Social media marketing is not right for everyone....

I read a great article this week in BusinessWeek entitled "Beware Social Media Myths".

The piece was essentially exploring the use of social media for small businesses and busting open some of the key myths surrounding the hype and current media obsession with social networking sites and their uses.

I have edited some of the main myths below which i think are key for everyone to remember...

MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook are all the rage, but for most business owners there are better ways to stay close to customers

Myth 1. Social media sites are free:

Using social media sites isn't as easy or cheap as many people think.
Sure, most let you set up an account for free and you can integrate other services, such as your blog or Google's YouTube videos, at no charge.

But there's a significant cost: your time.

Because there's nothing worse than a site that's not current and to keep it current, someone's going to need to spend time.

This includes responding to visitors' questions, posting brilliant thoughts, adding graphics, and monitoring activity—basically trying to generate buzz.
Old information—a stagnant site, comments left without response—are death in the social networking community.

Myth 2. You need to be on all the big sites:

Besides spending a lot of time and effort, businesses who have succeeded with social networking sites generally focus on just a few of them.
Just because the media says it's cool to tweet doesn't mean it has anything to do with your business.
If you're going to to frequent social community sites, don't spread yourself too thin.

Most of the guys I know who use these things successfully pick their weapon and give it their all.

Myth 3. Social networking sites are for marketing:

Baloney. I've learned from other smart business owners that social communities are not for marketing. They're for service.

They are places to use to get closer to customers and respond to their needs. "Wherever they are, that's where I'll go,"

By providing quick and helpful customer service through these sites, you can foster loyalty and satisfaction, resulting in more sales.

Myth 4. Social networking sites are the future:

Really? Some of these cool and trendy sites aren't going to be so cool and trendy in the near future.

The percentage of Twitter users in a given month who return the following month has languished below 30% for most of the past year, according to Nielsen Wire. And MySpace recently suffered a decline in monthly traffic volumes and remember GeoCities? Yahoo! is shutting it down.

Social networking is a permanent phenomenon but that doesn't mean its main players today will be the main players tomorrow.

The above myths are not groundbreaking or particularly difficult to understand, in fact they are basic things that we all know.....but regularly forget.

You can read the full article here: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/may2009/tc20090522_078978.htm?campaign_id=rss_tech