The largest misconceptions for Social Marketing and SEO are widely accepted, incorrectly, in terms of how marketers and the end users see social networking.
1. More Likes Means More Business – a ‘Like’ or the number of likes on a business page has nothing to do with sales nor are all ‘likes’ created equal. It is simple to create several hundred to thousands of ‘likes’ on a page yet without ongoing interaction, ‘shares’ of the content posted on the page and a strong call to action that leads to a website visit or a phone call, the likes are worthless. The strength of a page on a social network is within the INTERACTIONS not the number of likes.
2. Social Media Marketing is FREE or EASY – technically it is free to setup a profile and account on most of the major social networking sites but successfully optimizing and utilizing those accounts for marketing is not. To be successful a BUSINESS profile needs to be setup, a business PAGE needs to be setup and properly names, links to other social networking feeds and then managed with a balance of MARKETING, INFORMATION, engaging content (questions, ideas, things that will bring people to provide feedback, comments and share what is posted with their friends) and the social networks need to be constantly updated. This requires time, expertise and skill to create, market, manage, monitor and track the results.
3. If I don’t use a social network it is not important for me to market there – WRONG, there are plenty of people who do not use Facebook on a regular basis or have never been on Twitter but the fact remains that over 800 MILLION potential buyers are at every day. Social Media Marketing is about utilizing ALL of the top social networking channels to reach all potential buyers, brand your business, product or service and control your online reputation.
4. If You Post it They Will Come – this has been a fallacy of online marketing for years since the same applies with Websites in terms of ‘If You Build it They Will Come”. If a social networking account, page or site is not setup properly, linked to other accounts, engaging, informative, interactive, humorous and managed properly it will not produce results. Once an account and page is setup properly it takes time for success, consider it ‘multi level marketing’ where you start out with one user who connects to another and then they connect with others until an exponential network of mass is reached. It takes time but eventually, if done right, it will work. Most success comes after 90 days of active marketing since that is the time required to properly build a network of loyal fans, followers and interactions.
5. Social Marketing is a NEW thing only used by kids – Internet Builder Consulting began marketing on social networks in 2007 and began teaching classes on Social Marketing with SEO in 2008 while today over 800 MILLION people with an average age group of 25-40 year olds are the main audience. Social Networking may be new to YOU but the majority of your potential buyers are already on social networks waiting for you to reach them!
6. We have a website so why do we need Social Marketing? A Strong Website is the foundation for all online marketing but not enough to reach the masses who may not even know your company, product or service exists. The way to reach the masses is through a strong, well optimized, user-focused website that is marketed and linked from ALL of the top social networking websites. Social Networking is built for ‘quick’, ‘short’ messages (Twitter is limited to 144 characters since that was the length of a standard text message from a cell phone) thus social marketing should typically be short, concise and to the point of transitioning online browsers to make a buying decision such as visiting your website, signing up for an offer or making a phone call. The website is only the start of an overall Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy.
Social Marketing IS Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – marketing companies do not seem to comprehend how Search Engines work since most are ignoring the significant effect of social networks on SEO. The # 1 Ranking Algorithm used by Google today is SOCIAL NETWORKING and having multiple social networking locations setup will ensure your company shows up multiple times on Page 1 of Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Contact the experts at Internet Builder Consulting for additional information on Social Marketing, SEO, Websites or a free consultation 816-842-7774.
Robert ‘Dot Com’ Jackson
Internet & Technology Expert
Internet Builder Consulting – Building BETTER Websites, SEO & Social Marketing
Robert Dotcom Jackson's Tech Tips, Tools, Internet, SEO & Social Marketing 
Great reasons why all businesses should take advantage of social media.