Social Media myths...busted!

1. Social Media
MYTHS

2. “Social media is just a fad,
it will go away.”
Twitter might die. Facebook may burn too many and lose dominance. However, the
marketing principles of social media will not fade, because they weren’t invented by
social media.
This being human/building relationships thing? That’s always been there, social media
has just made it easier for businesses to do using these new web tools.
If you’re ‘waiting it out’ and not learning them now because you think social media is a
fad or you’re waiting for it to mature, all you’re doing is giving your competition a
bigger head start.
So don’t wait. Create your social media plan, hire a team of social media consultants,
whatever you’ve got to do to NOT dig a hole you can’t get out of it.

3. “Social media is
inexpensive.”
Most of the social media tools are, in fact, free to use. So why is there cost
involved with social media marketing?
Just like in PR, you pay for the time and expertise of staff to brand,
promote, and develop quality content. While some companies are hesitant
to pay for a social media agency, often this will save the company internal
resources and provide them with strategy, direction, and results.
Just because it is free doesn’t always mean effective.

4. ““If we put our content onlineIf we put our content online
we’re justwe’re just giving our
expertise away for free!for free!””
To put it quite simply – the more you give, the more you will receive in
social media.
Quit thinking that everything you produce is proprietary. In social
media, if you want to be the “expert,” you must prove it.

5. “Social Media is easy.”
Actually, social media marketing is a lot of hard work.
You have to find, filter, create and share content constantly and do lots of time-
consuming favors for people.
Social media is building trust with someone that you may have never have met. It’s
difficult, it takes time… it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Social media fails many companies because they underestimate the resources and
time it takes to build the momentum. They don’t realize that it’s a long-term
investment, not a short-term strategy.
With a strategy, you can explode out the gate and grow your business well beyond
expectations. Without it, you may wind up throwing in the towel.

6. “Social Media is scary.”
Many companies are scared to death of blogging for fear of negative reactions
or simply “messing up”.
They are quite surprised when I tell them that:
1)Comments can be monitored to filter out spam and trash from the “valuable”
negative comments and can be a helpful way to hear customer feedback;
2)and 2) the social media community is open, honest, and more forgiving
than they think. Even companies that have belly flopped into social media have
recovered by admitting mistakes and moving on.

7. ““WeWe can’t measure
social media results.social media results.””
This is perhaps the biggest myth and it's absolute hogwash. Social media is
measurable. For online businesses, tracking traffic and conversions from
popular social networking destinations is no different than tracking traffic
and conversions from, say, AdWords.
You’ll need to employ a robust analytics package – perhaps with a social
media integration, or figure out how to effectively deploy code from your
current analytics package to capture leads and conversions from social
media.

8. “Tell the programmers to setup
that social media thing….and get
them to make it viral while
they’re at it!”
Organic viral is difficult to promise or replicate.
Why? Because the results are ultimately in the hands of the audience and
a number of other variables. While we can design a strategic campaign to
incite numerous conversations, we cannot ultimately control the splash it
will have.
Beware of agencies that promise this.

9. “I’ve started a Facebook
page / Blog and Twitter so I’ve
got social media covered!”
Actually, it won’t do much of anything without something to say to the world.
Having a Twitter profile or Facebook fan page is like having a cell phone. Everyone
has one, and you having one too isn’t going to make special or popular.
You are required to be an interesting conversationalist. Social media is about
making connections with real people, which usually takes intensive real human
interaction and TLC.
Don’t believe that slapping a Twitter widget at the bottom of your company web
page is a “social media strategy.” A blog or social media button is just a basic tool,
and if you believe it’s going to get you popularity and traffic without ongoing effort –
well, don’t even start it!

10. “Social media is for kids.”
No, it’s not. It’s a marketing channel. Companies would not invest millions
otherwise.
Social media aids lead generation through actions like distributing your content,
allowing you to hand pick clients, delivering trusted referrals, connecting you with
other professionals and pre-qualifying you for jobs.
All of that is why social media was recently named the number one emerging
channel for lead generation and shown to double business leads.
Social media isn’t for kids. It’s for any business that uses relationships to build
and keep clients.

11. Jump onto the
Social Media
Bandwagon now or
…you will later
anyway!
THANK YOU
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