schedule so don’t try. Just remember, every day that goes by is another day that you could have been engaging with your users and building up your community.
Social media is free
False. Now, there are free social media platforms out there such as facebook, wordpress, etc. but social media is far from free. Social media requires a lot of time and commitment for it to succeed. While you may not be paying directly for the tools (some you will pay for) you can bet that you will be paying for the time (or using your own) which in a lot of cases is more valuable then paying for a product.
Social media will make everything ok
False. Social media is one component of a marketing strategy. Sure, social media is the best way to build relationships with your users but you also have to think about SEO, PPC, offline events, print advertising, radio, television, email marketing, etc. (whichever apply to you). Social media is one way to reach people it’s not the only way. Make sure you are reaching out to your users via multiple channels to capture a broader and more targeted audience.
It’s too late to use social media
False. If you think that it’s too late to use social media then you are probably a pessimist. It’s not too late to use social media. Your users and customers are always going to be out there talking about you and the sooner you begin talking to them the better off you are. Every day you wait is another day that you could have been interacting with your customers. Social media is still a baby but it’s taking off quickly. Get involved ASAP.
I can think of several others but I wanted to hear from all of you. What are some of the other social media myths out there and why are they myths?
Thanks for reading everyone!
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