We’re breaking down some of the most common social media marketing myths that hold marketers back.
It’s Hard To Measure
While there was a time when it seemed like social media was hard to track and quantify we have come a long way. As social platforms have grown and developed over the years they have stepped up their analytics. Additionally, as users have been given new ways to engage with content there are even more KPIs to measure and track.
One of the key issues marketers run into with social media is that they don’t have clear goals. It’s hard to truly measure the success of your campaigns without outlining clear KPIs.
When we look at measuring the success of our social community management campaigns in two major ways: through engagement metrics and on-site metrics. The way you evaluate engagement will vary from platform to platform. On Facebook you can start by measuring the amount of likes, comments and shares content is getting. What success looks like will depend on the goal of your post. Was the goal to drive engagement and get your content in front of a larger audience or was it to drive users to your website.
If driving traffic is your main goal then you would want to put more emphasis on the click through rate and on-site metrics. Leveraging Google Analytics you can dive into your campaigns and determine the quality of the traffic you are driving. Diving into time on site, pages per session and bounce rate are all important as you evaluate the quality of traffic. Our team leverages UTM codes to track our social posts within Google Analytics evaluating all metrics including revenue.
Related: How to Merge Social Media Accounts
If you decide to run paid social campaigns to expand your content beyond your organic reach you will want to make sure you are clearly outlining your goals and are crafting your campaigns to support those goals. To learn more about how to set paid social campaigns up for success check out the paid social section of our blog.
You Need Thousands Of Followers
While sometimes you may feel like your social media success is solely measured by how many people follow you it’s important to remember followers and likes are only one KPI. While it’s great to build your following it truly is best to build it up organically by creating valuable and engaging content. Also keep in mind that the content you post is not limited to followers. On Facebook, the reach of your post is based upon engagement as they give more reach to high-quality, stimulating content.
On Instagram users may happen upon your content through the Explore tab or through hashtags. At the end of the day what is most important is that you share great content and focus on engaging your target audience. Thousands of page likes won’t equate to sales if you fail to qualify those new followers. At Power Digital, we would take 1,000 engaged followers any day over a profile with 100,000 unqualified followers. This is why in most cases we prefer to build followings organically as opposed purchasing followers through aggressive page likes campaigns.
You Should Be Active On Every Platform
While it may seem like you need to have an omni-present social media strategy it is simply not the case. You are far better off investing in your core social platforms where you feel your target audience is most active than spreading yourself thin trying to keep up with them. When we do audits for clients we typically identify the three core platforms they should focus their efforts on.
Related: Understanding Engagement vs. Traffic-Driving Content on Social Media
Part of the reason we recommend focusing in on specific channels is that often the content you share on one platform may not be the right fit for all the others. It’s important to craft appropriate content for each platform instead of blasting the same exact graphic and content out.
Social Media Can Have A Stand Alone Strategy
While there may have been a time when social media seemed like it wasn’t truly an integrated piece of your marketing strategy, times have changed. Today your social strategy should be highly integrated with the rest of your channels to ensure that all oars are rowing in the same direction. At Power Digital, we work hard to ensure that our social media, content, influencer and social advertising strategy are highly in sync.
Social and content are great pieces to integrate as your content strategy’s success relies on being highly integrated with your promotion strategy. Therefore, if you are relying on social to drive the majority of your traffic you can begin to craft your blogging strategy around the type of content that gets the strongest engagement.
Without proper coordination you will likely find your campaigns falling flat and your varying messages, creative and calls to action are unaligned and uneffective. While your goals for each channel may look different they should all be working together to support your core business goals. The more in sync your messaging is the more powerful your overall digital strategy will be.
My Customers Aren’t On Social Media
With over one billion people around the world logging onto Facebook each day there are a wide variety of people on social media. When it comes to crafting your social strategy it’s important to remember that your target demographic is likely on social platforms- it’s you job to find them. How do you do this? By creating content that they will find engaging and relevant.
The best thing you can do is to not make too many assumptions about where your target audience lives. If you are starting from scratch you’ll likely want to do some research and see where your competitors are most active. Depending on the industry you are in you may find that some of your direct competitors aren’t setting the best example of a strong social strategy. If you are having trouble gaining actionable insight there you can turn to thought leaders in the space. Sometimes these will be publications or bloggers that are doing the best job engaging users on social platforms.
Related: How to Increase Brand Awareness on Social Media
One reason this is often true is that sharing great content, whether it’s a relevant quote, recipe or tip, is at the key to a strong social media strategy. While you should work to craft a unique strategy that speaks to your core values and brand personality there is nothing wrong with capitalizing on quick wins.
You Shouldn’t Respond To Negative Comments
Given the viral nature of social media you simply cannot ignore negative feedback from current or prospective customers. While it can be disheartening to see negative comments on your Facebook posts it’s important to look at this as an opportunity to address people’s concerns. For example, maybe you made a mistake and a customer received the wrong order. While you could choose to hide their comment and respond to them directly or over email there is something valuable about responding to the comment. It tells other people who view the post that you are quick to respond and address their concerns- which helps reduce their uncertainty about your business.
At the end of the day, people talk and it’s much better to address their concerns than sweep them under the rug. We all like to heard and even a quick reply can make them feel validated and have more respect for your brand. This is particularly important when your brand is newer to social media and looking to build a following.
The same goes for positive feedback, comments and questions. It’s always important to engage with users who are taking the time to engage with your brand on social media. When you are first starting out this is a great way to build rapport and create more of a community around your content. In an ideal world, every post, tweet or comment would be responded to and engaged with.
These comments are a great way to build those one on one relationships with people who follow your brand. It also allows you to showcase your unique brand personality. Brands like Wendy’s have done a great job building a strong social media persona that users like to engage with.
While this kind of sassy response won’t work for most brands Wendy’s Twitter has become synonymous with hilarious replies. For a brand like Wendy’s that is well-established they are able to make jokes at other’s expenses. When it comes to crafting your own brand personality look to your core values and the types of personalities that resonate with your target audience.
Social Doesn’t Work For B2B
Every day more and more B2B brands are defying the myth that social media just won’t work for business to business companies. These days social media is a part of our lives and the lines between work and play are more and more blurred as social advertising allows business related brands to target their ideal audience. That being said, social media is a great place to leverage B2B nurturing tactics to help bring users through the funnel.
Related: Tips & Benefits of Instagram for Business
Of course, it’s important to remember that your organic social media strategy should appeal to top of funnel users. This is not the place to be selling but rather be educating and providing immense value. This means that the types of social posts you make should be non-promotional. Good content to share would typically be little tips and tricks, blog content, and quick templates or guides your followers will find useful.
During the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey you should understand the pretence that some users aren’t even fully aware of your solution or what their specific problem is. The more you can educate and provide value, the more you can begin to build a true relationship with the prospects. That is the kind of content that gets shared and engaged with the most.
Keeping Up With the Latest Trends & Strategies
One of the most exciting and frustrating things about social media marketing is that it is always changing. A major cause of this is the ever-evolving nature of social platforms. As they change their algorithms you have to adapt your strategy to ensure you are getting the largest amount of reach and engagement possible.
Similar to Google, social platforms put the user experience first. With that in mind, they look to promote content that is the most engaging which means that you always have to be working to create truly great content. While many trends and strategies will come and go this will never change. Of course, it will always be important to look at the latest trends and mediums available to yourself as a social media strategist.
Have any tried and true social media tips and tricks? Share your favorites in the comments below!
