Are you getting the social media benefits you expected? If not, it’s probably because you believe some or all of the misconceptions about social media. Believe me, it’s tough to wade through all the stats and advice that surround it.

However, knowing the truth will help you adjust your social media marketing, so you can finally get some of the marvelous benefits that many business owners are seeing. Be bold and try to implement some of these strategies yourself and see if it improves your social media marketing efforts.

Social Media Lies Many People Believe

The following lies about social media will keep you from achieving your social media marketing goals.

1) More Followers = Effective Social Marketing Efforts

You can have thousands of followers, even tens of thousands of followers, and still fail at social media marketing. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter know when people have fake followers. These fake followers are bought or are from like/follow exchanges. Since social networks have become smart about this, they have adjusted their algorithm to identify it and limit post reach. When not many people see your posts, you don’t get your message out, which makes social media marketing ineffective.

2) Adding social sharing buttons increases the number of shares you receive

Having social share buttons only makes it easier for your web visitors to share your content. It does not make them share it. It’s the content that makes them share. Don’t focus as much on getting the perfect social share buttons on your posts, but instead, focus on the quality of the content.

3) Everyone needs to be active on social networks every day to be effective

You need to keep your consumers in mind when you use social media for marketing purposes. Your consumers may not use social media every single day. There may be days they are more active. You need to use that information to market effectively. If your consumers are working all day outside, it’s likely they won’t be checking into Twitter, Facebook, etc.

You may want to adjust the times you post to the evenings and weekends. You may also not need to be active every day because your consumers are just too busy to engage with social media on some days. Here’s an awesome infographic that explains the best times to post on social media. 

4) Ignoring negative mentions on social media is the best way to handle them

This is completely untrue. Ignoring complaints will show you don’t care about your consumers. While you may think responding to people with complaints will make matters worse, it’s actually a good idea. Just be careful with what you respond with when you answer them. It’s best to acknowledge the complaint, offer solutions, and try to get people to discuss the situation by email, phone, or in person. Other consumers are paying attention to what is going on between you and the irate customers, so keep your composure.

5) All you need to do is schedule posts to your social networks

Scheduling posts to your social networks is a convenient way to update your followers on the latest news about your industry; however, it’s not enough to make social media work for you. There’s a certain aspect of social media that many people forget. It’s the social part of “social” media. You need to engage with your followers to build a relationship with them. Those relationships are what will lead you to getting more likes, shares, and brand awareness on social networks.

Being effective at social media is not as much of a mystery as many people think. It really has to do with posting quality content and connecting with your followers as you would anyone you meet offline. Just because you’re networking behind a computer screen doesn’t mean you should take shortcuts. Give people what they want and show them who you are online. They will appreciate that and will be more willing to help you grow your business.

How do you use social media effectively? Have you seen benefits from your work on social networks? Let us know in the comments below.