Seeing as the last Mythbusters article received such a fantastic response, we thought we’d bring you another edition – this time busting some common myths and misconceptions around social media.

We’ve stressed the importance of social media for businesses on numerous occasions. However, we do receive questions surrounding it and more of than not – they’re the same questions.

So we’ll cut the chit chat and get right to it.

Myth #1:

A popular myth surrounding social media is that businesses do not need social media. We could answer this myth with one simple sentence. “Every business needs to be on social media.” 

In today’s digital world, every business big or small should be on social media. It offers you a channel of communication and interaction with existing and potential customers. The benefits of social media are endless – we’ll leave a link to all our articles where we’ve covered social media. Feel free to have a quick read of those they’ll help you understand how important social media can be.

Social media is key to building brand awareness and maintaining your brand’s presence in your customer’s lives. Big brands have spent years building up their presence and now they’re reaping the benefits from it.

You’re definitely at a disadvantage if you’re not utilizing social media, correctly. Just have a quick browse and you’ll discover almost all of your competitors are on social media. There must be good reasoning behind it, right?

So yes, going back to the question – businesses do need to be on social media. Full stop.

Myth #2:

A common misconception with social media for businesses is that you need to have a profile or account on every single platform under the sun. Well, sometimes it could be a good idea, but in most cases… No. You do not need to be on every single social media platform. The main focus of social media for businesses is – you need to be where your customers are.

Furthermore, the industry you are in will also play its part in which platforms you are active on. For example, a law firm will not need to focus its efforts on Instagram – seeing as their clients will tend to be using Twitter or Facebook. They’ll also need to establish themselves on LinkedIn so they can connect on a professional level. 

On the other end of the spectrum – a fast food joint might need to be on Instagram, Facebook and also Twitter. Instagram and Facebook will allow them to pump out engaging content to their audience and Twitter will allow them to send out updates to their customers with ease.

So take a minute, ask yourself which platforms your customers are using and is it relevant to your industry. The last thing you want is to be focusing efforts and time into a platform which you won’t see returns back.

Myth #3:

Tying in with the last myth. Businesses on social media tend to forget that quantity is not quality. Posting multiple times a day and bombarding your customer’s feeds will not increase engagement. It might even do the opposite and bring your engagement crashing down.

Instead, you should create engaging content and post consistently. This means having a set schedule and sticking to it. Any good social media agency will tell you the same. This way your customers will receive the content accordingly. Social media platforms are always tweaking their algorithms – so if you’re not posting consistently you risk the chance of falling down the pecking order on feeds and timelines, and that’s the last thing you want.

So don’t focus your efforts on quantity, you’ve got plenty of time – social media is going nowhere. You can create and post content until the world’s end. Slow it down and keep it consistent.

Myth #4:

This next myth is, in our eyes, the most frowned upon practice in the social media world. That is buying followers and likes. THIS IS A BIG NO! Buying followers will be detrimental to your brand. Social media platforms penalise accounts which buy followers by dishing out shadow bans and perma-bans. This means your real customers won’t see your content as a repercussion.

Another important thing to factor in is your analytics will not be accurate. When focusing on growing your brand, implementing promotional ads and interacting with your audience – analytics provides the backbone and is such an insightful tool to have. It allows you to see which content is proving to be popular and which isn’t, so you’re able to tailor content and switch it up if needed.

Organic growth is the best form of growth. This rule applies to everything, social media included. Do not pay for artificial growth – your brand was created to do this on its own. 

We’ve heard a long list of horror stories from brands who thought it’d be a good idea to purchase followers and likes, a few years ago. To this day, they are not operating at maximum efficiency on social media as their content is not reaching their audience as intended.

Myth #5:

Social media should be used as a tool for finding new customers. Yes and no. Well… it’s a bit of both. Remember engaging, high-quality content is required for growing your brand’s presence on social media. New customers will find you through connections and other people’s interactions with you. Likewise, your current customers will look for you on social media to a) Check what sort of content you’re pumping out and b) Connect with you as a brand and keep up to date on important announcements.

So don’t go focusing on potential new customers and ignore your loyal customer base. This is just as important as making sure new customers feel welcome and your social media doesn’t look like it has become an exclusive members-only club.

If there’s one thing you should take away from this article it’s “Remember, quality over quantity – and naturally, the quality will attract quantity.”

If your brand requires content creation or management for social media. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at hello@theiirthcompany.com and one of our team will get back to you shortly.