You have probably heard that you should be on every social media site for your business, that you don’t need e-mail anymore, or other baseless advice. Face it, just like everything else in life there is a lot of bad advice out there. Be careful who you listen to. Since our background is marketing we know a thing or two and we are here to help. So, when it comes to social media, here are some popular tips debunked.

1. You Should be on Every Social Media Site

This is one that a lot of know it all types say you should do. And while it is important to be on and engaged in social media trying to be on them all could spread you too thin and take up too much time. Know your target market and the sites to best reach them.If you own a Jaguar dealership keeping an active presence on Snapchat, popular among teens, isn’t likely worth your time. Facebook and Twitter are pretty much the stables so far, but you can experiment and find what works for you.

2. Social Media is SEO

Social media does enhance your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) since social media posts do show up in web searches. So they do in increase your SEO but they are one of many marketing strategies to do this. There are still are other methods for SEO to be employed, such as blogging, that can be as or even more effective. Hundreds of millions of searches are conducted every day; don’t limit your SEO to only social media.

3. You Don’t Need E-mail

Well of course you need a personal/business e-mail account to conduct business. Few would argue that when you actually think about how meetings are set, invoices are sent out and received, and a plethora of other things. Also, when you sign up for a social media account one of the first pieces of information needed for sign up is your e-mail.If anything having an e-mail associated with social media accounts is another way for people to contact you. For more information on E-mail for Marketing read our blog: E-mail is Still Alive: E-mail as a Marketing Tool.

4. Automate All Your Updates

So you are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a score of others. It seems like a lot of work to tweak your updates to fit each one, so you think ‘I will just automate the same thing to all these sites.’ Sure, this saves time but people can tell if you published the same message word for word to several media sites. In a way this says that you don’t want to be there, well, no one else will want to be there either. Engage with your audience and be real–with good, relevant content.

5. Social Media Can Replace All Other Marketing

While social media is a useful marketing tool it needs to be combined with other forms for best results. For instance blogging and social media can enhance your SEO. You need to offer other things, such as useful content, to get people to your social media sites in the first place.There is still a lot of bad advice out there when it comes to social media. Just remember that social media is a useful marketing tool that needs to work in conjunction with other tools in your marketing shed.