Social Media Marketing (SMM): 6 Myths Busted in 2020

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has been on the rise since the last decade. The last five years have seen staggering growth of Social Media Marketing in India. Users and brands alike have jumped the wagon in huge numbers to make their presence felt. In fact, it has changed the way people engage with each other and the brands too. Business owners in India, today, more than ever before, understand the importance of Social Media Marketing. It’s a fantastic tool. But there’s a lot than meets the eye.

Most business owners tend to be reactive, rather than proactive, with their Social Media Marketing (SMM) strategies. “If the competition is doing this, we have to!” 

Most of us have heard this statement more often than not. Being a part of the herd or aping other brands blindly is not new to the world of branding and advertising. So, why would Social Marketing (SMM) be left alone?

The biggest enemy of a brand is the brand owner’s mindset — his reluctance to admit that the professionals know better. His reluctance to admit that reading an article or two on the internet is just half knowledge.

Unfortunately, this is the most prevalent mindset. That’s the only reason why we see millions of brand pages on Social Media that only the brand owners see or visit. These are pages that are run only for the brand owner’s vanity, perhaps. 

Here are 6 common misconceptions that most brand owners have about Social Media Marketing (SMM).

Myth # 1: If the Social Media Marketing Agency is good, it will show results in a week or two.

Myth # 2: If we post more on Social Media, we will be seen more.

Myth # 3: Organic growth in Social Media is the best way to go.

Myth # 4: Those investing money on Social Media (Paid Ads) are fools.

Myth # 5: Social Media Marketing alone can help me skyrocket my sales.

Myth # 6: Digital Marketing is all about leads, and the revenue we generate from those leads.

So, let’s start busting these myths.

1) If the Social Media Marketing (SMM) Agency is good, it will show results in a week or two.

Well, for any good Agency, it would take at least 90 days to fully understand your brand and how the audience is reacting to your brand. Despite all the strategies and plans in place, the reality on-ground, at times, can be starkly different. Also, it’s an ever-evolving subject. So, there’s no point in assuming that your brand will begin to flourish in just a week or two.

Most importantly, it’s also important to weigh various other factors like how old is your brand, for instance. If it’s a relatively new brand, then you are initially, investing only to generate brand awareness. And this process could even take a year or two.

You should begin to see a positive change in 90 days though.

2) If we post more on Social Media, our brand will be seen more.

This is one of the biggest jokes in the Social Media Marketing Circuit. The reality is that less is more. It’s not about how much you post. It’s about what you post. Here’s an example. If you put up 40, 50, or even 60 posts a month, the Social Media algorithm might choose to not show even 98% of your posts to your followers. Social Media algorithms are powerful enough to ignore such “supposedly” smart ideas. Over a period of time, these algorithms will just categorise your brand page as “spam”.

So, posting once or twice a week is absolutely okay. One needs to make sure that these posts add some value to the audience. 

3) Organic growth in Social Media is the best way to go.

Organic growth on any Digital Channel is great. But with Social Media Marketing (SMM), it’s a really long road that requires great amounts of work and patience. Also, it’s imperative to understand that there are many factors that influence organic growth. There’s a huge difference between businesses like McDonald’s that sell Burgers and the ones that sell vegetables or chemicals. Also, when you’re not an established brand that has decent following and awareness, you be under the illusion that you are. Nobody is dying to follow or like a brand that’s just selling vegetables or chemicals. You need to give your audiences a lot more “meat” than that. Then there are lifestyle brands that have a different approach and could get some traction because of the interest of people in such brands on Social Media, and offline, both.

If you are a brand that’s selling Cardboard Boxes, the strategy will be different. So, every business is different; every category is different. It’s foolish to compare yourself with competitors who’ve been around way longer than you, have invested a lot more money than you, have accepted the suggestions of their Social Media Marketing (SMM) Agency a lot more than you.

4) Those investing money on Social Media Marketing (SMM) Paid Ads are fools.

Well, it’s a great bubble to live in. We can just hope that better sense prevails before it’s too late. 

When done smartly, paid ads can benefit businesses beyond their imagination. As business owners, most people, just look at the balance sheet and sales and revenues to decide whether a particular Social Media Channel is working for them or not. But that’s a half-baked approach. Most part of advertising starts with the word “awareness”. It’s also the first step of the famous advertising principle called “AIDA” where the letter “A” stands for Awareness, “I” stands for Interest, “D” for Desire and “A” for Action. 

So, unless you work towards creating awareness, and offer something of interest that leads the audience to desire your product or service, there will be no action. And any Social Media Marketing (SMM) Strategy will suffer.

5) Social Media Marketing (SMM) alone can help me skyrocket my sales.

If this were true, Google would be shut long back!

In today’s competitive cutting-edge world, it’s important to stay on top of your Advertising game. For this, it’s important to make your presence felt across various online, and even offline, platforms. 

Social Media Marketing (SMM) should be a part of your Digital Marketing strategy. But it can’t be your only effort. If you’re a home-baker, you could survive on that for sometimes. For everybody else, there’s a lot more that you need to do.

6) SMM is all about leads, and the revenue we generate from those leads.

Of course, Leads are an important aspect of Digital Marketing. However, to single out and review just the business generated through the leads from Digital Marketing is not too fair to you, your agency, and the brand. It’s imperative to keep in mind that Social Media Marketing, for most businesses, can generate direct sales through the leads generated. However, there are many indirect ways that Digital Marketing generates revenue/business. Here are a few of those

1. It increases your Brand Awareness. Thereby increasing your brand value which is an intangible asset.
2. It also acts as a brand recall form of advertising. So, when someone sees your ad online, they may not necessarily click on the ad. Even if they click, they may not necessarily fill the form due to multiple factors. However, they may choose to interact with your brand later, even offline.
3. A lot of users may see your ad online, and just choose to drop by to your store directly. And they may have made a purchase. So, though the triggering point for the purchase was an online ad they saw, Digital Marketing seldom gets credit for this.

We hope this blog was of help to you. Incidentally, if you’d like to check out our most popular Digital Marketing Blog Post, please click here.

Sources: 
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/5-ways-to-improve-your-b2b-social-media-marketing-strategy-in-2020-infogra/570707/
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/22-instagram-stats-you-need-to-know-in-2020-infographic/569182/
https://awario.com/blog/social-media-predictions-for-2020/
https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/changing-position-of-social-media-in-2018-marketers