Top 5 Social Media Myths to Leave in the Past

Common sense goes a long way in business. But in the digital age, common knowledge can quickly become outdated or irrelevant and proven to be a falsehood. This is especially true for marketing on relatively infant platforms such as social media. Social platforms can be invaluable in helping you grow your brand but are constantly evolving and adapting to provide a better experience for their users. As such, universal truths can become outmoded in the time it takes to script an algorithm. 

Those who are trying to establish their brand on social media cannot rely on assumed truths or common knowledge. These social media marketing myths can stymie your brand’s growth and prevent you from making the most of your social presence. 

Let’s take a look at 5 persistent myths that business owners and marketers should leave in the past.

The size of your following doesn’t matter

For more than a decade, social media users have been able to bulk buy followers. This means they enjoy strong follower counts but very low engagement. This has given rise to the belief that follower count is simply a vanity metric. But that is an oversimplification. 

Even lurkers (who account for around 90% of social media users) can help you improve brand awareness and establish you as reputable. Furthermore, according to Sprout Social, 90% of consumers will buy from brands they follow on social platforms. 

There’s no point in using social media because my customers don’t use it

Some brands, especially those who target an older demographic, may assume their customers don’t use social media and think trying to reach them on social platforms is a waste of effort and resources. But with 3.7bn global active social media users out there, it may be a fallacy to assume your customers are not actively using social channels. The trick is to target them on the right platforms.

Brands need to be platform-agnostic

Being active on social media doesn’t mean you have to establish a presence on every platform – especially not all at the same time. It’s far better to research which social channels your customers use and approach them on familiar ground.

Feel free to experiment with different platforms and remove your profile if one does not give you the traction you expect.

There’s no point posting over the weekend

Conventional wisdom dictates that it’s best to schedule your content for posting during the week when most people use social media. But that isn’t necessarily the case. 

Evenings and weekends often bring high levels of engagement on many social channels. It’s simply a case of leveraging market research to establish when your target audience is online. 

Social media is only for marketing

Social platforms are a great resource to help you build a following and interact with your customers, but they’re not just a canvas for your marketing campaigns. They are also a great place to showcase your products and services and even close sales. 

Social shopping is a relatively new phenomenon but one that has enjoyed a huge surge in recent years. According to Mastercard, the pandemic has given rise to a 43% increase in social shopping. With the right payment solution, you can make it easy for customers to make fast and secure payments, but it’s important to note this feature has fees that need to be factored into your cash flow.

GoCardless can facilitate secure, simple and affordable payments on social platforms via Paylinks. These use Instant Bank Pay for instant, low-fee payments that are much cheaper than accepting credit and debit card payments. 

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.