One of the greatest woes that can befall one in marketing, apart from ignorance, is misinformation and it can lead to the failure of an entrepreneur. There are a lot of false information out there, especially when it comes to social media marketing brand and it’s about time all businesses, brands and individuals knew the truth. Inaccurate advice unfortunately may seem reasonable when on paper, but proper research will prove you wrong. Without factual research, employing some of these marketing myths can doom the reputation of your business, thereby endangering its future.
Limit content topics to protect secrets
This is where we all get it wrong; being advised to limit some information about your content in order to protect your secrets. Naturally, small businesses and startups are come up on the back foot and honestly there are hardly any business idea new to the market. No matter how superb you think your idea is or the manner of business, you are in competition with a more established and larger personalities.
Primarily, most of the idea you draw out or what you think you know is often understandable to your rival or can be reverse-engineered easily from your product or service. Also, knowledge is not enough weapon to sweep you under the rug. We all know knowledge is power and that is quite understandable, but it can’t be tangible enough to overcome your presence. If knowledge was all it took to be in power, then book readers would dominate every field. Never be afraid or hesitate to share what you know with your audience and execute it perfectly. In fact, your audience will appreciate you for your openness and honesty.
Negative reviews are ignored
It’s expected of any interested client to go through all feedback and get discouraged if encountered with a few negative comments about your product. Always remember social marketing is all about getting new audience and promoting the positive parts of the brand. Social marketing also involves managing those negative reviews directed at your business. Shrug off those itty bitty jabs and watch them grow to a community and feast online, persuading consumers to doubt your brand at a time when you need every single one of them to grow your company. All negative reviews should be responded to quickly and dealt with strategically. Quick responses not only depict ready customer service but also adapt ear to customer concerns even when negative, it also helps to pull the root of any negative review before it gains ground.
Social media marketing is all about getting new customers
Let’s clear this misconception. Social media is a sure way to get new customers, that’s not to be argued, but that should never be its only purpose. Research has shown that followers of social media platforms were once fans before they joined. An important value of the social media marketing that is always ignored is ‘preaching to the choir’ and the ‘nice to meet you’ overrated. The existence of your profile won’t just covert people to respond to your page, always remember you’re building a community and by doing so bringing in new customers and referrals. Social media marketing is better used as a way to retain your current market, not as simply an expansion strategy. Understanding this can help you drive a relevant strategy to your growing audience.
Media metrics cannot be calculated
Naturally, there’s no effective method to measure all that numbers and show how the campaigns are faring, it’s hard to find. However, there are numerous things to track from your customer reviews and behaviours to the clicks. All that information can tell a lot if your campaign is profitable or you need to flip the switch. Finding metrics born out of your campaigns are most important to the end goal.
As Spiceology’s Broussard notes, “Metrics can absolutely be measured via the form of ongoing awareness, especially when it comes to brand partnerships. Long-term consumer awareness is inevitable and comes with undeniable value, even if it’s sometimes more difficult to quantify.
Let me stop you right there, never see social media marketing as replacement for other methods, it should be a tool to expand ways to reach out to customers. Who says email is no longer relevant, believe it or not email still plays a vital role in your marketing campaigns, so secure those recipient lists and e-marketing campaigns around. They are still important and worth the time.
All contents are thought leadership
Social media marketing and contents go hand in hand, content marketing is an important part of social media marketing, without a creative content, you can trash out the idea of social media marketing. The social platform is used to pass content to your audience, and the content displayed is very responsible for displaying and developing the brand as well as how it will be perceived. A very disturbing observation is that most entrepreneurs falsely equate all content with thought leadership.
Your best content is what will likely give you a sense of authority over your audience. Some of it will revolve around answering questions or giving the market exactly what they asked for. This is less about thought leadership than appealing to your audience directly. Drawing a clear line of distinction between it is important, not doing so can lead to creating contents that doesn’t reinforce your brand’s authority and trustworthiness.
Social media is different from content marketing
As said earlier, social media and content marketing works side by side, you can’t execute one without the other; both play relevant roles. The notion that social media and content marketing are entirely different is untrue and should be disregarded. Social media gives you a platform and from that platform you can easily pass out your content. One does not work well without the other, and understanding this is critical.
Social media marketing is very important weapon if used effectively. The myriad myths of social media marketing can disrupt your plans from achieving the success you wish to help your startup thrive. Conduct proper research and cut through the lies. Ensure you have the correct social strategy that will preserve you online.
