Social media can be a powerful tool in your business growth and marketing strategy, but it has to be done well to provide successful results. In my last blog post I discussed how to stretch your advertising budget with social media, how to find your audience over age 25, and more. Here are some more of the biggest myths and mistakes to be aware of when utilizing social media for your business.

• Social media is an independent strategy … Social media marketing is not successful if thought of as an independent strategy, it is part of a well-oiled machine that incorporates a strong brand, content strategy, and a strong website. If you don’t provide your customers something consistent to respond to they could lose interest, without strong content strategy you’ll have nothing to post that captures new and current customers and without a strong website, much of the traffic you’ve worked so hard to curate will likely bounce.

• Scheduled posts will do the work for me … Post scheduling tools have become increasingly popular and they are great tools to make sure you are posting consistently, but don’t overestimate the power of in-the-moment posts as well. Social media is SOCIAL, so socializing with your audience is just as important as posting about your latest blog post or current special.

• I can put the same post on all my platforms … So many businesses are busy and so in order to be efficient they create one social post and push it out on all their platforms. This should be done with extreme caution. Every platform is different, and every platform has a different demographic, so changing your post to be relevant on each one will lead to greater success. Instagram needs hashtags and a compelling image. Facebook should have a little more depth but still a compelling image, hashtags need not apply. Twitter should be short and to the point, a dangling carrot to lead your customer to more information if they are interested.

• I’m successful, I have a large number of followers … Social Media Secret: You can buy followers…but these don’t usually turn into brand advocates or paying customers, so the number of followers you have does not always directly correlate with how successful your brand is. Take the time to create compelling content and engage with your audience and your customer base and brand advocates will naturally increase.

• I’ll see results in 30 to 60 days … Social media is NOT a short sales cycle folks! It takes time, effort, and consistency. Most brands should expect to spend a minimum of 6-12 months building a community. Paid advertising can help expedite this process a little, but you will still need to invest in content strategy and community management to build and maintain a quality following and consistent brand awareness.

If all of this makes your head spin please don’t hesitate to contact us to see how we can best serve you.