In a blog post on BusinessWeek a year ago, B.L. Ochman, listed six social media myths she tried to debunk (Debunking Six Social Media Myths). Since this post was published the hype around social media has only increased, and as hype creates myths, social media has created more myths than any other marketing practice in recent years. Ochman’s list of myths has changed since this list was originally posted and as some of the myths have changed, and other have been added, it is important to revisit this list and identify the new myths of social media practitioners and marketers are facing today.
The new myths of social media:
- Social media and Twitter are a fad and have no business value
- Only marketing people are blogging; decision makers don’t spend any time on these websites
- Social media is a cheap, easy and fast way to generate traffic and leads
- Social media is really hard to measure and therefore hard to justify
- Social media is fun for employees, but doesn’t drive sales or web traffic
- Anyone can do social media, all you need is good content
- Social media will replace networking, and other marketing channels
- There are enough free tools for social media, and they are good enough
- Social media is for B2C and not B2B, and they are totally different
- The bigger your network the better; only size matters
This list is obviously debatable, and some will argue that items should be removed or added to really reflect the current myths surrounding social media. What’s not debatable is that social media has become a force to be reckoned with, and ignoring it will be a mistake.
In our coming webinar: “Debunking the Myths of Social Media” we will explore these myths and try to separate the myths from reality. We will also offer the strategies that work and demonstrate tools to help you achieve your goals.
More myths? Feel free to share your thoughts about these myths.
