7 Facebook Myths You Should never Fall for

There are more than 2 billion people that use Facebook all over the world. Most, if not all, of your current and potential clients are on Facebook. And quite frequently: 29% of Americans log into their accounts on a daily basis.

Better yet, the average user spends 40 minutes on Facebook every day, according to Sprout Social.

Image via Sprout Social

So it’s no wonder that you want to tap into that amazing marketing potential. Unfortunately, you’re not alone.  Most marketers know there is leverage to be gained from playing your Facebook cards right.

Naturally, you resort to Google. There are millions of articles about how to do Facebook marketing right – tips and tricks that no one else uses. Sadly, most of those articles are ridden with Facebook myths that are far from how things really happen.

Why would someone lie, you ask?

Well, it’s not exactly lying. Some of the articles are outdated, so those tricks don’t work anymore. Others are written by SEO writers who have no experience in social media, but great penmanship. You are drawn by their great headlines and forget to cast a critical eye on the information they provide.

It’s a vicious circle: one writer publishes an article filled with half-truths and Facebook myths and 20 others use his ideas to create their own articles. Because if it ranked high in SERPs, it must be true, right?

Wrong!

If you’re looking for valuable insight into how to use Facebook for business, get it from people who have social media experience. Learn from their expertize instead of being fooled by Google rankings. Social media management and marketing agencies are a good place to start.

But I digress.

Let’s take a look at the most widespread Facebook myths and find out why they are fake.

7 Facebook Myths Debunked

Myth #1: Facebook Is Free

Check out this post by Facebook itself. It says that a post that is not sponsored will only reach about 16% of the people who follow the page.

The post dates back to 2012. Since then, the organic reach of business pages has decreased even more. So, unless you are College Humor or UNILAD – viral video creators whose post’s organic reach usually surpasses the number of followers they have due to massive sharing — , odds are you won’t even reach 16% of your audience.

Plus, you will need to build that audience somehow. Starting a new Facebook page means being prepared to invest some money in it – at least enough to get it off the ground.

Myth #2: You Should only Post at 1pm. Or 7pm. Or 9am

Yes, there are tens of studies that tell you which times of day get better engagement. And I’m not saying they are lying.

But you have to understand that most of these studies are made on an incredibly small and barely relevant number of Facebook pages. Very often, most of these pages are in the same niche or in similar industries.

It’s true that there is a day of the week and a time of day when you will get the most engagement. But this is different for everyone.

What can you do about it?

Test, test, test and test again.

At Idunn, we play around with scheduling posts for our clients for at least one month until we know what works best. And we still don’t stick to the same day and time forever. Because people’s lives change and so does the way in which they consume social media.

This is why having a schedule that’s set in stone is a bad idea for your business.

Myth #3: Facebook Isn’t for B2B Companies

I can understand why this is one of the most widespread Facebook myths. We all imagine that kitties and funny videos are the only thing that can succeed on Mark Zuckerberg’s social network.

And yes, it’s easier to create content for end-users. You can be playful, funny, cute and so on.

But who says you can’t be all those things in your B2B marketing tactics?

B2B stands for business-to-business. However, behind any business there are humans. Your ideal buyer persona isn’t an LLC. It’s a human who, most likely, has a Facebook account.

Every piece of content you create should be geared towards humans, not brands.

We have seen great success in B2B Facebook marketing for a lot of our clients. Even those who were skeptical at first and suggested we stick to “safer” options like LinkedIn.

Myth #4: You Should Post as Often as Possible

No, you shouldn’t. You should post when you have something interesting to share.

In fact, if you post too often, but have very little engagement, Facebook will not allow you to publish more than a couple of times per day. Next time you’re wrecking your brains thinking about what your third post of the day should be, stop.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be searching for valuable content constantly. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t push it for the sake of reaching a “quota”.

Myth #5: You Should Never Post the Same Thing Twice

Remember the thing about organic reach? How one post barely reaches 16% of your audience? Odds are that, if you post again, it will reach other people.

When it comes to sharing content, I am faithful to the 80-20 rule: spend 20% of your time creating content and 80% of your time promoting it. Sharing the same article more than one time isn’t a crime.

Speaking of B2B, we shared the same blog posts from a client’s website for a few months, once every week. And each time we got a different reach and different results. Even comments from different people.

As far as Facebook myths go, this one could be one of the most harmful, especially for marketers who are already stretched thin as it is. Again, I’m not advocating against fresh content. I’m advocating on not letting the potential of a good piece of content go to waste because “someone on the Internet” said you can’t share it more than once.

Myth #6: Facebook CPC Is Continuously Increasing

According to a HubSpot study, it’s not. In fact, the average CPC has been the same for quite some time.

If you notice your CPC increasing, it might be because, at a certain point, there are more businesses in the same niche competing for the same audience.

Usually, a few tweaks in your ads targeting can decrease your CPC. Of course, monitoring the right Facebook ads metrics is the first solution to improving your CPC.

You can read more about why your Facebook ads might be failing here.

Myth #7: Facebook Is Dead. Instagram Is the New King

Think about it for a second: Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same people. Why would they allow the two networks to cannibalize each other?

In fact, Facebook has been growing at a steady pace in the past few years and will likely continue to do so.

Image via TechCrunch

Plus, Instagram still doesn’t allow clickable links in posts, which is a problem that most brands try to find work-arounds for. But it’s still unpleasant.

Yes, Facebook may die out in the future. It may have the same gloomy faith Yahoo! did. But it won’t happen any time soon, so there’s no reason to cut your losses and move to other networks (yet!).

How to Avoid Falling Victim to Facebook Myths

It may be tempting to believe in articles that promise secret recipes for Facebook success “in three easy steps”. But it’s not that easy to actually gain some ROI from social media marketing. If it were, everyone would be rich just by opening a page.

Still, it can be done! You just have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to learn the inner workings of Facebook instead of following “magic” recipes.

Or, you can always let pros handle your Facebook marketing for you! We already know what works and we hate Facebook myths with a passion!

Get in touch with us and let’s build your Facebook community the right way!