Like every main advertising technique of the previous decade, social media has had loads of time to build up some large myths.

And although information has disproven a lot of advertising myths at the moment, some entrepreneurs will nonetheless maintain onto a number of, just because it is arduous to maintain up-to-date on what’s actually occurring with social media.

That will help you separate truth from fiction, I put my MythBusters hat on and drudged up a number of the most typical social media myths on the market. Let’s dive into some social media myths we have all most likely heard from colleagues or buddies and why it’s good to depart these outdated methods of pondering behind.

20 Social Media Myths to Depart Behind in 2022

1. My clients aren’t on social media.

In 2021, over 3.7 billion folks worldwide are lively on social media. At present, it looks like there is a social platform for every thing and everybody. Whereas household and buddies join on websites like Fb, Instagram, or Twitter, professionals are networking on LinkedIn.

Odds are, no less than one social media platform has an viewers that can align along with your model. Unsure which one is the very best for you? Take a look at this weblog publish to discover which social platform(s) are best-suited on your model — and which most likely will not work on your wants.

2. It’s best to be a part of each single social media community instantly.

Simply because I can identify a number of social networks, it doesn’t suggest I ought to arrange a profile on all of them.

By all means, analysis different social networks. Arrange an organization profile or web page and provides ’em the outdated faculty attempt. However you might discover that some aren’t actually price your time. If that is the case, take into account eradicating your profile and transfer on. It’s best to solely commit time and assets to the platforms that align most along with your viewers and advertising ways.

One of the best entrepreneurs use information to establish which advertising actions yield the very best outcomes — if a social community is not serving to you out, minimize it free.

3. Pinterest is just for B2C organizations.

Pinterest is completely superior for B2C entrepreneurs, to make sure. However often, when somebody says a channel is just for B2C, the B2B marketer in me takes that as a problem to show it isn’t so.

Seems a few of my colleagues really feel the identical approach as a result of one in all them wrote a complete information to utilizing Pinterest for enterprise. You may as well try the accounts of manufacturers like GE, Microsoft, Econsultancy, and yours actually for some B2B Pinterest inspiration!

4. It’s best to solely attempt to get followers and followers that can grow to be clients.

High quality is necessary, sure, however do not underestimate the ability of a giant social attain. Bear in mind a few of these factors subsequent time you bemoan buying a fan or follower that lives outdoors of your gross sales territory or goal demographic:

• Extra followers and followers means you are getting access to their followers and followers.
• In the event that they’re an influencer, their clout transfers to you by affiliation.
• After they share your content material, your search engine optimisation improves.
• They could nonetheless refer enterprise your approach.

After all, that does not imply you should not additionally goal a particular, high-converting viewers in your social channels — to determine your perfect audience on social media, try this publish.

5. It’s best to solely schedule posts through the workweek.

Whilst you should not pressure your social media supervisor to work on the weekends, you actually can schedule posts or launch social media adverts on the weekends forward of time — and, relying in your viewers, it is perhaps a good suggestion.

After all, you will have to establish when your viewers makes use of sure social platforms probably the most. Whereas pique social media engagement occasions happen across the center of the week, most platforms even have excessive engagement occasions through the weekends and evenings as effectively.

6. You will have superb social media engagement in the event you ask your family and friends “Like” each publish.

You possibly can’t simply have your mother and uncle Like each publish you place up on Fb. Though it would really feel such as you see a number of posts that your folks or relations like, Fb and different social media algorithms are a bit extra refined than that in terms of figuring out which posts get seen.

To get social media feeds to favor your content material, you will want a selection of individuals interacting along with your content material — each to develop your attain, and to indicate up in customers’ information feeds.

So, moderately than encouraging simply your folks or relations to Like or coronary heart your posts, encourage your followers to Like, remark, or share to encourage additional dialogue and unfold your model consciousness.

7. It’s a must to reply to social exercise instantly.

There is not any doubt a speedy response is appreciated, but it surely is not at all times required. Folks perceive that you simply’re working a enterprise. There are different issues occurring. In case you get again in a well timed method, however not in mere seconds, it is alright.

There are exceptions, in fact. As an illustration, Verizon runs a number of Twitter accounts. One is @VerizonSupport. Whereas Verizon will share weblog posts and academic advertising supplies on this Twitter, it additionally makes use of it to answer questions or issues from prospects or clients.

