Busting Social Media Myths

Social media is great isn’t it? Millions of people sharing this, posting that and generally eating up about 30% of your work day with their attention seeking problems. What an age we live in where you can find out how many squats and flapjacks your mother’s-neighbour’s-cousin pounded out this morning.

Facebook is like sitting at the cafeteria in a mental hospital.

So what’s a business to do with all of this social 2.0 MySpaceBooking at its fingertips? How does social media work within the inbound methodology? Well first of all, social media is a great way to attract new visitors to your website by sharing helpful content. It’s also a great way to encourage others to share your content during the delight stage of sales process. There is a bit of a protocol however with how you should be approaching social media, so here are a few do’s and don’ts of some of the more employed tactics that you’ve probably encountered at some point.

Myth #1: I’ve Built It, So They Will Come

You can set up all of the profiles you want on a bajillion different platforms, but in order to maintain a successful social media presence, you’ll need to be active. Remember that happy customers are the sum of each and every interaction with your brand, even as small as a post on social media. In order for social media to drive traffic to your website, you’ll need to get out there and interact with people.

Myth #2: It’s An Advertising Free-For-All

There seems to be this idea with social media that anything goes. Social media is not meant to be an avenue to bombard people with intrusive advertising and to censor feedback. While social media does put you at the controls of the ship, you want to avoid kamikaze-ing that baby into a sea of humanity. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule. 80% of your social media content should be helpful, shareable content. The other 20% can be specific to your brand involving statistics, offers and persuasive calls to action. There needs to be credibility associated with your brand. Would you purchase an item from a dude in a trench coat that shouts offers at you while you walk down the street?

This guy looks legit.

Myth #3: The More The Merrier

Many brands seem to get distracted by the number of followers or likes they get. It doesn’t really matter whether your Facebook page has a hundred followers or a million followers, it’s what you do with those followers that really counts. The important thing with social media is to present yourself as an industry expert and to engage those followers to interact with your brand – and not just by clicking a like button. Focus on building the relationships with the followers you have, not on gimmicks and people will like you for all the right reasons.

Social Media provides an extremely efficient avenue to reach new traffic and generate legitimate leads. Although it can be enticing to get roped into distractions when we see the success of various brands, you need to make sure that you stick to your inbound strategy and focus on the goals you’ve set for yourself.