The Myths and Truths About Social Media #Semrushchat

Experienced social media marketers know the realities of the social media environment well and they realize just what it takes to achieve great results. However, if you are an SMM newbie, it can be hard to grasp all of the nuances of the social space and figure out the differences between what is true and what is a myth. That is why this week, we invited international marketing consultant and SEO strategist,  Gabriella Sannino to debunk some of the biggest social media misconceptions that can facilitate its misuse: 

Q1: In your opinion, what are some of the most common Social Media myths that are actually true?

• Social Media is Great for a Bad Reputation

Social media can be a powerful and legitimate tool for your brand, but when used improperly, it can also be a dangerous place for your company’s reputation. When posting, you need to be careful and make sure that your tweet, image or whatever it is, does not provide false information, disrespect or offend other people, and does not cast a slur on your brand’s reputation in some way.

• Social Media Does Not Strengthen Your SEO Efforts

While it is true that social media signals don’t influence your website rankings, a smart SMM strategy can actually bring new visitors to your site. You have probably noticed that for brand names, social media profiles are often amongst the top search results in the SERPs. It is also interesting that social media serves as a search engine, too. It is worth paying attention to your SMM channels and improve them to attract more relevant traffic to your site.

• You Can Publish the Same Content on Multiple Platforms

In her article posted on Hootsuite, Jylian Russell mentions that cross-posting and cross-promoting are two different strategies. You simply can not post the same message across different social media networks because you need to adapt your content for each channel that you are using. 

As you can see, some of the fact that look like social media myths, can be actionable tips to strengthen your social media efforts.

Do you know any social media myths that proved to be true? We would love to hear about your experience in the comment section!

Q2: Is it possible to have a successful SMM strategy organically (not paid)? If no, why and if so, what are your top tips?

Different companies rely on organic and paid social media marketing strategies, so we wanted our chat participants to share their experiences and opinions on whether or not it’s possible to gain success with an organic SMM campaign. They agreed that organic social media is a vital part in a marketing mix, especially when it comes to building strong relationships with your audience.

Thanks to everyone whose tweets we used to make this image: @SEOcopy, @bowdapr, @CoreyW85, @bill_slawski, @lucasvos, @bharatpc. 

According to Social Media Examiner, there are four different kinds of Facebook reach, including viral reach, which consists of users who see your content because other people created a story about it. As a result, if a person likes, shares, or comments on your post, their friends will also see your post, even if they are not fans of your Facebook page. Organic word-of-mouth can spread across new members of your audience to make them want to come and see what your company has to offer.

Gabriella Sannino‏ @SEOcopy remarked that building an effective organic social media strategy takes dedication, planning, and targeting specific individuals. But, if done properly, the results can exceed your expectations.

Q3: Myth or Truth?: When it comes to SMM channels, does every business need to be on every one? Why or why not?

There are many social media networks that businesses use to promote their brands online. Just a couple of years ago, we saw the rise of the new social channels, like Snapchat and Periscope. Each platform offers multiple opportunities and benefits for companies to engage with their audience, but does a successful SMM strategy mean that your business should be on every social media network?

You can start with just one or two platforms that fit your needs and requirements. Search for up-to-date information about who is using each social media network to find out their age, average annual income, education level, behavioral patterns, etc. This information can help you to narrow down the list of channels and choose the option that may work best for you.

Another important step is to understand where your potential customers are spending their time:

You probably know that Snapchat and Instagram, for instance, have more young users, while LinkedIn is a great place for job searches, professional networking, and connecting with experts in different industries. To find out the pros and cons of the most popular social media platforms, you can check out this infographic posted on HubSpot.

Once you have found your perfect social media network(s), you should start connecting with your audience and building long-term relationships with them by establishing your brand voice and sharing relevant helpful content.

 In a nutshell, you need to determine your businesses goals and find out where your audience is, and then choose a platform that fits your goals and needs best.

Q4: Is creating great content enough for your strategy? How important is promotion?

In a highly competitive climate, smart marketers invest a considerable amount of time and effort to create incredible content that will contribute to building a prosperous brand. However, many companies focus on content marketing but never see results. Therefore, content simply keeps costing them money.

Unfortunately, telling great stories is not enough to be successful in content marketing, it is just one part of what makes your efforts productive:

You can’t just expect that people will find your content simply because it is good. Instead, you need to plan a strong promotion strategy to make sure that your content will get in front of the right audience at the right time.

To maximize the reach of every single piece of content you create, you need to work on effective planning and coordination. Finding the right places where your audience spends their time is key to content amplification. 

Our special guest shared a couple of actionable tactics that can help you promote your great content:

As you can see, our chat participants agreed that behind any great piece of content should be a well-planned promotional strategy that will turn your story into a real asset for your brand.

Developing the right content creation and promotion strategy is paramount for successful content marketing. Make sure you have one in place.

Q5: When it comes to negative reviews, should you respond to all of them? What is the best way to go about handling them?

Nobody likes to find negative reviews about their businesses and products. However, it can happen to anyone of us. If you receive negative feedback on social media, don’t panic and take the following steps to handle it right:

1. Never Ignore Negative Reviews

Always respond to genuine comments. It will show that your brand is true, honest, and able to listen to your customers, plus, users will appreciate this. If they see that you are eager to address their feedback and help resolve the issue, they might change their opinion and even delete the negative review.

2. Don’t Remove Negative Reviews

It can be tempting to remove negative reviews, but you should never do that. 

3. Proceed With Caution

There is actually one case, in which you can ignore a negative comment: when you are more than 100% sure that this comment is from a social media troll who wants to stir up trouble on purpose. Rachel Wisuri offers several tactics to deal with trolls in her article posted on Social Media Examiner.

4. Respond to Genuine Complaints Calmly and Honestly

If a complaint is genuine and belongs to a person who is truly upset, you need to react as soon as possible. The first thing they want to know is that they were heard; be calm, polite, honest, thank them for their opinion, and then apologize for their inconvenience. Don’t discuss the situation in public and encourage the person to send you a private message.

5. Take it Offline

To make a commenter feel as if you are very serious about solving the issue, you can bring your conversation offline. Ask the person to provide you with their contact information and call them. Moving your conversation to from online to offline can give people a personal touch that shows that you care.

If there are too many negative reviews, it may be a red flag that there are some internal issues within your product or service, and you need to figure out what’s wrong. “If you are overwhelmed by negative reviews on your brand, you may have bigger fish to fry,” pointed out Corey‏ @CoreyW85.

That’s it for today!

Huge thanks to Gabriella Sannino and our other chat guests for sharing their expertise and helping us debunk some common social media myths!

Make sure to join us this Wednesday to discuss “Ranking Factors in 2017!”