Social Media Marketing is a necessary and powerful marketing tool for all businesses. The issue is that there are many misconceptions and myths out there.

What’s so good about Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing enables businesses to promote products and services, spread awareness, engage and reach their target audience, and of course create leads and make sales! The majority of the general population, be they digital consumers or business owners, use it.

Much used, much misunderstood. Here are some of the myths surrounding it:

• It’s Free 

It’s not! In my exhausting research for this topic, almost every resource I came across had the myth that Social Media marketing is free or costs next to nothing. Sure, there’s no charge to sign up for accounts on multiple platforms and or for posting anything. But, putting up a photo, a video, or a link isn’t all there is to digital marketing. It will cost you time. Time to learn and implement strategies, monitor and follow up on comments, research content, design graphics, as well as examining and analyzing results. It’s a daunting list, but it goes to show that to run Social Media marketing successfully costs something.

• It’s Fast and Easy

It isn’t! The old proverb goes,”Rome wasn’t built in a day.” It’s the same with your Social Media community of followers. It takes time and commitment to create content which interests and engages your audience. There are many other factors to consider as well. Creating high quality material isn’t enough. No matter how good your content is, you’ll still need to promote it, or “boost” it to use the jargon. Then, you’ll need time for your audience to ‘share’ and disperse it on their own. 

Not necessarily true! By the logic above, if you have more followers, your content will spread faster. Ehnt! Just because they’re following you, doesn’t mean they’re going to share your stuff! You need to look at other data to see how effective your strategies are and what the engagement is like for your ads and stuff, another thing you need to check is how many click-throughs to your site there are. Remember this, quality not quantity. It’s simple enough to get people to follow you, but the difficult part is engaging and interacting with them. 

• It Doesn’t Work

Um, what?! Many people think that just because they can’t see an immediate increase in likes, shares, or sales of whatever it is they’re selling, it doesn’t work. Relaaaaxxxx, there’s more to it than likes or shares. Your updates are being seen, your ads are showing up. Social Media Marketing allows you to put your business in front of more people every day like no other form of advertising can. Each time you update something you’re improving your SEO and search rank, your brand image, and enhancing how visible you are online. This ultimately generates leads, pulls people to your website, and increases the likelihood of a sale!

So what’s the verdict?

It’s undeniable, that Social Media Marketing is essential for any business. It is currently the most efficient and cost-effective method of having your brand get the most exposure to people on a daily basis. This exposure then leads to awareness, interest, sales, revenue, loyalty, and ultimately growth. But, and it’s a big but, if you want it to work, it has to be done right. Ignore the myths. Do your research, get consulting, and get active on Social Media.

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