About this episode.

There’s a LOT of information out there when it comes to social media, but not all of it is accurate, some of it isn’t even true. In todays episode of The Business of Perfectionism I’m uncovering 8 social media myths you need to ignore immediately.

Not only are these myths inaccurate, they’re causing you more harm than good, wasting your time on social media and causing you to stress about marketing platforms that should actually be fun to use.

Also mentioned - check out episode 16, how to grow your audience and reach more of the right people which touches more of owned, earned and paid media marketing. 

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My name is Kristy and I am a marketing and mindset coach helping product based small business owners to grow their brands attract more of their dream customers and make more money.

Today I wanted to dive into uncovering 8 social media myths - at a glance a few of these myths might come through as legitimate advice when you see them online

, however it’s the spreading of misinformation that’s making business owners feel stressed and overwhelmed when it comes to social media and might very well be stopping you from from using social media to it’s fullest potential to grow your brand and sell more of your products.

So we are just gonna dive right on in….

1. You should be posting every day

Ok, this one was the easiest - however I still speak to people who believe they need to post to their feed and be active on their stories every single day.

And it’s absolutely not true. 

Let me start by saying, the more interesting, valuable and high quality content you post every week, the faster you will grow, however if you don’t have time to post every day, don’t have the content available or simply don’t have the energy for it, you don’t have to, and you shouldn’t. 

There are so many things that we could look at here instead of asking you to post every single day. 

To start, my first recommendation, if you haven’t already - is to go back and listen to episode 16 - how to reach more of the right people and grow your audience’. 

In this episode I touch on owned, paid and earned media and how we can be incorporating each of these to help us grow our businesses.

We want to be in front of people every day where possible, however this doesn’t have to look like you slogging it out, and posting to your social media feed every single day. 

So how often should you be posting? It’s different for every business, however I like to say you should post as often as you can, while maintaining quality - if that’s 3 days per week for you, we post 3 times, as momentum builds, we look to increase. 

Once upon a time, way back in 2015 the feed was chronological, some of you might remember that - I remember posting to Instagram and Facebook a minimum of 3 times per day - it almost became a full time job of its own, however things have changed. 

The current algorithm means you can post at midday on Wednesday and your content can still be shown on Thursday or Friday, Reels have a really long shelf life of about 3 weeks so trying to get even just one of these out a week can help too.

Importantly, taking the pressure of yourself and just posting, getting the story up, thinking, what do I need to tell people today that is going to help drive sales and getting something out there is better than getting nothing out there while you wait for the perfect post to come to you. 

2. You need to engage with people for 15-30 minutes before and after posting.

First up, let me tell you the truth behind this one…

It really does nothing to alter the algorithm, this is based on human behaviour and maybe a bit of psychology. 

The idea behind this one was when you spend time engaging with other people first and they see your comments, likes etc, it notifies them, it will prompt them to come over and check out your page again, and engage with your most recently published content. 

One of the signals to instagram that your content is valuable is how much engagement it receives early on, this is really about encouraging engagement so instagram will continue to push your post out far and wide. 

However, it doesn’t work, the results are lackluster and it will do little to impact the engagement your post receives early on. 

Second to this, if you post 4 times per week this is an extra 4 hours of work every single week on social media that is not necessarily going to bring you sales. 

You are far better off to schedule your posts for when your customers are online and check in, reply to comments and engage with people you genuinely want to engage with, when you have time and can commit to doing so, in your own time. 

You do not need to reply to comments in real time, or as immediately as they come through - instagram will not punish you for doing this. 

The best thing you can do for your business and for your mental health, is be present on the app when you are able and for however long you are able, and not feel forced to commit to hours and hours of extra work every week because someone told you that you have to. 

3. Organic content done well means you should never have to pay for ads.

This one I find really interesting, there seems to be some kind of imaginary badge of honour amongst some people that they have achieved their following or their results without ever using paid ads - and it’s one I am yet to fully understand. 

Paid Ads are incredibly targeted and can help you attract more of the right people into your business in a much shorter time frame. 

Second to this, if you are an ecommerce business and are using retargeting and lookalike campaigns, you literally have the ability to turn $1000 in ad spend, into 2, 6, 8, $12,000 in sales.

Ad’s most definitely have their place within any marketing strategy

And no I am not saying that you should be running ads, however throughout different stages of your business, your growth, the seasons you may choose to turn ads on and off depending on what your goals are for that particular moment in time. 

Again, I’m going to recommend you go back and listen to episode 16 where I chat more about the different forms of media, paid, earned and owned for more on paid ads also. 

4. You need to avoid sounding salesy

There are a few iterations of this, I’ve heard things like only 1 in say 3 or 4 posts should be a sales post or we should avoid selling too much as it turns people away.

I’m here to remind you that you are a business, the people that have chosen to follow you or join your community know this, and they expect to be sold to. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that your posts should read ‘red dress, $29,95, link in bio to shop’ however people expect to be sold to, and some people need to be told what to do next, it needs to be obvious, which means you need to at least give them a call to action that is very specific to making a sale. 

You should absolutely, most definitely put some storytelling content into your social media, ad a personal touch, share content that’s purely to make people smile or laugh and that’s for engagement purposes only, however, you should never be afraid of selling.

5. Follow loops and engagement pods are a great way to grow your account 

Engagement pods and follow loops do absolutely nothing to grow you account and can become a heck of a lot of work. 

If you don’t know, the way these generally work is you will be invited to join a group of people on Instagram, they usually have their own DM message chat going on and the idea is that you all follow each other, and every single time someone from the group post or uploads a story, you are required to like, comment and engage, and watch their stories - signally to instagram that this is great content and they should keep pushing out for everyone to see. 

