Posted by While digital marketing is a great and affordable way to build your company’s brand in this day and age, there is a lot of misinformation floating around that may confuse you. In order to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts, it’s important that you understand these misconceptions and the truth behind them. Here are four of the most common social marketing misconceptions and our breakdown of the facts.
- MYTH: Social media is free
Creating a social media profile and posting on it is “technically” free, but you need to look at the concept overall. Building an editorial calendar, creating copy and graphics, and managing a social media presence takes a lot of time and resources, and as we all know, time equals money. Also, for some of the more impactful social media platforms (namely Facebook), the only way to reach more customers is to spend money on paid ads. While social media is a free platform, it’s not necessarily a free marketing tool.
- MYTH: Social media marketing is just about posting
You can’t just post a random picture or article on social media and expect customers to start flowing in. Social media marketing, like any other type of marketing, requires planning and strategy. Posting nothing but “buy me” type posts on your social media will not help your business grow. Instead, you should create varying types of content to engage your clientele. This can be fun pictures, informative articles, blog posts, and more. One common formula is to have your social media marketing consist of 20% sales posts and 80% informative/engaging posts.
- MYTH: Brands should be on every social media platform
There are numerous social media platforms available nowadays, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. A common misconception is that you need to be on every platform to get the most out of your social media marketing. However, certain industries thrive on specific platforms, but don’t do as well on others. For example, a professional business consultant agency would do well on Facebook and LinkedIn, but not so much on Instagram or Pinterest. A custom toy manufacturer would excel on Pinterest and Instagram, but you might not find much value on LinkedIn. It’s all about knowing your target demographic.
- MYTH: Large followings are the key to success
When you first start using social media for your business, you may be tempted to focus on gathering a larger following. Those numbers might seem impressive, but they’re ineffective if you’re not regularly engaging your audience. You need to look at audience size compared to engagement to see the true value of your social media marketing efforts. A following of 100 people with 90 of them regularly engaging is far more valuable than a following of 1,000 people with only 90 regular engagers.
Social media marketing is still an evolving platform, which means you need to grow with it. Make sure to check out our regular blog posts to learn more about digital marketing so that you can make the most out of your business.
To find out how we can help you with your digital marketing efforts, call us at 800-565-6960.
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