As a result of Verizon’s help account is for customer support moderately than advertising, reps who handle this channel must be responding instantly to inquiries.

One other instance may very well be in the event you’re working a social media account that receives a criticism that’s public to all customers and will damage your credibility. In that state of affairs, you need to seek the advice of your service group as quickly as potential and write a considerate reply that exhibits you are taking the suggestions severely.

8. Social media is solely about participating dialog — and never a spot to share branded content material.

It isn’t that conversations aren’t necessary. You possibly can’t simply ignore your followers. However, whereas it is helpful to stimulate conversations and discussions along with your viewers, it isn’t the one level to social media advertising.

Apart from permitting you to just about join with folks, social media is a lead generator, a non-organic site visitors software, and a fantastic place to share your greatest content material.

In case you publish invaluable posts, they won’t at all times stimulate dialog, however they may lead folks to your web site and merchandise.

9. Social media advertising ways do not drive bottom-line outcomes.

Piggybacking off of the final fable, you possibly can really generate worth past simply “engagement” and “model fairness” from social media. Social media drives leads and clients, interval.

Do not imagine me? Listed below are a number of stats you need to know:

10. It appears cheesy to look relatable as a model on social media.

The content material you publish on social media ought to at all times maintain your audience in thoughts — however that does not imply you possibly can’t additionally publish content material that exhibits your model’s persona. Or, frankly, even your neighborhood supervisor’s persona.

There are folks behind your organization; do not be afraid to indicate that with your individual particular model of humor, photos of people who work at your organization, and hyperlinks to information content material that you simply discover notably entertaining … even when it isn’t straight associated to your business.

11. Hashtags are important for each publish.

these tweets that appear like this?

Love this text on #socialmedia #advertising that talks about #pinterest and has a picture of a #pet #lol

The purpose of hashtags is that they be a part of collectively frequent dialog threads. So whereas it is good to have a hashtag for an occasion, like a webinar or a commerce present, do not lose your thoughts if it does not grow to be a trending matter. It isn’t essentially going to blow your leads purpose out of the water if it does … consider hashtags as a solution to be extra user-friendly for these following the hashtag, not a solution to make all of your advertising desires come true.

12. Social media monitoring takes endlessly.

One social media monitoring state of affairs: Glue your eyes to your pc display screen, open 5 tabs for every of your social networks, chug three espressos, click on between tabs, and hit refresh like a maniac.

Alternate social media monitoring state of affairs: Use social media monitoring software program that alerts you when necessary phrases are talked about; examine again to your accounts briefly each hour or two to see if it’s good to reply to anybody, comply with somebody again, and many others.

That second one takes you, in mixture, possibly half-hour a day. No large deal. All people breathe. Every part’s gonna be alright.

13. Social media managers must be new graduates or have years of expertise.

This is not only a fable. It is really an ageist idea that must be fully deserted — if it hasn’t been already.

Being good at social media advertising, or any job for that matter, has completely nothing to do with how younger or outdated you’re. You possibly can study the instruments and methods at any age, and make errors at any age, too.

As an alternative of contemplating a social media supervisor’s age vary, search for the candidate who’s each artistic and analytically-minded sufficient to handle your presence. To study extra about find out how to rent the very best social media supervisor on your model, try this publish.

14. Solely younger folks use social media.

Assume that the one folks on social media are Gen Z and millennials? Assume once more.

Contemplate this: 40% of web customers age 46 to 55 are on LinkedIn by the top of 2020; roughly 55% of Fb customers are over the age of 35 as of 2021; and in 2020, over 70% of 45-64-year-old U.S. web customers watched movies on YouTube.

Greater than seemingly, your viewers (at any age!) is on social media — the secret is determining which one they like probably the most.

15. Newer platforms, like Snapchat and TikTok, aren’t price taking severely.

Snapchat and TikTok are each cell social media apps which have pulled in millennials and Gen Z as a result of their distinctive platforms. Whereas Snapchat thrives on ephemeral content material, AR filters, and Bitmoji options, TikTok highlights goofy, enjoyable, or musical 10 to 60-second movies just like Vines.

Even though these platforms pull in odd content material created by customers, it does not essentially imply that manufacturers cannot use the apps to realize credibility and consciousness.

