5 Social Media Advertising Misconceptions

By Marnie S. Hoppe

I run Amplification, Inc.—a social media marketing, digital media, and video production agency in South Florida—with by business partner Steve Cabeza and a crack team of seasoned and experienced professionals. 

We’ve been doing this now for eight years, and we were both veteran marketing professionals before we put out our own shingle. And, despite how popular social media is, and ubiquitous to all aspects of society, globally, it still makes my jaw drop sometimes when we are on sales calls or at speaking engagements. 

Here’s my list of the top five social media misconceptions I hear all too often:

1. My customers aren’t on social media.
   Unless you cater to the Amish community, chances are your customers—and potential customers—are using social media. And just a head’s up, business owners who assume their customers aren’t on social media probably won’t be in business much longer.
2. I need more followers.
   It’s called a hashtag, folks. These searchable links—which are found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, tsū, Tumblr, Google, and other social media platforms—point the people who want exactly what you have in your direction. In other words, you may have a million followers, but do they really care about you and what you have to offer?
3. Why can’t we just buy a bunch of fake followers?
   Fake, phony, and/or paid followers aren’t real. That means they don’t have real money to spend on your products and services. After all, you’re marketing so you can actually get a return on your investment, right?
4. How do I get more people to like my posts?
   Repeat after me: “It’s not about the likes. It’s about engagement.” As Steve is always saying, “Sharing and engagement are the currency of the social and digital media landscapes.” That’s exactly why you should be creating interesting content that people automatically want to share. (Need an example? Watch this video about unsolved cases we produced for Broward Crime Stoppers.)
5. I use paid web search services, so I don’t need to spend on social media advertising.
   So, let me get this straight. You’re purposely giving your competition the upper hand by staying out of their way? It’s time you diversified your advertising and created a real strategy that includes social media advertising. If that’s not enough to sway you, try this: Last year, 1.6 billion Facebook users hit the “Like” button 6 billion times—a day! And yes, that’s more clicks than Google ads got last year.

The digital advertising landscape is constantly evolving. That’s why you need to retain Amplification, Inc.’s services. Having our dedicated team means you’ll have someone navigating the shifting social media landscape so you can focus on your business and customers. Drop us a line at info@AmplificationInc.com to get started. And be sure check out Steve’s recent article about how Fort Lauderdale is doing Instagram marketing the right way.