5 Signs of Fake Social Media Marketers

Don’t get bamboozled by wannabe social media gurus and waste your businesses money and time!

Image Courtesy of Pexels

Everybody is a social media marketing expert these days — or so it seems. But many small businesses are starting to fall prey to an emerging market filled with overnight self-proclaimed pros. I want to help you learn a few tips and tricks that can help you separate the “real” from the “fake” when it comes to social media marketing.

Ask the Key Questions First: The easiest was to separate the social media marketing wannabe’s from the pros is to ask one question before you hire them: Do you boost or run ad sets on Facebook? What about Instagram and Twitter, do I need those sites in my marketing plan too?

If they can’t answer those questions clearly and quickly (because those questions are super duper easy for us real marketers to answer) you might be their guinea pig! Don’t be a guinea pig. Be smart…and read my list below!

Signs of a Fake Social Media Marketer

1. They only boost posts on your page. Uh, anyone can boost a post, but if you are trying to sell products, increase foot-traffic in your store, or capture new clients, boosting alone wont’ help squat! You need to run targeted ad sets on Facebook and whatever other platforms you have for your business. Boosting is an mature tool.
2. They don’t incorporate new graphics creation into your social marketing campaign. If you want to grow your business with social media, you need to run a fully branded campaign. That typically includes creating some new engaging graphics for A/B testing to see what images and tag lines are most effective.
3. They don’t know what A/B testing is or never mentioned that in their pitch. Uh, yeah, buyer beware. This is Marketing 101. I start all new social marketing campaigns out with an A/B test for ad sets. You simply create two different ad sets and run them in tandem or simultaneously to see which set gets the best ROI or conversions.
4. They don’t know what conversions are. All social media marketing campaigns should have an objective — such as driving traffic to your website or claiming an offer. Those are called conversions. If your social media marketer isn’t aiming for conversion rates, you may be workign with a social media charlatan! Ooo, is that a thing? Social media charlatan?
5. They don’t tell you which social media platforms are best for your business and which are useless. If a social media marketer can’t tell you which social media platforms fit your business model best, they don’t know what they are doing. Every business doesn’t need to be on every social media platform, but there are few that do. A real social media marketer should start their pitch out with what platforms you need to be on and which you don’t.

It’s that simple folks! Watch out for social media marketing fakers! This social media marketing game has gotten really real in the last few years. Use your money wisely!

In my next column, I’ll get down to the nitty gritty of the difference in Facebook boosts and Facebook Ad Sets!

Introspect Consulting Group | Marketing, Web Development and Public Relations