Common Misconceptions That Companies Have About Social Media Marketing

Even though social media websites have been around for a few years, many businesses still do not understand what to do with these sites. They don’t understand how to reach their audience or can’t understand why their efforts aren’t reaching a larger audience or making them more money. Because of this, many businesses have written off social media and its use to their company. This is largely due to the fact that many people using social media for business purposes still have many misconceptions concerning it. These misconceptions can lead to the misuse of social media, which in turn yields less than favorable results. Read on to see some common misconceptions surrounding social media and how they can turn your social media efforts sour:

Social Media is only About Making Money

Many companies try to sell products or services through social media channels. The overly promotional nature of sales content on social media websites can turn off a lot of users, causing them to ignore your company altogether. Yet companies still push hard to get consumers to buy their products via social media channels. Like all marketing efforts social media marketing should make money in some way, shape or form. But the way that social media makes money for a company is different than the way other marketing efforts make company’s money.

Social media is about building a community around your brand. Unlike advertising, which specifically targets individuals to sell a product or service to, social media is about creating awareness around your brand. Publishing thoughtful content about your industry on your social media pages establishes your company as a thought leader, which will then make social media user flock to your pages looking for advice and knowledge. If you can establish yourself as a thought leader then users that engage with your brand are more likely to share your content with others. This increased awareness of your brand can ultimately lead to sales. Social media is more of an altruistic economy, you give knowledge away- establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry – and consumers will be more likely to purchase your goods or services because they know you are an expert. By simply pushing sales content – ads, deals, etc. – on social media sites consumers will not engage with your brand rendering your social media marketing efforts moot.

Creating a Social Media Page is Enough

Some businesses believe that simply creating a social media page is enough to engage in social media marketing. This, too, is a common misconception regarding social media marketing. Social media sites are not simply extensions of your main website, where the vast majority of your business will occur. Though it is important to make sure that your information – website URL, hours of operation, history, etc. – is up-to-date simply creating a social media page and leaving it alone is not enough to constitute social media marketing.

This passive form of social media marketing will get businesses nowhere with social media users. Social media is a great tool that should be used to engage with your consumers. If you aren’t using it to do so then your social media presence does you no good. Even worse consumers will not want to engage with your company, which will make them lose enthusiasm for your company, ensuring that they won’t promote you to their friends or followers. By remaining passive in social media your company loses the ability to attract and engage consumers, and once that happens, it is hard to win them back.

I Don’t Have to Check my Social Media Pages Regularly

The above misconception goes hand in hand with the idea that a business creating a social media page is enough. Passively checking your social media pages will do nothing for your social media marketing strategies. A business’ social media presence is meant to cultivate enthusiastic support from followers, creating a community around your business. This cannot be done without regularly posting content or engaging with fans or followers. Your fans and followers will not engage with your brand if you are not engaging them, and this cannot be done unless you are regularly checking your social media sites.

Make sure to check your social media sites at least once a day every day. This will ensure that you won’t miss any opportunity to engage with your fans or followers or miss out on publishing any good content. A regular flow of content will ensure that you are regularly engaging in social media marketing tactics and will ensure that you will keep your fans interests piqued while keeping them engaged.

Social media marketing is not easy. Like most marketing tactics there is no one-step, easy solution. To do social media marketing well, you must be sure that you have the time and resources to invest in it properly. Because without them your social media efforts will fall flat.

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