At this level, a plethora of manufacturers — from publishers to B2C corporations — have created profiles or adverts for TikTok. Some of the shocking and oldest manufacturers to construct a TikTok technique is The Washington Publish. Though the publication has a really formal social media presence on different platforms, they use TikTok to spotlight the humorous, but human, aspect of working in a newsroom.

Equally, a lot of bigger companies have additionally launched paid promotions or long-form Tales on Snapchat Uncover. To study extra about these corporations and the content material they’ve launched, try this weblog publish.

At this level, you possibly can actually take any common social media platform severely. However, as we famous when debunking earlier myths on this publish, you need to establish which platforms greatest match your viewers and your targets earlier than spending money and time to construct a technique for them.

16. You do not have sufficient content material to have a social media channel.

The factor with social media is that it strikes actually quick. What’s posted at the moment may very effectively be forgotten about tomorrow. It is easy to consider this as an issue by saying, “I haven’t got sufficient content material to publish.” However, alternatively, you might simply repurpose content material or re-share nice content material often.

In response to HubSpot weblog analysis, 91% of entrepreneurs surveyed say their firm re-purposes content material throughout numerous social media channels.

If the subject your publish discusses is evergreen, it can nearly at all times be helpful, even in the event you repurpose or repost it later. This doesn’t suggest you need to share the very same hyperlink and replace commentary day after day, but when a number of weeks go by and also you need to re-promote one thing, go for it. Simply do your loyal followers a favor and discover a new fascinating nugget of data to name out in your replace.

17. Social media offers folks a venue to publicly bash your organization.

The reality is, offended clients have already got loads of venues: phrase of mouth, Google evaluations, Yelp evaluations, and plenty of different locations on the web that can permit them to provide suggestions once they aren’t completely satisfied. Not making a Fb web page merely for worry of adverse suggestions is not defending you from an offended wrath.

As an alternative, get forward of the dialog by being conscious when adverse evaluations are happening, studying them, responding to the client, and developing with options for his or her issues. Moreover, when clients are happy, encourage them to share their constructive tales.

18. Social media is simply too “fluffy” to have strong metrics round.

Once more, social media is not about fluffy issues we talked about earlier, like “model fairness” and “participating dialog.”

Sure, these issues occur, but it surely doesn’t suggest you possibly can’t measure the effectiveness of your social media actions.

With HubSpot advertising instruments, you possibly can establish precisely how a lot site visitors social media drives to your web site, what number of leads social media generates, and what number of of these leads grow to be clients.

From there, you possibly can even calculate issues like the typical cost-per-lead and buyer — throughout particular person social media networks, and in mixture — identical to you do with each different advertising channel (proper?).

19. Social media is totally free advertising.

It is free to affix, but it surely’s nonetheless a useful resource funding. Even in case you are posting totally free, you will seemingly have to pay an worker to handle your channels and construct methods. And, as your social media technique grows extra profitable, you may determine to up money and time investments.

Fortunately, social media remains to be one of the crucial reasonably priced methods to spice up audiences, model consciousness, and finally leads. This makes the funding price your whereas.

20. It is best to stay with the identical social media methods which have labored up to now.

In response to a survey of over 1,000 entrepreneurs for the HubSpot weblog, 80% of respondents mentioned their firm’s social media technique can be altering from 2021 to 2022 – and for good motive.

Social media platforms are continually altering, and recycling the identical targets time and again may very well be doing all of your firm a disservice.

For instance, in 2020, Instagram launched its Reels characteristic to provide customers a short-form video possibility harking back to TikTok. By mid-2021, the platform introduced Reels can be prioritized in its notorious algorithm and can be pushed to wider audiences over static picture posts.

Corporations that have been nonetheless counting on an early 2020 technique that didn’t embrace Reels or short-form video could miss out on a superb alternative to get their content material seen by a wider viewers.

The social media methods that labored up to now will not be efficient at the moment, and social media groups that may stay agile and able to pivot could also be in a greater place to achieve the ever-changing social media panorama.

Navigating Social Media Advertising and marketing

Now that you have discovered concerning the falsehoods and myths behind social media, it is time to begin wanting on the precise research-back ways that might make your model profitable on a given community.

For extra information that backs why you want a social media advertising technique in 2022, try this listing of stats. For tactical recommendation on numerous social media ways and platforms, learn our Final Information to Social Media Advertising and marketing.

Editor’s Observe: This publish was initially printed in October 2012 however was up to date for comprehensiveness and freshness.