Social media has been all the rage over that last year or so. Being that it is a “FREE” platform, marketers see social media as something with a lot of people and NO money had to be spent to get traffic. Many were looking at social media as some kind of silver bullet, a type of marketing that can drive traffic and sales at no cost.Let me clear up the first and BIGGEST misconception about social media being used for marking. IT IS NOT FREE!! Although you are joining “free” social networks and the platforms are free to use, utilizing social media for business and marketing is by no chance free. It take A LOT of time and effort to create a strategy, create profiles, and then maintain profiles. People seem to forget that this is “Social Networking” and you are there to network with people. It is not a set it and forget it thing. So… Time=Money! So therefor, social media is not free!
Next, just because there are muli-millions of people using social media doesn’t mean that anything you do is going to draw in traffic or sales. It really does take unique strategies and fresh content to pull eye balls to whatever it is you are doing. Just because you have a profile and “tweeted” a few times does not mean you should pat yourself on the back and say, “Yes, we are using social media.”
Utilizing social media takes time! Do not expect to suddenly create a Facebook Fan Page and have 1000 fans flocking to your page and interacting with you. It takes time, patience, comittment, content, and interaction to make social media a success for yourself.
I hope you do not put social media on a pedistal! If you tried social media and it “didn’t work”, please re-evaluate what your strategies were and if you actually USED it! Social Media is no silver bullet, it is just another tool in your marketing and business collection.