There are so many reasons why this doesn’t work, and none to support that it does. 

Number one - depending on how many people are in the group and how active they are, this can take up an incredible amount of your time. Is 8, 10, 15 extra likes on your post really worth the time and effort? 

Number two - it does nothing to attract more of the right people to your page.

Number three - instagram pays attention to our activity, who you’re engaging with, they type of things you are doing, they are likely to see the content you are engaging with, show you more of this

and is likely to show your content to people who really aren’t interested in your product either, based on the activity of the pod.

And lastly - how likely are these people to really buy from you anyone, and if it’s not going to bring you sales (which I’m sorry to say it’s not) you really have to ask yourself ‘what’s the point’? 

6. More followers equals more money

The number of followers you have does not determine the money you are able to make. 

In the coaching space, I know a number of people with less than 10,000 followers that have made more than $1m in a single year, and I know people with the same amount of followers who do not earn enough to pay themself a wage. 

If you have an incredible product that solves a very real problem or fulfils a desire for your ideal client they will purchase it - you can still make thousands of dollars every single month with a relatively small audience on social media .

If you do not understand what your audience wants and you’re unable to deliver that to them, they won’t purchase from you.

If you have a huge audience however that love the concept of what you do but don’t understand the value or they’re just following you for inspiration, they won’t purchase from you

And no matter how many followers you have, if you do not sell to them, they will not buy from you.

More followers definitely equals more opportunity for brand exposure and awareness, however if you’re not actively taking those followers through the buying journey, they are not getting from your social media accounts to your website, it won’t matter how many followers you have.

To slightly expand on this, joining follower loops, engagement pods or choosing to purchase follower might inflate your follower count, however it will do nothing to your bottom line. 

Rather than focusing on vanity metrics such as follower counts, focus on the metrics that matter, like sales, website clicks, DM’s, enquiries and building a following of people who genuinely love what you have to offer. 

7. Social media has made most other forms of marketing redundant

This is absolutely not true, in most instances the people I hear and see saying this are people online who have little to no previous marketing or business experience.

Social Media Marketing is hugely important for any brand, however it’s a piece of the marketing puzzle and doesn’t make up the whole thing. 

We all saw what happened a few weeks ago in the great social media crash of 2021, if your social media accounts were taken from you tomorrow and shut down, how else would you be able to communicate with your customers. 

Successfully marketing your business requires a multichannel and holistic approach, in most instances each of your marketing activities will speak to another.

What I mean by this is - you won’t be able to grow your email list if you don’t have a way to actually tell people about it. 

You paid ads won’t work if you’ve abandoned your organic socials and your website is a mess.

People won’t be able to find your website if you’ve ignored SEO and have no way of telling people about it and driving traffic.

The list goes on, but the point is most forms of marketing, both traditional and digital are still relevant and have a place today, even with the addition of social media marketing. 

8. You don’t need a website, you can just sell through Facebook and Instagram

If you are selling a physical product, you need a website. You can also use Etsy or Amazon, depending on your business - however a Facebook or Instagram shop is absolutely not enough.

Again, think back to the great social media crash of 2021, Instagram and Facebook were both down for about 7 hours, while a lot of people just had no way to market their business, a whole bunch completely lost their ability to sell their product, they were shut down for the day - so sales at all. 

Having the Instagram and facebook shopping features can most definitely assist in making sales and as far as I’m concerned a product post without a shopping tag is a lost opportunity, however you should not be relying on Instagram or Facebook alone as your ecommerce platform.

There are so many DIY websites that allow you to achieve a professional looking website, Shopify obviously being one of the most obvious and honestly, one of the best to use also - don’t put the fate of your business on social media, take control and build your own website.

OK, so to wrap up - 8 social media myths you need to ignore immediately

1. You have to post every day
2. You need to engage with people for 15-30 minutes before and after posting.
3. Organic content done well means you should never have to pay for ads.
4. You need to avoid sounding salesy
5. Follow loops and engagement pods are a great way to grow your account 
6. More followers equals more money
7. Social media has made most other forms of marketing redundant
8. You don’t need a website, you can just sell through Facebook and Instagram

These are all myths, they are not true.  There are no hacks and no shortcuts.

A reminder that if you would like to work with me in 2021 I am currently offering single 1:1 sessions for the rest of the year, this is the only way you can work with me right now so if you are keen please get in touch as I would love to help you end 2021 with a bang and make the most of the Q4 period.

I will put all of the detail in the show note on how you can work with me, however if you’re keen to know more please know that you can DM me, come over and find me on Instagram @ kristy pask - shoot me a Dm and I will get back to you with more details, 

Or please head to my website, it’s just kristy pask . com  - I will also leave those details in the show notes for you too. 

If you have any questions at all about todays episode please do get in touch with me, send me a DM on Instagram or shoot me an email.

Once again thank you so much for joining me, I look forward to chatting with you again soon. 

There’s a LOT of information out there when it comes to social media, but not all of it is accurate, some of it isn’t even true. In todays episode of The Business of Perfectionism I’m uncovering 8 social media myths you need to ignore immediately.

Not only are these myths inaccurate, they’re causing you more harm than good, wasting your time on social media and causing you to stress about marketing platforms that should actually be fun to use. 

Are we friends on Instagram yet? Come and join me - and please shoot me a DM so we can connect.

Interested in working with me - you’ll find all of the current info here. 

And if you have any questions, please DM me over on Instagram or please send me an email - kristy@kristypask.com

Links and resources:

Learn more about my 12 week, 1:1 coaching program: The Holistic Marketing Method

Connect with me on Instagram: @kristypask

Book in a 1:1 single session with me here.