DailyBlogr - 5 Popular Social Media Myths Cleared

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Okay, I decided to write this after a lot of thought. Why ? Because a topic like this, I knew would be easily shunned off by many of you. One would think – “Myth ? Not for me, I know the real thing.” Well, that’s what I thought too, until I spoke to a few tweeps about social media recently.

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We geeks often like to believe that everyone knows what you’re thinking. But its not quite right. Many people need to be still taught about certain things, and what better than social media ?

Myth No. 1 – You can increase Google Pagerank using social media

One person asked me if we can increase the Google Pagerank using social media, and the reason why he asked it is because he has seen me linking many articles on my tweets, especially to Dailybloggr. So he assumed that all those tweets would be giving me some brownie points. Buy no – they don’t. At least, directly. If some websites syndicate your tweets and link them from the site with a dofollow tag, then it might, but you don’t see that often, so no – no pagerank increase with tweeting links.

Myth No. 2 – You can’t sell things on Social Media

I got you, didn’t I ? Well, many people still believe that you cannot sell things on social media. Its taboo. I have spoken about it too. But the thing you should understand is that you can still sell things on social media, if you approach it differently. Many people make the mistake of repeating traditional web marketing strategies on social media, and clearly, they fall right on their face.

For social media, you need different kind of preparation, different set of tools and a completely different mindset from traditional marketing. You cannot sell with a push strategy but only with a pull strategy.

Myth No. 3 – You cannot keep track of friends if you follow too many

Many people ask me how do I manage to follow 15k and still interact with many of them. Well, imagine asking that question in your real life. Even if you had too many friends, you would track many of them, right ? I sort of approach it that way. Using the right tools, like Tweetdeck, Twitter lists etc its only a matter of spending time before you can actually manage your friends.

Myth No. 4 – Twitter is not for link sharing OR Twitter is not for personal blabber

One of the most common debates among Twitter users is over this fact, as to whether they have to use it for link sharing or personal talk. Some folks say that link sharing is spam because all you tweet is about “10 ways to this and that”. The other side says that I have no interest in knowing what someone had for lunch, or breakfast.

I think both parties are wrong. What they need to understand is that Twitter is a tool that has no set rules to follow on how to use it. You could use it as a social networking tool among your friends or you could use it as a learning tool for knowledge sharing. And one should find the right mix to move forward. When you stick to either one plan, you arrest your growth and grow sideways rather than forward/up. If you know what I mean.

Myth No. 5 – Social Media is a solution to your problems

This is more concerning brands or companies embracing social media. Most of them tend to believe that social media is a solution to their problems, if they have a bad product, social media can help sell it. That’s how the old marketing laws go isn’t it ? No. If you’re product is good, social media might help you pull it off, but not always, its not a cure or a solution. Its an additional value addition or channel whereby you can harness another untapped market to your core audience, that’s it. It can’t help your HR problems but probably get you the best candidate referrals, if you engage with it the right way.

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