SOCIAL MEDIA MYTHS YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF YOUR HEAD – PART 2

Accepting well-known myths is not helping your social media marketing.

Question everything you know.

Social media marketing is neither as easy as you think nor as difficult.

Viral marketing a piece of cake? No way.

Video marketing is the only way to up your likes and follows? Not so! Keep reading on for more thoughts you need to GET OUT YOUR HEAD.

If it works for Go Pro and Red Bull, it will work for me.

Err, if only! These two brands are the go-to references for case studies, and yes, they are great examples of successful marketing campaigns. Having said that, they can afford teams of the best marketers around, they have vast budgets to spend on creating professional, shiny content and they can use advertising to get more eyes on it.

All that, and they are both incredibly popular household names.

How are you supposed to compete?

You can take the best of the lessons they have to share to ensure your content is going to resonate, but you cannot expect overnight success.

Instead, set modest and achievable goals for yourself and grow your brand from there.

My videos need to be perfectly polished all the time

If you have a video sat on your homepage, or you want a specific promotional piece, you should spend money to enlist the help of a professional agency to give you sleek results. Don’t create a poorly executed smartphone video.

Likewise, if webinars are part of your content strategy, spend some money getting a good quality camera and microphone, take the time to set your lighting up properly and get acquainted with a good editing package.

You need to schedule this work in properly, you cannot squeeze it into the last half hour of the working day. This is because videos take planning, editing and lots of takes.

On the other hand, if you are talking about a quick office tour for your Instagram Story, a five-minute interview with a member of staff or an unplanned opportunity (like a celebrity walking into your place of work), don’t be afraid to use your smartphone. Sometimes, capturing a moment is more important than the video looking professional. Again, if you just want a quick update with your followers, keeping it authentic is essential for building trust.

No-one is interested in updates about me; all my posts should be about the product

People love people. Readers respond well to pictures of other humans. We are curious creatures and we love to know what others are getting up to.

Let’s face it: unless you’ve invented something revolutionary, the chances are you have a competitor doing something very similar to you. How do you stand out?

Updates about you and your team create an emotional bond with your following.

Competitors may have products like yours, but they don’t have your staff. Your people are your brand. Therefore, don’t make your social media marketing all about your products; throw in a few “slices of life” moments too.

I need to make my social media posts promotional in order to sell

Followers are put off when they are sold to incessantly. While your posts will be promotional in one form or another (we all have an agenda!), you need to provide value in addition to advertisements.

It’s far better to take time to build a relationship with your audience than to overload them with posts about your products and offers. 30% of your posts can be promotional, but not 100%.

Video is the only way to up my likes and increase engagement

Video is a great way to encourage interaction.

Moving images in the newsfeed really draw your eye. Ever noticed how you hover for longer over a video than you do an image?

Also, video content is given more priority over other types of content in social media algorithms.

That said, you can get more reactions from followers by being creative in your other post types. Competitions, games and polls are alternative ways to get people’s attention. Also, don’t forget the good old humorous posts, infographics and links to free resources.

Experiment with all these post types and see what works for your audience. This way, you can start to build a strategy that grows your following rather than simply hoping for the best.