The three biggest myths of social media marketing include that it’s free, it’s fun and it’s for everyone.

Image by Cristiano Betta via Flickr

Yes, social media platforms such as wordpress.com, Facebook and Twitter are free to use, but it takes considerable time and effort to gain traction. Therefore it’s only free if you place no value on time and expertise.

Yes, social media is fun for individuals. Facebook is a great way to keep up on family news and communicate with friends. But, as industry user statistics  show, for companies and organisations, social media engagement is an important business function that is becoming increasingly crucial to many aspects of business including marketing and sales.

Yes, social media is for everyone. Industry research shows that ‘everyone’ is using social media including the older demographic. However, gaining an understanding of the social Internet requires time and expertise. There are millions of online communities and thousands of social platforms and tools to get to grips with. To add to the complexity, functions and features are added and dropped every day.  And, every once in a while Google changes its search algorithm and the whole game changes as a result.

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