I’m a fan of social media. I spend too much time on the Internet and because my job requires it, I get paid to hang out on social networking sites. However, I often hear things about it that don’t sit very well with me. I don’t believe them to be true. Here are 3 statements on social media I just can’t get behind:

 

“Social media isn’t about selling, it is about being a part of the conversation.”

 I really don’t like when people say this. If I am a business, why would I waste money on something that isn’t generating sales?

If you are having difficulty getting your boss or clients to agree to a social media strategy, I’m confident this is why. Nobody concerned with numbers wants to talk about social karma, the number of retweets you can get or how many fans you can get on Facebook. They want to talk about what they can do to get more dollars in the bank.

I am not suggesting that anyone striving to be a part of the conversation is wrong. Savvy social media users know that to do a good job, you need to strive for trust, influence, loyalty, goodwill, advocacy and a long list of other terms we’ve all come to know and love. You also need to quantify how you are doing by measuring feedback, comments, mentions and external reach.

However, being a part of the conversation is what helps you get to the end goal, which is selling something. Whether it’s signing more clients, book sales, more traffic to your blog or even making friends, you are still selling. Keeping this in mind makes it easier to measure your social media efforts and get approval from your skeptical boss.

Instead of saying, “People are talking about our brand on Twitter and we need to be a part of that conversation.” Try saying, “My 3 goals for being on Twitter are to establish our organization as thought leaders, provide proactive customer service and drive more traffic to the website. I will measure the success of my efforts by measuring the increase in the number of speaking engagements our organization gets, the feedback we receive from our customers and the increase in traffic we get to the website.

“You need a social media expert to manage your product’s social media efforts.”

No, you need an expert on your product to manage your product’s social media efforts. Social media is a communication tool that people use across different spaces on the Internet. Consider each of these spaces and platforms to be a physical location. Would you hire a talking expert to work the room for your organization? It’s pretty much the same thing. Instead, think of who would best represent your company or brand. This is who you need to hire.

Once you’ve hired the right person, it is easy to teach them how to use the tools. However, it isn’t easy to manage all of a company’s social media efforts. The Internet never sleeps, so who you hire has a big job ahead of them, every day.

This is the point where the experts come in. Interactive agencies, word-of-mouth marketers and social media strategists can help your new hire with high-level campaign ideas, ongoing strategies and yearly planning.

“It’s free.”

Smart people don’t say this. You know why? BECAUSE SMART PEOPLE DON’T VALUE THEIR TIME AT ZERO. I Internet yelled that to you so you would know how important it is.

It’s true, social media is different – most of the platforms are free to use and you don’t have to blow your budget on one campaign, as with more traditional marketing campaigns. This does not make it free. People and organizations that succeed using social media tools spend countless hours working at it. Don’t discount what those hours cost and don’t discount how valuable the person putting in all of those hours is.

This was originally posted on the #likeminds blog which is an amazing set of conferences/events. You MUST check it out.