I’ve written before about social media myths and I’m going to jump on this topic again now. Social media marketing is a burgeoning field that holds lots of potential for those who want to advertise their products and services to one of the largest audiences online. This is great news.  However, like most ‘booms‘ social media marketing has its share of charlatans and snake oil salesmen who perpetuate certain myths in order to increase their incomes.

Some social media myths are just stupid.  Following them won’t hurt your business.  Other myths, which are promoted by numerous social media ‘gurus’ are a bit more damaging.  In one sense, they can deeply hurt your business if you adhere to them, because you’ll be losing out on so much business while your competitors devour your share of the market.

Social Media Marketing Is Some Sort Of Science

Yes there are certain tools to help you measure your success using social media marketing, but there’s no guarantee they’re accurate.  Not only that, they tend to be prohibitively expensive.  You should try and measure all of your activities across social media, but you’re in the realm of realizing that SMM is probably more art than science right now.

Social Media Marketing Is Some Sort Of Art

Does it seem contradictory to the last statement?  Perhaps, but social media marketing is not complete an art either.  There is some science to it.  You’ll have to really expand your horizons to incorporate elements of SMM as art and as science.  In other words, achieving success using social media requires a combination of the creative spirit of the artist and the rational thinking of the scientists.  Beware anyone who pitches a method that too rigidly adheres to one methodology over the other.  You’re still marketing to people, so being too robotic in your thinking could cause problems!

Social Media Marketing Is A Grand Slam Marketing Homerun

Be careful of thinking you’ll achieve overnight and lasting success from implementing social media marketing.  This practice is hard work, and ends up being more about consistency than anything else.  You’ll need to carefully manage your profiles and accounts and you’ll have to make adjustments along the way to keep yourself successful.  Everyone has to work very hard to maintain any kind of social media audience and this fact won’t change for you.

When all is said and done, social media marketing is just good old-fashioned marketing with an online twist.  You’ll still have to deliver high-quality products and deliver stellar services, regardless of your niche or specialty.   Social media marketing takes a bit of Art, adds a dash of Science, and combines it with a lot of old-fashioned elbow grease to create your perpetual online network money machine.

What social media myths do YOU think are holding people back?  (BTW, if you enjoyed this post, even a fractional bit, please share!)