Are you trying to use Social Media for the growth of your business? Read this before you take this serious plunge.
Social media is going intensive & is here to stay for a long term. The market for social media is always volatile. What sells today, may not get any attention tomorrow, due to the short attention span of the users. So if you are planning to do anything serious with social media remember these common misconceptions associated with Social Media Marketing and to do a fair risk analysis.
1. Social media marketing is not only about Twitter/ Facebook
Yes, you got that right. Many naive Social Media Executives/ Consultants, feel that social media marketing finishes at Facebook or Twitter. The big point here is to understand that the very basic step towards capitalizing the potential of Social Media is to understand the various opportunities it has to offer us which goes much beyond Twitter/ Facebook. Different brands have different TG (Target Audience), the motive of a good social media activation plan should be to identify relevant and compelling conversation hooks for the audience, create content around the positive hooks and integrate it into their social repertoires.
2. Social media is Simple & Free
Okay, We manage brands to maintain communities and by far we have not found this a simple task. You are supposed to have a continuous content strategy up-gradation to keep the interest of your community live . The whole process is intricate and one needs to adopt the right implementation process to optimize the benefits reaped through social media.
Social media being free is the most common tune, I hear it day in and out. No, it’s not free. Only the awesome social media tools you get are free, everything else come’s at a cost.
This everything else includes : Content, Images, Advertisements, Promotions and freebies.
3. Social media is not much effective.
That’s the old school theory. Only the non tech savy people should support that notion. Why am I being blunt like that – simple, checkout Tata Dokomo’s social media strategy. They have invested massively in social media and are earning positive results from it. It is important to remember, that social media opens enormous doors for your business. There are CEO’s of 500 top companies of the world on social media. Recognizing the right number of connections for your business is key here to let your business scale new heights of success.
4. Social media is a waste of time.
The most important aspect to analyze is that social media needs to be glued to the very general business objectives of your brand. If you use social media just for the sake of it, it may pose serious damages to your business than reaping positive benefits.
The key is to have a focused strategy, keep updating it with time, know your constraints & define your goals. Make sure you observe the Invisible constraints before they erupt & undermine your game plan.
5. Shouting louder gets you the attention.
The social networks now-a-days are flooded with status updates, feeds & tweets from all kinds of brands and people. It might happen that, your updates may get lost in this massive junkyard and may not reach your desired target group. The key here is, don’t panic. Keep producing quality & rich content & post it consistently. Don’t bore or irritate your followers by using Capital letters, slangs, repeating same content every hour. Give your followers the time to discover you, observe you and follow you.
6. Numbers are deciding factors.
Large number of people following a brand doesn’t necessarily mean that the brand has a pool of loyal audience. I accept the very basic fact, that more the number of followers, more people do listen to you. But important thing here is to connect and listen to all these people who follow you, so as they feel important & wanted, lest you end up losing a potential brand evangelist just because you didn’t care.
The same is true when it comes to number of people you follow. Following large number of people who have been randomly added, won’t help you in any way to propel your business in the defined direction.So to market your business to the right client, remember to connect & interact with maturity.
Social media has never been quick and easy to generate solutions for any business. So give yourself enough time & develop the right technique to crack the social media nut & reap evergreen results from it!
In the meanwhile keep enjoying the refreshing wave of social media in the country used for local politics.
When people like you maintain very the world ceases. Thanks for your post!