@aishaRApr 30.2021 — #In my long experience as a professional agency that does digital marketing , we found that despite social media being so commonplace, very few people understand the intricacies of social media marketing.
Like everything, social media is evolving with time. It is a powerful platform to advertise a brand or a product, and together with a strong eCommerce website, it can help skyrocket your business for a relatively small price compared to traditional advertising.
After you worked with an experienced agency specialized in website design , you will need a rock-solid digital marketing strategy to promote it, and social media plays a pivotal role in those efforts. However, if like many people you are buying into social media myths, it could be hard for your social media marketing agency to convince you to make the best decisions for your business.
@johncarryMay 03.2021 — #11 Big Myths About Social Media and Content Marketing
**Myth 1: My Customers are not Social:**
2013 data from the Pew Internet project finds 72% of American adults who are online use social networking sites. (note: 85% of American adults are online). Even among Americans 65 years old and better, 43% of them use social. To further put this into context, about 70% of American households had satellite or cable television, circa 2011. So, is it possible that YOUR customers aren’t using social? Conceivably, yes. But even if they aren’t yet using social for business, chances are they are using social in some capacity.
**Myth 2: Social is not Measurable:**
Social is extremely measurable, but first you have to do something that can be measured. Tracking URLs, visibility into your purchase funnel, unified customer databases. All of it can answer that “are we making money at this?” question, but too often people expect there to be a magic “social media measurement” button, even though there is no such button for radio, TV, email, direct mail, billboards, or fancy business cards.
**Myth 3: Social is for Creating New Customers:**
Most of the people with whom you are communicating in social are your current customers. Research from DDB found that 84% of the fans of company Facebook pages are – on average – current or former customers of the brand. Of course they are. We “like” what we actually like. Recognize that in social you are primarily preaching to the choir. And to me, that makes social primarily a loyalty and retention play, not a straight customer acquisition play.
**Myth 4: You Should Ignore Negative Feedback:**
Social media is a spectator sport. It’s not about making the upset customer happy (although that would be nice) – it’s about making sure your brand is on record as listening and caring, because thousands of other customers/prospects are looking on with a bowl of popcorn in their laps. Answer every comment – positive or negative – and do it FAST.
**Myth 5: Social Will Kill Email:**
I’m so tired of the “(blank) is dead” red herring, and this one is perhaps the silliest of them all. Given that you must have an email to sign up for any social network, it’s tough to see a scenario by which email vanishes. Further, given that social is mostly a loyalty play, that puts social in the same strategic camp as email. Both are used to keep your brand top-of-mind among people who have given you permission to do so. Email and social are complementary tactics, not oppositional ones.
**Myth 6: Company Channels are Your Most Important Social Assets:**
Simply not true. Social success is about people, not logos. If you add up the number of social connections of your employees, they almost always vastly exceed the connections for your official company accounts. Activating your employees and decentralizing social media is the next phase of success. Easy-to-use software like Addvocate helps companies manage this process.
**Myth 7: Content Creates Thought Leadership:**
Not necessarily. It’s okay – recommended, even – to have content that is high effort and polished (thought leadership), AND content that is lower effort and less polished, but addresses specific questions of your customers/prospects. This lower effort content is often created by your employees and your customers, themselves. My friends at Compendium very much empower this type of program – great content marketing software (FYI, I am moving all of my blogs to Compendium soon)
**Myth 8: Content Marketing and Social Media are Separate Initiatives:**
Content is fire. Social media is gasoline. Use social to drive awareness of your content more so than awareness of your company. Like social and email, content and social should be working VERY closely together.
**Myth 9: Your Content Marketing Should be About Your Products and Services:**
Is a brochure “content marketing?” Is your content marketing just a repackaged brochure? I believe that if your content doesn’t have intrinsic value – if it can’t stand alone as something people actually WANT, you’re not thinking hard enough. Give yourself permission to make the story bigger, and create content marketing that is related to your business, but isn’t 100% ABOUT your business.
**Myth 10: Too Much Content Will Give Away Your Secrets:**
A list of ingredients doesn’t make someone a chef. (tweet this)
**Myth 11: The Rules are Different in B2B:**
Arrggh. This one always annoys me. Yes, the purchase funnel and some of the tactics are different in B2B. But the strategic thrust of content (help, inform) and social (help, humanize) are the same regardless of what you’re selling. Further, every B2B customer is also a B2C customer, and the marketing playbooks of the B2C companies are changing the expectations of B2B buyers. If you think you can take a pass on this stuff because “we’re B2B” you’re in real trouble.
@aishaRMay 03.2021 — #Social media isn’t the place for branded content
When emphasizing the fact that social media serves to connect people and is the place for conversations and discussions, some people diminish the importance of social media in lead generation.
Your branding agency should show you how to establish a powerful digital brand identity that shows your services and products in the best light and drives traffic to your website. 54% of social browsers use platforms to research and shop for products – 83% of people use Instagram in particular to discover products and services, out of which 87% convert if they find what they’re looking for. Around 50% of Millennials and Generation Z state that they prefer social media for ad influence.
Do you still believe social media isn’t the place to make sales? Your followers should have a sense of your brand presence and leave with a brand recall. Further, they should leave having purchased your products.