Well, myths are common. And social media has been around long enough for marketers to have believed and shared some myths about it. 

 

There is no question that social media plays a key role in boosting the success of your business. While some myths are harmless, others have a great potential to negatively affect your success. That’s why marketers need to keep themselves updated to avoid falling for the traps. 

 

Let’s put our Mythbusters glasses on and dispel some widely believed myths about social media in this article.

Myth #1 “Our business should have an online presence on every single social media platform.”

We know you want to stay ahead of the competition, but it doesn’t mean your business needs have a presence on all networks. This notion is pretty harmful to businesses. It takes time, effort and money to maintain accounts on multiple platforms. 

Instead what you need is a meaningful presence on networks that lets you connect with your target audience and engage them. We suggest researching pros and cons of all social media platforms. Maybe even try exploring them. Surely, some of them might not be worth your time. This will help you know where to invest your time and resources to get the best results. 

Common practices for many local businesses is to have an online presence on Facebook and B2B companies usually expand to LinkedIn as well. For companies with products or services, Instagram and Pinterest are highly recommended. 

Like we said before – research and try till you find your sweet spot!

Myth #2 “Why do we need a budget for social media marketing? Isn’t it free?”

While it is free to join and post on any social media, the chances of you getting good results without spending any money are slim to none. On Facebook, the organic reach for posts is in decline, only around 5.20%. 

It is vital to have a budget for social media marketing. Boosting your posts is a surefire way of getting more attention. Running social media marketing requires an investment of resources. In addition to an online spend budget, you need to hire a strong team to build strategies according to data metrics. 

The good news is that social media still won’t burn a hole in your pocket. It is still one of the most affordable ways to boost brand awareness, lead generation and ultimately customer acquisition/retention. All this makes your investment worthwhile.

Myth #3 “More Followers = More Success”

Remember the golden rule “Quality over quantity”. It isn’t the 2010s anymore where buying followers in bulk was in trend. After all, a high follower count is worthless if your engagement is low. 

Brands that know their target audience well are more likely to gain success on social media. Social Sprout’s index data shows that 91% of consumers visit the brand’s website and 90% of consumers buy from that brand they are following on social media whereas 86% choose that brand over their competitor. 

Myth #4 “More Hashtags = Higher Reach”

We all have seen posts like, 

Our #employees had some #fun on #Friday with #IceBucketChallenge. Watch the video below. #officefun #socialmedia #officeculture #teambuilding #behndthescenes #peopleinmarketing 

All we can say is No! More hashtags don’t mean your post gets more reach. Plus, it makes you look amateurish and spammy. Research shows that if you use more than 2 hashtags on Twitter, you will see a 17% drop in engagement. 

Take some time out to discover relevant hashtags in the community and don’t overuse them.

Myth #5 “Social Media is merely a sales tool.”

There is a huge misconception is that social media is a marketplace for your products and services. Being overly promotional will make your followers run away. Put yourself in their shoes. Do you want to see sales content on your social media all the time? 

Marketers need to tap into social data as a valuable resource. 47% of businesses use social data as a multi-team strategy resource. It can answer questions on how to manage and expand business across every department. 

Start by focussing on areas of your business that could benefit from social data, and build your social listening strategy based on it. 

It is hard for marketers to keep track of falsehoods behind social media. We hope this article helps you bust some of those myths and push you to tap into the power of social media fearlessly. 

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