Fact or Fiction? Know the Facts for Powerful Word of Mouth for Your Personal and Entrepreneurial Brand

If you are one of those businesses that think that the concept of the internet is overrated, then it is probably because you have heard of the social media myths. Today, the internet has become an important tool in marketing, most especially social media.

Social media and your word of mouth marketing strategy

Many small business owners and entrerpeneurs may now be on the verge of discovering some of the social media myths that can hurt their personal brands. The following are some of the myths that have been around about social media that may be the sole cause of small businesses being hesitant to utilize it.

Marketing in social media is free

Time is money. Any business owner would tell you that. Social media may be free but the amount of time that you spend trying to market your brand on social media means that you are spending money on it. Because some businesses think it is free, they tend not to utilize it well. Avenues such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are great places to help build your brand. It is therefore important to put together a team that will help you market your brand effectively on these avenues.

Creating your brand takes time and time is money. The time that is used in marketing the brand should be utilized carefully.

Getting anyone who you think is familiar with social networking will do the trick

This is absolutely the worst decision that any business person could ever make. The neighbor or the teenager might be familiar with how to create profiles, how to Tweet and upload a video, but unless they have any other qualifications, that is just about as much as they can help you.

Social media works almost like personal word of mouth marketing. This means that it can make or break your brand. Your plan of communication has to be carefully thought out beforehand. All messages that are sent from your business profile have to be closely monitored to ensure that your business remains reputable.

Haters will ruin my marketing message

Outside of the social media, people will still talk about the kind of experience that they have ever had with your company. Just like in personal word of mouth marketing, if they have a bad experience they will definitely voice it out. Instead of seeing it as a way for your competitors to bad mouth you, you can look at it as an avenue for learning how you can improve customer relations and the quality of your brand.

Building a social media page is enough

This is also a myth. If you have your profile on Facebook, for instance, your profile has to be active in order for people to notice you. You are not a social media marketer just because you have a Facebook account page. It requires that you engage your target market and keep them interested in your business. This will help you build a relationship with your customers.

Social media will hurt our polished professionalism

This is not true. Social media can be used to develop rapport with your client base. You do not have to appear to be professionals all the time. Sometimes showing the funny side to corporate culture can actually help your customers feel like they are involved and included.

If you show that your brand, as the leader of your company brand and the catalyst for your brand culture,  is also fun-loving by posting photos of your employees doing goofy things, it will get the attention of your customers because they will see you as fun-loving and approachable. They will also relate much better to your brand and become much more loyal to you as a result.

You can’t measure the success of your personal brand through social media

This will always remain a myth because social media is by far the best avenue that you can use to measure the success of your company. This is because people who use social media will view your links, like your updates and Tweet about you and your company.

We can take the example of YouTube. You can tell how well your small business and personal brand is doing in YouTube by looking at the number of hits that your video has. You can also see how often your links are clicked on and shared. There are several other tools that you can utilize to determine the amount of impact that you have on Twitter and Facebook. It is actually incredibly easy to measure the success of your company’s social media marketing efforts.

We’ll cover the specifics of ‘how to’ in a future post!

Maria Elena Duron, CEO (chief engagement officer), buzz2bucks | a word of mouth marketing firm, is skilled at making networks “work” and harnessing powerful online and offline buzz, she facilitates online visibility services and word of mouth coaching and workshops – taking companies and professionals from buzz-worthy to bucks-worthy.