In our long experience as a professional agency that does digital marketing in Dubai, we found that despite social media being so commonplace, very few people understand the intricacies of social media marketing.
Like everything, social media is evolving with time. It is a powerful platform to advertise a brand or a product, and together with a strong eCommerce website, it can help skyrocket your business for a relatively small price compared to traditional advertising.
After you worked with an experienced agency specialized in website design in Dubai, you will need a rock-solid digital marketing strategy to promote it, and social media plays a pivotal role in those efforts. However, if like many people you are buying into social media myths, it could be hard for your social media marketing agency to convince you to make the best decisions for your business.
Here are some of the most common myths you need to disabuse yourself of in 2021:
1. Your clients don’t go there
This thought is still prevalent among some of the more traditional companies who built their success through word of mouth, enjoy a niche clientele that is either B2B, older, or belong to a demographic they believe finds social media too modern.
It is high time for businesses to let go of this notion – social media has been with us for a long time now and has grown to affect everyone, from youth to older professionals, everywhere in the world. Today, over 3.7 billion people are active on some social media platforms.
It is certainly no longer just a young people thing. Millennials have grown up, and even older generations embraced the convenience of social media. Today 40% of people ages 46-55 are on Linkedin, and over 55% of Facebook users are older than 35. In many countries, over 80% of people over the age of 45 are watching YouTube.
LinkedIn is a classic example of a social media platform brilliant for B2B marketing. But even places that seem B2C such as Pinterest can be a great way to do B2B marketing when done right! Same with Tik Tok, Snapchat and other platforms that are often overlooked for certain demographics.
What is important is to research to find which platform your target is flocking to, and that is exactly what your social media agency is supposed to do for you!
2. The more platforms you’re on, the better
The other side of the coin are clients who are overly eager to do everything right away. While there are several popular platforms and you hear about newer ones like Tik Tok gaining huge popularity, they aren’t all necessarily right for you.
Every platform should be approached strategically and it is much better to have one or two well-managed profiles tailored to their platforms than to be omnipresent with lazy or irrelevant content. Think of your resources and time and devote them to the most relevant platforms.
3. Social Media can serve as your website
Some people think that having social media presence only is a great idea, saving them money to work with a company that does website development in Dubai.
This shortcut is a bad choice in many ways. You will look extremely unprofessional, miss out on numerous benefits you get from having a professional website or e-commerce platform, and will depend on someone else’s platform to get your message through.
As important as social media is, a towering digital presence starts with a professional website design & development agency and an excellent website. Social media and digital marketing should direct people to this website where you will get a chance to make a strong impression and convince them to convert.
4. Social Media means free advertising
Social media is certainly a very affordable way to reach your potential clients, especially when compared to classical advertising. But any good advertising agency in Dubai will tell you that no matter how great your posts are, how good your artwork looks and how many hashtags you use, you will not be able to grow your followers and reach people quickly unless you’re ready to invest in social media advertising.
Right now, the organic reach of an average Facebook post is under 3%. This means you have to be ready to invest in non-organic growth.
To have a successful social media presence you need to pour some resources into it, including buy-in services such as SEO, analytics software, content and creative support. You need to support the team working on your social media management, whether they are in-house or a social media company you hired to help you. You have to work with them and support their recommendations to get results and be ready to occasionally invest in boosts and promoted posts to widen your reach.
5. Use as many hashtags as possible
A huge number of people believe they need to pack every post with hashtags to get a good reach. Hashtags serve to join together common threads of conversations and can be very useful, but your post won’t instantly become a trending topic just because it uses a trending hashtag.
Different platforms have different policies in terms of a number of hashtags that can be used, some even penalizing too many. Instagram allows up to 30, but Tweets that use more than 2 hashtags drop by 17% in engagement.
Even the optics are bad. Jam-packing your post with hashtags looks very amateurish and spammy.
Finally, if you don’t have many followers yet, simply using trending hashtags won’t grow your business overnight. You will still have to invest and boost your posts to reach more people. Your digital marketing company needs to carefully research relevant hashtags, and be very selective, using only the most popular and relevant hashtags for each platform.
6. You need to have all your staff members linking every post
People often think that as long as they push their staff, friends and family to like everything posted on their business account, the engagement will be amazing. But it doesn’t work quite like that, because Facebook and other platforms use algorithms that favour content a variety of people interact with.
This is what helps posts grow their reach and lands them in users’ news feeds.
With good calls to action in each post, followers should be compelled to like, comment and share to boost your brand awareness.
7. Social media isn’t the place for branded content
When emphasizing the fact that social media serves to connect people and is the place for conversations and discussions, some people diminish the importance of social media in lead generation.
Your branding agency in Dubai should show you how to establish a powerful digital brand identity that shows your services and products in the best light and drives traffic to your website. 54% of social browsers use platforms to research and shop for products – 83% of people use Instagram in particular to discover products and services, out of which 87% convert if they find what they’re looking for. Around 50% of Millennials and Generation Z state that they prefer social media for ad influence.
Do you still believe social media isn’t the place to make sales? Your followers should have a sense of your brand presence and leave with a brand recall. Further, they should leave having purchased your products.
8. You should only target your potential customers
When it comes to your followers, quality matters but quantity makes a huge difference too. Every single follower gives you access to their fans and followers – among which your targets are lurking as well. Especially if they are influencers or people with a great follower base.
Also, when someone shares your content, even if they aren’t a potential client, your search engine optimization (SEO) improves.
Therefore a good balance between highly targeted posts and more general content is important for a vital social media presence. Talk to your social media agency in Dubai for optimal content strategy.
9. Social media monitoring is a very difficult process
It can seem very difficult to be present all the time and follow every notification that pops out to instantly respond to every message or comment (pro tip: no one expects you to instantly respond) and report on the status and activity every post has generated.
Social media marketing agencies use different social media monitoring software that alerts them when important terms are brought up. With just a little research, a gruelling process can be made simple and convenient, and you won’t miss out on anything.
10. Social Media is an independent tool
A lot of people approach their marketing efforts in disjointed bits and pieces. As a full-service digital agency in Dubai, we want to put an end to this myth.
Social media marketing needs to be a part of a greater digital strategy. It reinforces SEO efforts and should therefore be aligned with the keywords your SEO agency selected, as well as help post useful content and link to the right places. It should also be tied to your content marketing and abide by your brand guidelines and brand identity.
Conclusion
Social media marketing is often not taken seriously enough, and other times it is overly relied on at the expense of other elements needed for holistic, impactful marketing of your brand.
It needs to be given proper attention and a proper value. No matter how amazing is the agency that does your social media marketing in Dubai, you can’t expect overnight wonders if you aren’t willing to invest into expanding your reach and lead generation to directly help your sales. This doesn’t happen organically.
Social media is a dynamic tool that is constantly evolving, with an always growing and always changing audience. To truly understand their behaviours, platform algorithms and ways to grab attention, you need professional help.
Start now – contact digital marketing experts and tell them about your business requirements.
