7 social media myths debunked

1. Social media marketing is a no-cost channel

As social media marketing has exploded over the last couple of years, marketers have tried to take advantage of “a no- or low- cost vehicle to get the word out.” The reality is social media marketing takes time and resources to be done right. And time and resources equal investment.

On the surface, social media is just a delivery vehicle, an engine. And your message and content act as the fuel. The investment comes in with developing content and messaging that can be delivered via social channels. Plus, there is the investment associated with the ongoing maintenance that is required to manage your ongoing social media efforts.

2. Social media is “too social” to be appropriate for B2B

Social media is actually a viable channel for B2B marketing, lead generation and lead nurturing, in particular. The key is to deliver meaningful, relevant content that engages your audience. You have to earn the ability to get into users’ content consideration set. Deploy a range of content delivery devices including blog articles, videos, polls, infographics, ebooks and white papers.

Once the engagement devices are built, it is critical to tailor user-centric posts in a number of social outlets to drive engagement. Standard social media strategy can be transformed to social CRM through data and channel integration. Engagement can come in the form of reading web content or blog articles, leaving comments, generating a review or downloading a white paper or ebook, all appropriate channels for B2B social media marketing. Track and apply engagement findings to other channels efforts.

3. Social media is a fad

I’d argue that social media marketing is currently on the path to becoming an awareness medium. If we don’t take control of social media as a marketing community it might actually become a fad. But we have a chance to get it back on course. By employing data and integrated mechanisms, social media can be transformed into a customized behavior-based channel. Typically channels that struggle to demonstrate a quantifiable marketing contribution don’t survive. Social media is on the borderline right now for many marketers, but social CRM can help move it out of the red.

That is the premise of social customer relationship management (SCRM). Social CRM uses social media marketing services and techniques to enable companies to communicate and engage with customers and prospects. SCRM provides a platform for creating meaningful ongoing dialogue with prospects and customers, and most importantly, it is a measurable form of social media marketing. Check out our ebook on social CRM to learn more about how to transform your social media into social CRM.

4. Social media should only be measured by followers and impressions

Today it’s all about ROI. And that’s a topic that many marketers are still wrestling with in relation to social media marketing. Marketers are accountable for their budgets, and must demonstrate positive outcomes for investment spend. It’s becoming more critical to tie social media activity to leads, engagement, conversions and other tangible, measurable outcomes.

One of the big ideas for social media marketing is the ability to consider social media’s impacts on other related channels. It’s also critical to establish key metrics such as the ability to move leads to a “sales-ready” state. Leveraging this type of process for evaluating social investment ensures a clear understanding of social ROI. Check out my article on social measurement for more details.

5. Social media should be treated as a stand-alone medium

Social media marketing can’t be very effective as a stand-alone medium. Integration is required for long-term success. Most B2B marketers have limited resources and have to consistently prioritize everything on their plates. One of the quickest and easiest applications for marketers is to marry email efforts into the social media marketing strategy. Leverage social behavior target content for lead nurturing, communicating with prospects and ongoing customer marketing.

Analyze content that drives engagement, social sharing, comments and reviews, and information downloads. Utilize this information to inform and shape messaging for SEM, email, direct mail and other outbound as well as inbound communications.

6. Social media can’t be tested

Utilize testing to optimize and improve your social media marketing efforts. Find meaningful ways to drive engagement. As your following grows, you’ll have the audience size to support testing. Try leveraging different content for engagement, different post wording and posting at different times of day.

Also, as you build your integration across channels, test different calls-to-action. If you have a series of ebooks, try promoting different ebooks at the end of articles, and gauge what gets traction. Social media testing definitely has a more directional feel than other tactics such as email, direct and SEM. But it can be very informative and provide insights that can be beneficial in continually evolving your strategy.

7. There is a silver bullet

Unfortunately there is no silver bullet. Like most things in life, you’ll get out of social media what you put into it.

Momentum helps. But the real magic isn’t in social media, it’s in integrating social efforts into other parts of the marketing mix. Leverage interactions to inform ongoing communications streams, including segmenting customers for follow-up post-engagement from social media marketing activities. Applying behavioral information to personalize outbound and follow-up communications takes the entire customer experience to the next level.