12 Common misconceptions about Social Media
Social media has over the past few years sky rocketed from being a “fad” to being seriously considered by reputed brands, big business houses, business leaders and individuals as a powerful tool, process and medium to reach out to prospects and end users.
social media marketing
It has seen a tremendous surge over the past two to three years especially in the field of:
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Customer relationship
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FAQ, Feedback and after-Sales support
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Generating Leads and enquiries
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Generating Quality conversions to real sales
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Powerful PR online
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High SEO
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Referrals
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Larger brand reach and brand loyalty
Today, social media as a marketing, branding and sales tool has revolutionized the way to engage users with brands and even efficiently track their return on investment too. (Check out our CEO Mr.Ananth’s presentation on ROI on social media – LIVE at Google Business Group Mumbai – Link here)
As we have seen corporate brands, OSCAR selfies, Online PR campaigns and professionals have over the past recent years experienced number crunching and impressive results in the form of actual sales ROI with social media (PDF case study download link:Our case study PDF), powerful number driven real-time case studies that empower social media as a serious business tool (Case study link 2, Case study link 3) all with the power of social media marketing, it has for more reasons developed a cynicism and critics (those who have tried but failed in empowering it as a powerful business and branding tool and others) have often tried to question it’s power, reach and metrics.
We have put together few simple social media misconceptions and our responses, replies and feedback on the same based on our experience with this powerful tool and process over the past few years as a digital marketing and social media agency:
12 Common Misconceptions About Social Media
1. Social media is free marketing: “Nothing is free unless you buy the giant size first” goes the adage in advertising and marketing.
It’s especially true in the case of social media marketing simply because the primary tool it requires are resources. In the form of professionals, experts in their respective fields of design, development, marketing, branding, strategy design & of course, programming.
The general belief is that, when all these social networking sites are free and when even my teenage kid can create a facebook page on it, why does it have to be a “paid” medium? Well, the answer is quite simple.
Would you want your teenage kid to run your BRAND campaigns?
We are guessing your answer is NO.
Which is why it’s always better when you handle these activities to professionals. These have to be professionals who have done this across different industries. (Reach Us for customized industry based social media marketing campaigns integrated with BRAND monitoring, FREE Adwords (Limited time offer) and SEO: Click here NOW or email us at socialmedia@techdivine.com)
Additionally the cost of tools and process that the said agency integrates with the campaign also incurs a cost but is particularly useful to generate social media audit quality reports (For eg. Our Registered brand “Your SMQ® ~ Social media Quotient” is a brand that specifically caters to our clients social media marketing audit reports and metrics to give them the best customization and desired campaign experience. Know more:Reach Us here)
2. You can’t measure your return on investment in social media: Social media ROI is very much measurable (we hope you have read our case study links above on the same) provided, one defines the right goals and metrics, and if your data collection system works well, then there is no reason why your campaign should not work. Know Your brand’s SMQ (Social media quotient) – IS social media for BRAND YOU?
3. Social media can replace your website: It’s important to understand that social media is an additional tool and process to help you nurture your brand and to connect with a wide range of prospects globally. The idea is not to replace your website, at least definitely not at this stage. What we suggest is rather to create a link and integrate them with each other to the extent permissible and possible.
4. Blogging is a waste of time: Voicing your opinion and that too with a personalized connect can never be a waste of time. And that’s what BLOG does. It gives you the edge that a website does not. It helps you “humanize your brand”.
5. Social media is ‘just’ a fad: If we turn time by merely few decades, we can recollect people believing “Internet is a fad”. Well we all know now how internet has changed and become an integral part of life. Likewise, with the increasing number of mobile phones with smart technology, tablets all ensure a diverse base for social media platforms in the near future. Well, frankly speaking, aren’t majority of us already online all the time!
6. Social Media is not for my type of businesses: It’s a myth that social media can work for customer oriented model of business only. It works well even for the B2B model of business. (Check out our case studies: INDUSTRIAL here)
7. Buy your Fans/Followers, there is nothing wrong in that, or is it?: It’s a myth that more the number of followers would mean more the number of customers. It’s important to remember that such paid fans are not real fans, most of the time. So it’s best for business to have organic and real fans rather than you ending up having a bunch of ghost profiles on your page that do not interact with your brand.
8. Social Media is all about Me, me and ME: As Bill Stinnett correctly says “Think like your customer”. It’s important to ask this simple question to oneself “Do I like having a conversation with someone who is constantly talking about himself?” Of course you don’t. That’s how customers will feel about your company if you’re constantly pushing a marketing message through social media. The conversations should engage the customers and make them talk about your brand. Remember, it’s “social” media. Be real, talk, listen and enagage. It reflects in your brand’s personality online.
9. Social Media is just Facebook and Twitter: Facebook is a wonderful medium for social media marketing. But remember, like our CEO Mr.Ananth always quotes, “social media is not about websites. It was, is and will always be about people. People buy from people they trust. So make sure in your engagement and conversations, you humanize your brand”. Focus on your goals, customers needs and their presence online.
10. Our customers aren’t on social sites: It is true that social media was at one time an arena dominated by young adults and teenagers. Not only are people using social networks to connect with family and friends of all age groups, but they are using them for opinions, news, feedback, deals and offers and that too for extended periods of time. People spend an average of 5.1 hours per day on social networks. That is more time they spend on email, news, games, or anything else on the Internet. Which is why, first understanding where your customers are, plays a very vital role in planning your social media campaign.
11. Remove traditional marketing: We say a strict NO. Never replace traditional marketing, at least not at the stage right now where the world is not completely ready across the globe to go digital. The best solution is to find a way to bring together your online and offline consumers under one banner to engage with your brand. Get them both working together and leverage on each of their strengths.
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Brand monitoring, spam posts and irate customers: Social media will backfire: This is another huge misconception or fear that is there among many end users that, social media can backfire anytime and there is nothing one can do about it. Also, that when ‘customers go irate on social media, shut them down or delete their comments or block them’ is another misconception users have about social media which needs to radically change.
We as a digital marketing and social media services agency have always been pro -customer feedback and extremely high on brand monitoring to be integrated with every social media campaign. In fact, we believe, an irate customer ends up becoming your most loyal brand ambassador online when he or she is reached at the right time with the right solution from your brand. Which is why we often integrate brand monitoring, control and engage with users constantly in a human way showcasing empathy and concern to their issues and provide them with timely solutions using our social media brand marketing campaigns online.
Do you have any query about what social media can do for your BRAND?
Do you know your BRAND’s social media quotient? Would you like to?
Feel free to reach us on Facebook – Twitter – Email:socialmedia@techdivine.com or using our QUICK FORM Link here to know more about customized and controlled impact driven proven strategies for social media brand marketing campaigns.
Have a wonderful day ahead.
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