Busting 5 Social Media Myths

Let’s get a few things straight. There are a TON of social media advice floating out there that is either false or misleading based on our experience working with brands these past 5 years.

Today, we bust a few of them for you so you don’t fall for these ineffective tips and strategies.

Myth #1 - Growth happens fast & effortlessly

“Get 10,000 followers in 30 days”

“This is how I gained 500k followers overnight”

Sound familiar? While there are a few instances where this DOES happen, often growing your account takes a lot of time, patience and strategy. Can your reel go viral and get you thousands of followers? Sure. But that is extremely rare ESPECIALLY with a business/ brand account. The platforms are notorious for cutting the organic reach of brand accounts so that they’ll spend more on advertising. Okay, all this sounds very pessimistic. The truth is we LOVE growth on social media and we have seen it happen! However, what we aim for is sustainable growth - meaning people don’t follow you today to unfollow you in 2 days. What’s more valuable for your business is getting followers who are likely to purchase your product or service and be a loyal repeating customer. Finding these people and creating content that will get them to follow you is a process that requires a lot of thought and effort but is absolutely worth it!

Myth #2 - Likes and Follows Are Everything

That leads us to our second myth - that vanity metrics are everything. While likes and follows are good indications of how well your content is performing, they are not the end goal. Are your followers actually your ideal customers? Are they converting into leads? These are some things we look at beyond just the numbers on your Insights page.

Myth #3 - You Have To Post Everyday

This is something we hear a lot from our clients, and it’s a tricky myth because it’s not necessarily false. Many business owners get burnt out trying to post every day in an effort to make the algorithm favor their profile. The truth is, posting consistently is great, but having good engagement on your posts is better. If you post mediocre content every day and get 3 likes per post, the algorithm isn’t going to get the signal that you’re producing quality content. However, if you stick to posting 3 times a week and putting a lot of effort into your graphics, messaging, hook and you’re getting significantly more likes, you have more chances of getting discovered.

Myth #4 - Rely on Hashtags to Get Discovered

Let’s talk hashtags. While they still help your posts get discovered by users interested in a certain topic (or searching that specific tag), they don’t do much in getting your content discovered on the explore page. The algorithm has come a long way and is a lot more sophisticated nowadays. Try to include keywords in your caption and within your reels and carousels that are related to your industry and target audience.

Myth #5 - Social Media is Ineffective in Bringing Business

Another huge misconception we hear from our clients all the time is that they don’t want to invest in social media because it won’t bring them business. The reality is your target audience is probably on one of the many different platforms - and they spend a LOT of time on it. Social media is an amazing awareness tool to get your brand in front of your target audiences’ faces. More and more, we’re seeing a rise in the number of people using it for shopping as well.

We hope this inspired you to go out and create a killer social media presence.

Still need a little help? Find out how Small Social can help your small business thrive! Jump on a FREE consultation call with us by clicking here!