6 Social Media Myths You Need To Stop Believing Before It’s Too Late

Social media got a lot of attention because marketers thought that just by posting something on a specific network, people will come, click on it, love it and buy it. And for some of them, that was a gold mine. Because this was at the beginning of the social media marketing game.

But then these social media networks got a lot of attention, both from brands and users.

So they changed their algorithm.

Not everything you put on social media will be seen by everyone that follows you.

Because social media is not free and we need to finally understand that if we want to make something big on social media we should focus more on our engagement with the user.

And how do you engage more with the user? By using the “search” section on Twitter. By reading all the comments on Instagram. By trying new formats on Facebook. And to spice things up, you just add some creativity.

So let me tell you some myths that “specialists” are talking about on social media and why you shouldn’t believe them:

1. Social Media is Free

No, social media is not free.

If you want to gain attention, to engage with the user and to make them love your brand and buy from you – you should invest money. Exactly. Because with the new algorithm on Instagram, social media changed and brands should create more engaging content for the user.

If you want to gain more followers, to meet new people and to make your content more visible to people besides those who already follow you – you should invest money.

2. Everybody can do social media

This is 100% correct.And you know why? Because everybody can do social media today but just a few can do social media correctly so that they get the results they want.

You can’t just hire a high school guy or your nephew to post on Facebook and Instagram. If you need to deliver your product somewhere outside the city, do you hire a random guy from the street? No. You ask the one you want to hire about their experience, how long ago did they get their driver’s license, if they ever got in any type of accidents and what type of cars can they drive.

The same goes for your social media guy. Today there can’t be just one guy taking care of social media. Because you need an entire team who understands what is social media, who creates content for social media, who talks with your customers on social media, who engages with them, who knows how to look at those graphs and use them to create a great bridge between your brand and your community.

3. Social media is for every business

You might hate me for saying this. But let me be honest with you, if you lack the vision you need to be on social media with your brand, then maybe this platform isn’t working for you. Maybe you are better off on email marketing, content marketing, SEO or other digital marketing strategies.

You don’t have to be on social media just because somebody told you so.

But if you do decide to go on social media then think about the first 2 points I already talked about.

4. Social Media is easy to do

You just wrote a tweet or a Facebook status and hit the publish button. Then you wait for the users to connect with you, to follow your brand and buy your product.

As simple as that.

Well my friend, if you still believe that social media is easy then maybe you live in a parallel world with Terra.

To do social media you need to have a strong stomach!

Just as same as being an astronaut, a real entrepreneur or a programmer. You need to have the real skillset, you need to train every day, to stay updated with that world and to understand how it works.

If you are not updated with this social media world, if you don’t understand the latest updates many social media are launching, then you will have some serious problems.

5. Dark Social Media is the best

Let’s say that you are talking to your friends about tonight’s game. You created a Facebook group chat and you are talking about where to do, who’s going to pick the other ones up and so on. Then out of nowhere a Samsung ad pops up into your chat with a creepy video talking about how big tonight’s game is going to be and how they are also sponsoring it.

How comfortable do you feel about that, as a consumer? How distracted would you be?

Exactly. We talk about dark social media when the users willingly try to connec with the brand on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The moment a user personally wants something from that brand.

You, as a brand, can’t just pop-up into a private conversation because you think that it’s ok.

6. Just Automate Social Media and it’s ok

Let me ask you this – How do you feel when you’re talking to a robot on your phone? And sometimes that robot puts you on hold. And you wait and wait and wait… then nothing. Then you call again and the same robot answers at the end of the line.

Isn’t that annoying?

Same thing is happening with automated social media. It’s ok to schedule some posts (automate your post on social media), because you want to earn more traffic or visibility, as much as possible.

I don’t believe that brands should automate their response on social media.

If somebody on your Twitter feed asks you something via DM and you hit the same automate button you hit when they followed you….well, that’s just not ok.

Because people want to talk to real people, not with automated robots. So, don’t replace the human interaction with a bot.

Conclusion

If you still believe that social media is easy and anybody can do it, well be my guest and be prepared for failure.

Do you feel like you should be more careful with your social media strategy? Please let me know in a comment what other questions you have about social media.

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