Social Media Myths

Beyond creating eye-catching content and growing your following on social media, it is crucial to align social media goals with your company’s specific business and marketing goals. While a huge fan base is great, if followers aren’t engaged or interested in what products or services you offer social media won’t help your business grow. When creating a proper social media strategy, brands should avoid many common social media “myths” to avoid wasting time and valuable resources. Identifying what metrics actually will increase your bottom line should be the focus of social media efforts. Read on to learn about “myths” floating around the social media world and the “truths” behind increasing sales and gaining new customers.

MYTH: FOLLOWERS ARE THE ONLY METRIC BUSINESSES SHOULD TRACK

Followers are an important metric but engagement such as website visits, shares and comments matter just as much. Posts with higher levels of engagement reach targeted audiences interested in what you’re selling. Remember, 10,000 customers who constantly buy from you and share your content is more profitable than 100,000 followers who do not engage.

MYTH: CREATING CONTENT IS THE ONLY IMPORTANT ASPECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Original content is key to making your social media stand out and attract attention but without involving your followers in conversations, you’re not truly listening to customers. Don’t overload your feed with information. Users primarily want to connect with each other online, not brands. Your business needs to be able to engage in conversations already happening rather than always doing the talking and not listening. Respond to conversations happening in your community and create digital relationships in other places besides your page.

MYTH: I SHOULD ALWAYS POST CONTENT THE DAY OF

Sharing content in the moment, especially on Instagram Stories and Twitter, is beneficial since these social media features and platforms were designed for content with a short shelf life. However, well-thought-out copy, posts and campaigns should also be implemented via content calendars. This will keep your business’ social media organized and will give you a better idea of the types of content your audience enjoys. As your business plans ahead, content calendars give your social media consistency your audience can continuously engage with. Organized social media planning ensures your business is better able to effectively reach business goals.

MYTH: I NEED TO POST ALL THE TIME TO HAVE GOOD SOCIAL MEDIA

While creating and sharing content is important to stay visible, the amount of posts you should publish depends on the platform(s) you are using and how active your followers are. Keep in mind, quality content is also more beneficial than a high quantity of mediocre content. Sharing too many boring or unoriginal posts will lead to people unfollowing you so focus on what is most important to share with your audience. As a business, it is important to stand back and listen to want your audience wants, then find your place in the conversation.

MYTH: WE DEVELOPED A SOCIAL STRATEGY, NOW WE DON’T NEED TO MAKE ANY MORE CHANGES

Creating the ideal social media strategy for your brand is a huge accomplishment. Unfortunately, social media is constantly changing so your business needs stay up to date with the latest trends and platform updates. What might work one day perhaps won’t work the next and brands must quickly adapt to these changes.

Social media is one of the most important tools to enhance your brand’s online presence and help your business stay competitive. Understanding the “myths” of social media gives your business the ability to build proper social media strategies to raise brand awareness, build trust, gain new insight and develop strong customer leads. To learn more about The Vox Agency and how we can create a proper social media strategy for your business, contact us.

By Alyssa Yamamoto