Four Social Media Myths
The adaptation of social media into your marketing strategy can bring certain misconceptions that might keep you from interacting with your customers. Social media myths have the ability to stop your efforts in their tracks, but only if you buy into everything you hear. But which myths are fact and which are fiction? The truth may surprise you. Four big social media myths include:
- My Customers aren’t on Social Media
False. This is the #1 misconception that keeps more businesses from marketing to potential customers. Your customers are on social media. You’ve just got to know where to find them. According to , roughly 80% of females surfing the internet say they have become fans of a product or brand on a social network site. At least 72% said they discovered a new product through social media. Social networking and media can greatly influence your customer base, if you’re out there making an effort to reach them. - Social Media isn’t Measurable
False. Social media marketing and traditional marketing have different interaction mechanisms, so trying to evaluate and determine potential customers and purchase intent is a new skill for many marketing specialists. Observe referrals from social media sites on your web pages and their behavior vs. users who navigate to your site via other means. It is possible to track the impact social media is having on your bottom line. - Don’t Have Time for Social Media
False. You’d be amazed how little time it takes to engage with your customers through custom content. Interacting on social networks is easy; you simply talk with users about interesting topics. Getting started is easy – you’ll quickly understand that interaction through social media is very similar to carrying on a conversation offline. There are a variety of tools that can make interaction much easier such as TweetDeck for Twitter interaction and Ping.fm to post updates to multiple profiles from a single place. It is important to remember to implement a social media policy within your business and to encourage employees to engage with customers as well. - I’ll Get Negative Comments/Reviews
False. Don’t worry about negative comments on your social media sites. While nobody wants to see negative feedback about their company or product, bad reviews actually establish authenticity, help promote your customer service standards and act as a public platform to “wow” the masses through a rapid response. Social marketing instills transparency into business operations – if a customer chooses to post negative feedback, you’re given a big opportunity to make the situation right. Your efforts won’t go unnoticed; people observing the dialogue are more likely to admire your efforts to right the situation, rather take to heart the angry customer’s complaints.
