Social media myth-busting

28/05/10 posted by Liz Niland

While everyone else is in a flap over that iThing and Facebook’s long-awaited privacy overhaul, let’s settle down for some social media myth-busting.


Myth #1: Having loads of Facebook fans will make my business millions!

Busted. No one wants a Facebook fan page with no fans, and few fans appreciate being bombarded with updates from anyone, let alone a business they’ve interacted with once or twice. And although it was reported that a Facebook fan is worth around $3.60 a pop, it’s a delicate balancing act to get that sort of monetary value from your average click-happy punter. The thing to realise with any social media is that, usually, to see any dollar returns from your fans or followers, you need to get them back onto your own website. A focus on Facebook can be a useful method if you wish to promote special offers or events (“Come in today for 50% off all hair colouring!”) but if you have your own online presence, Facebook should function as another tool in your marketing kit - not the be all and end all for online success.

Myth #2: A Twitter account is amazing for improving your site’s SEO.

Confirmed - as long as you know how to use it. When you put fresh content on your website (which is an undisputed winner for upping both your SEO ante and improving user engagement) Twitter is an ideal way of getting the word out while still luring users onto your site, rather than letting them linger Facebook-style on an external site. One vital Twitter tip that a lot of people don’t realise - unless you’re super famous, don’t expect to be followed without following others. Social media is not a quick-fix - just like SEO, it can take months of regular maintenance to get even a taste of partially self-sustaining success. Interact with other users, learn about hash-tags, retweet interesting tidbits from other relevant sources and importantly, don’t be afraid to follow people with the sole intention of getting them to follow you back.

Myth #3: Accepting link exchanges are worth the ugliness.

Busted. One-way links are what you want. One-way links to your site, from another, count as a sort of “vote” for your site in Google’s eyes. If you give a vote back to the same site, you’re effectively cancelling out the vote you received. Of course, don’t be afraid to link back to partner companies or sites your users will find useful - a balance between SEO and usability must always be maintained - but don’t think of this as having a direct SEO benefit. For this reason, accepting link exchange requests from random, not-exactly-relevant companies is best avoided.

Myth #4: If I pull out all stops with SEO, I can avoid any of this SEM business.

Busted. Think of SEO and SEM as a solid partnership - the shortfalls of one are made up for by the strengths of the other. If some of your most highly prized keywords are proving to be quite the SEO challenge, even after you’ve followed all the golden rules, SEM - primarily Google Adwords - may be able to get you a little closer to the top of the search returns pile. That said, you can pull-back SEM at times when you’re topping the organic search charts. Consider this though; when almost nothing can top the authority of a .gov.au website organically, the Australian federal government still uses Google Adwords. Consider it search results insurance.