THE WORST SOCIAL MEDIA ADVICE I’VE HEARD “EXPERTS” GIVE

There are so many so called social media “experts” out there, but amassing a big following doesn’t automatically make you well versed in the world of social media marketing.

In this post, I’m going to outline some of the worst pieces of advice I’ve heard floating around from social media “experts”, and why they're wrong.

Hopefully, they'll help you avoid misinterpreting such advice.

1. An Intern Can Handle It

No offense to the interns out there, there are some really brilliant ones, but social media marketing is more complicated than just throwing up a photo.

There's a lot of strategy, analysis, testing and coordinating that goes on that an intern who's just learning the field may not be well versed at just yet.

My suggestion: Interns will have great and fresh new ideas, they’ll know the latest trends, and what’s popular “with the kids”, but this insight would be better paired with an experienced social media marketer in order for your efforts to have the most impact. Gauge the expertise of your intern and take that into consideration when assigning them tasks.

2. Post Multiple Times A Day

This is definitely one of the worst pieces of social media advice I’ve heard experts give. Why? Because each business is completely different and more posts doesn’t always equal more (or better) engagement.

My suggestion: I do believe you should post at least several times a week to maintain your presence, and top of mind awareness by appearing in your followers' feeds, and you should absolutely test different posting frequencies, and monitor how your audience responds. But some audiences like more posts and some won't - the only true measure is what your analytics tell you about your, specific segment.

3. Be Active On Every Network

I’ve heard social media “experts” advise others to be active on as many networks as possible, and there's undoubtedly some pressure to be active on every single platform, so that you’re not missing out. But being everywhere is simply not necessary for most.

My suggestion: I always suggest you try the networks you want to be on for a set amount of time. Gauge how your presence grows, monitor traffic from your social networks. Concentrate on the networks that actually give you results.

Narrowing down the networks you concentrate on will help you create better content, which will help your accounts grow the right way.

4. Link Your Social Media Accounts

Another bad piece of social media advice I’ve heard “experts” give is to link all your social media accounts together to make things easier.

In theory, this isn’t a bad piece of advice. But in practice, it might not work out the way you think. Here’s why:

• The way you communicate with each social network is different - from character count, to hashtag use, each has its own language and “set of rules”. When you link your accounts, you lose that, and can therefore end up looking like you have no idea how to use the network.

• It can look awful – Below is a Twitter news feed full of Instagram links. It’s an eyesore - the messaging cuts off and the Instagram link makes it look like the same message is being shared over and over. One more issue is that the photos don’t show up in the timeline this way, which creates an extra step followers need to take to access your content. This will cause fans to tune out - people are often too busy to click an extra link.

My suggestion: If you must link your social networks, take into consideration the network you're linking to. Pay attention to character limits, messaging, and hashtag use.

For example, if you share an Instagram image to Twitter, remember to make your caption short, since it will cut off for the link.

5. You Don’t Need a Strategy

The last and absolute worst piece of advice I’ve heard a social media “expert” give is that you don’t need a strategy.

Is it true that some people have amassed a great following without a strategy? Yes.

Does this mean that you’ll have the same luck? Probably not.

My suggestion: Create a strategy, even if it’s a simple one. Having a plan in place will help you iron out the details that will make your brand stand out from competitors and achieve the results you want. You won’t scramble for content, and all your posts will have a purpose behind them.

Remember that social media marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Some of the best accounts have been built through time and patience – and maybe even a healthy ad budget. When taking social media advice from an expert, do your research, and create your own tests to see if it works.