Social Media Myths That Hold Your Business Back

In today's age of social media, there are a lot of myths about how, why and when to use particular social networks, and how to use them to maximise your business' potential. Social Media can be a valuable tool for your business, and making note of the common misconceptions can help you harness its potential.

You have to be on every social media channel

This is one of the most common misconceptions when it comes to social media, simply because when business owners don't know which channels to join, they panic and join all of them. What you need to gauge is where your customers spend their time online, and what channels will benefit your business the most. If you make handmade, bespoke products, Pinterest is a good channel to utilise, but less so if you run an accounting firm. It's best to focus your resources on channels that your target audience are using, rather than to take a "more is better" outlook.

My target audience doesn't use social media

There's this idea that older people don't use social media, and that it's exclusively for young people. While it is certainly true that young people tend to be more engaged with social media, that doesn't mean you should ignore your older customers. Research by Pew found that in the US, 56% of Internet users over 65 are on Facebook, which has steadily risen from 35% and 45% in 2012 and 2013, respectively. So these days, it really isn't the case that social media is only effective if your business targets young people

The more frequently you post, the better

On the surface, it might seem apparent that the more you post, the less chance people will have of missing your content. But in reality, by posting non-stop, you risk overexposing yourself, which can potentially cause customers or clients to stop following your updates. Instead, try and strike a balance between business updates, information of interest to your customers, and relevant current events. Another thing to bear in mind is that it will differ between different social networks; Twitter is more suited to regular updates, whereas Facebook users might consider more regular posts as spam.

Social media always generates leads

Some businesses look at social media purely as a marketing channel, and expect heaps of new customers to come their way. A one way stream of tweets from your account is not going to drum up business for you. Instead, engage with your existing and potential customers - reply to questions or concerns, offer deals or discounts for followers, or run a competition. A stream of posts is unlikely to generate a buzz around your business.

High numbers means success

Having hundreds or even thousands of fans/page likes/followers is useless unless you get likes, comments, retweets, shares etc. This links back to the previous point about over-saturating your feeds; you can have all the followers in the world, but if your updates are not engaging and shareable, you're unlikely to reap any benefits.

Social media is free

Creating a social media account doesn't cost you a penny, but running it does. Even if you don't venture into the world of social media advertising, the time put into discovering, publishing and responding to customers - whether you do it in-house or outsource - costs money.

There is also the issue of changing algorithms; Facebook in particular is known for this. Their most recent algorithm change was in November last year, which was implimented following feedback from users. In effect from January this year, Facebook described the algorithm update:

"According to people we surveyed, there are some consistent traits that make organic posts feel too promotional:

1) Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app
2) Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context
3) Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads

Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their News Feeds"

This change will have caught many off guard, and is ultimately to encourage businesses to pay for Facebook advertising. You can read more about the algorithm change, and how to optimise your posts accordingly, here.

Moving Forwards

If you want to make sure your social media strategy is sound, and that you don't fall for any of the common misconceptions, bear in mind the following key points: