Social media platforms can be hard for some business owners to truly understand. After all shouldn't business owners have most of their concentration on the thing that got them into business in the first place? A mechanic may not have his full focus on marketing, especially social media marketing because his focus is likely on being a good mechanic. However, if know one knows you exists as the best mechanic in the area. The chance for a business explosion that would allow for expansions, more employees, higher prices (for demand of course) could all lie in the myths he chooses to believe about social media marketing. 
Working with so many different entrepreneurs I find that many are used to the traditional ways of marketing. I completely understand where they are coming from. If you are used to riding a bike with pedals it may be hard to adopt the use of the new motor cycle.
This post is dedicated to those that want to get the most out of their social media marketing experience. If you want to make sure you aren't telling yourself lies about social media that could be keeping you're business from the results you work so hard for pay close attention.
5 Myths of Social Media Marketing
Myth #1. Social Media is Magic
There's this weird misconception that with social media you can just share a few posts and the business will magically start rolling in. This often leads to frustration – brands know they need to be active on social media, but many can’t crack the code to success.The truth is, crushing your business goals with social media takes time, strategy and budget. I challenge you to find any brand that has a huge, successful case study based on simply winging it with a few tweets. It doesn’t happen.If you're going to leverage social media to drive business results, you have to understand that success takes commitment, consistency and adaptation.
Myth #2. Social Media Is Free Marketing
While social media marketing is the most cost effective way to get your content in front of a highly-targeted audience, it’s not free, or even necessarily cheap. We pay for everything we do two ways. In either time or money. We have to choose which one we are ok departing with. From experience, many entrepreneurs understand that money can be replaced, or made back. There is no replacing time.
When thinking about the cost of social media, you need to take time into consideration. How much time does it take to create content? What is the amount of time it takes to publish and monitor content? How much time does it take to execute advertising promoting your content? This all comes into play.
From experience, businesses put a lot of time and money into their SEO strategies (which are important), and seem to leave social media to back burner. Would you give up the chance to have your message in front of millions of potential buyers!? Treat your social media presence like any other marketing channel and carve out an appropriate budget. With the right employee (or agency partner), you'll find that investing in social media will boost major brand marketing KPIs across all marketing channels.
Myth #3. Social Media is For New/Online Businesses Only
Social media has forever changed the way we communicate and it isn't going away. Considering the amount of usage and impressions social sites get, they might as well be considered on the same level as major news networks – would you scoff at the opportunity to get your brand a primetime placement on FOX, NBC or ABC? Even if you're semi-resistant to social, you're doing your brand a huge disservice by not jumping in and giving it a shot. Even if you or your direct target audience don’t currently consider themselves “social power users”, there's a crop of people growing up who always had these platforms and businesses are already courting them for future business. Where will your brand be in five years without a social presence?
Myth #4. Tactics Over Strategy
The fun part of social media marketing for most people is the actual Tweeting, Instagramming or posting on Facebook, however, tactics without strategy are a waste of time and money. Many businesses fail to define why they're Tweeting and skip right to talking about what they'll be tweeting instead.
Do you know the difference between strategy and tactics? Strategy is the overall campaign plan while tactics are the actions uses to achieve said plan. Click Here to learn the STRATEGIC SOCIAL MEDIA FOUNDATION thousands are using to grow their business.
Tactics without strategy will always fail.
In thinking about strategy, it’s also important to consider which tactics are important and which are nice to have. Start with your goals, define your strategy and THEN figure out how to get there.
Myth #5. You Need to Re-Think Relationships
Social media marketers generally fall into 2 different categories: idealists and realists. Idealists will preach that brands need to build relationships directly with users on social media to have success marketing to them. Realists know that relationships are important, however no individual person turns to a brand for emotional support.We need to re-think relationships when it comes to social media. If we work towards providing value to social users, more than trying to unrealistically be their best friends, we truly see social media drive results. Take your relationships to a level you have never experienced before. A place where your communication gets you everything you desire!
Now, don’t get me wrong, it's entirely possible for brands to have marketing messages that emotionally connect with social users. However, when you scale that out over how many brands and social users there currently are, we see that it's simply unrealistic.Consumers don’t look to logos for relationships, they look to logos for value. Brands should stop trying to squeeze in as a best friend and start offering lasting value.
Did you get value from this information! If you and you're ready to take your social media to the NEXT LEVEL CLICK HERE NOW
Ryan Mcmorris’ Personal Branding Blog
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PS: You may not know this about me but at one time I was completely horrible at marketing and social media. Often many are slow to admit their lack of business skill. In 2014 I found my secret weapon. It tripled my results! Want to see what I’ve been using?
