You can stumble upon a wide range of social media solutions and social media marketing tips during your everyday affiliate work. Although some of them make perfect sense, there are others so ridiculous that it’s hard to believe that anyone would actually think that way.
1. You Need To Be On Every Social Network
To quote the classic: “Ain’t nobody have time fo’ that.” Just like you don’t need your ad on every website, you don’t need to be present on every social network.
2. Focus On Facebook, or Twitter, or Network X
Your results will always depend on the amount of work you do. Anyone who says that Facebook, Twitter, or other social network X is better than social network Y doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
3. You Don’t Need Email
Email is still (and will remain to be) the main medium of communication online. Period.
4. Social Media Is The New SEO
As in “you don’t need SEO if you have Twitter and other social media.” This is obviously not true. You need both.
5. Automate!
You can automate some updates, that’s true, but not all of them. Social media is about interaction. No matter if we’re talking Facebook, Twitter, etc.
6. Send an Auto DM To Your New Followers
… and see them un-follow you in a matter of seconds.
7. Use Hashtags Everywhere
… and seem like an idiot saying something like “Here’s my #new #onlinebusiness #product. It has #great #reviews.”
8. Your Prospects Don’t Use Social Media, Neither Should You
Let’s take a different approach for a minute. Some people still like to believe that their customer-base doesn’t use social media very much. However, in the world of today, everybody does.
9. The More You Publish, The Better
I’m sure you’re familiar with this phrase: “Drink responsibly.” Here’s a new one: “Publish responsibly,” and only the things that matter.
10. Publish Posts On Multiple Social Networks … Automatically
Publishing the same entry on every social network at the same moment can’t be a good idea. It makes you redundant.
11. You Can Outsource Your Social Media
Well, you can outsource raising your kid too, but should you?
12. An Intern Can Manage It All For You
(See above)
13. Don’t Get Personal
Social media is all about getting personal. The advice should read “don’t not get personal,” even though it’s not exactly English.
14. Don’t Let Your Employees Use Social Media
If you’re worried that your employee might say something inappropriate about your business on Google+ then the problem is probably somewhere within you business, not with the employee…
15. Don’t Respond To Negative Comments To Protect Your Brand
Those are probably the comments you should respond to first.
16. Respond To Every Negative Comment
There are negative comments and there are trolls. The latter don’t deserve to get any attention.
17. Disable Comments
Disabling comments is a common practice for every sales-post (blog post with a sales message), but apart from that, you should be ready to welcome whatever your audience has to say.
18. Delete Negative Comments
Delete negative comments? No. Delete troll comments? Yes.
19. You Should Have a Social Media Policy
Rules are good. But genuine human interaction is better.
20. Social Media Is Completely Free
Only if you have unlimited time to spare. In other case, you will need to invest in some tools or external help.
21. All You Need Is Social Media
No explanation needed here… This is just pure nonsense.
22. You Can’t Measure Social Media
The only people saying this are agencies that want to sell you some social media services and, at the same time, don’t want you to question their performance.
23. Follower Growth Is The Most Important Metric
Just like in any other area, the numbers are not all that matters.
24. Engagement Is The Most Important Metric
Since it’s business we’re talking about … at the end of the day, sales is a much more important metric.
25. You Should Only Publish Messages About Your Company
… if your main goal is to bore people to death. Not even LinkedIn is entirely business-focused.
26. You Should Post X Updates Per Day
Setting a goal is always good, but social media shouldn’t be that mechanic. Number of updates really isn’t that important overall.
27. Social Media Is Super Easy
Just like any other skill, social media is super easy only if you have experience and know what you’re doing. For a beginner, it isn’t.
28. You Don’t Need a Strategy For Social Media
If you’re treating it as a business tool, you do. Even if you’re dealing with a mostly personal-focused network like Facebook.
29. Set Separate Social Media Accounts For Individual Divisions Of Your Company
Let’s face it … your company is not that big.
30. You Can’t Directly Ask People To Comment, Follow, And Re-Tweet
Why not? Anyone can answer this?
Do you have any other pieces of ridiculous social media advice? Feel free to share.