Social Media Marketing Myths
Most small business owners are aware of Social Media and feel immense guilt that they are not doing something about it. As with any new technology, there are many questions and concerns for a small business owner. But business owners worry if there will be a ROI on all that “twittering” about. There are many new attribution tools available out there and most are free.
3 Myths
The ultimate online “Tupperware party”
Business owners think that somehow people will spend time and mental resources, following their tweets and facebook postings. However, most of these posts are thinly veiled attempts to sell something or just outright self-promotion. It is similar to the party at a friends house that you later find out is a “party” where the home-owners are trying to sell all their friends over-priced cooking gear. I usually ask my clients this question, “Have you ever visited a businesses Facebook page?” I have asked this question over 50 times and not a single client said they had been to a businesses Facebook page.
LESSON: Nobody will read your posts if they are about your business more than about 10% of the time.
Third party Social Media apps automate everything for you
Aps like “Bufferapp” are fantastic and most SMM people couldn’t exist without them. However, the price of automation is that only an automaton (Robot) might still be interested when you’re done. You cannot send identical posts to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+. Each platform is different and the people respond to different content. Your biggest danger is becoming irrelevant and ignored by your followers. This is a crime that is hard to get paroled for.
LESSON: Look at each post and think about the target audience. You are hoping they will “eat up” that content. Never post, just to post.
The content/output is not as critical as the process
Pump out generic content and risk being ignored or worse, unfriended or unfollowed. I know it is un-popular in the modern days of the internet, but this truly does need the mind of a creative and half-way intelligent Human making decision and writing some words. You can automate huge chunks of work, but a brain has to be somewhere in the process or the brains on the other end will never be reposed the way you hoped.
LESSON: If you are looking for a robotic solution, you will never find a satisfactory answer. Sounds nice, but people win the lottery too. It doesn’t mean you should be looking for a “lottery-type” solution for your business or life.