Whilst social media may have been a place created for people to check out one another’s lives in a virtual forum, over recent times the use has definitely grown. Businesses are starting to realise that it is an incredibly useful tool to market their brand, engage with their audience and get more sales or leads.

The trouble with social media is that pretty much anyone can use it, but not fully understand what it offers. Not only this, but there are also a variety of myths floating around which some people believe.

I am on a mission to try and bust those myths. To help, I have put together my list of the biggest ones and whether there is any truth to them.

Marketing on social media is free

I realise that there’s no cost to sign up for a social media account or to post content. But after that, you may find that social media isn’t entirely free. You can post and hope that people see it, but to really harness the power you need to give serious thought to investing money. Not only this but the time, effort and research to create the ideal post for should be taken into consideration.

You need to focus on followers most of all

Whilst it does make sense that the more followers you have the better, this isn’t always entirely true. Followers are just that, someone who has you on their list, what you need to focus on instead is engagement. Having people engaged in your posts mean that they are listening to what you have to say, that they are interested in your brand and they want to know more. You want to encourage people to like, comment on or share any posts that you have created as this is a true sign of engagement at its very best.

There are certain industries where customers don’t use social media

In these modern times, it is harder to find someone who doesn’t use social media than someone who does. Which means that if you are trying to appeal to your audience, then it is your best bet. You will hear plenty of people say that those over the age of 65 are the type of customers who are not using social media, however, in America, it is thought that as many as one third of people over the age of 65 are active on social media, which is quite likely to be the same here in the UK too. I mean my mum is on Facebook and keeps liking my Facebook business posts!

It doesn’t work

The thing to remember is that it might not always give you instant results.  However, like many other forms of marketing, the impact is happening behind the scenes. Whilst your posts may not see the engagement you hoped for, that doesn’t mean that you are not getting some kind of promotion or advertisement. You may not know it but that one post could have had a pretty great reach.

It might take time but I won two clients – one from Twitter and another from LinkedIn just by having a consistent presence.

Social media is ever changing and growing, so there will always be new ways that it can work for business. The thing to remember, no matter what you have heard, is to try it out for yourself. You will never know the true power until you see if it actually could work for your business.

Check out some of my other social media blogs!

Super social media tips

5 steps to a fighting fit social media presence