Like it or not, your social media reflects your brand. Make sure you follow this how-to list of what NOT to do. By Jennifer Riggins Images courtesy of awesome free stock images at I M Creator.

1. The 16 Don’ts of Social Media

2. “Social Media is like teen sex.
Everyone wants to do it.
No one knows how.
When it's finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.”
-Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist

3. So stop screaming!
Here are 16 things you should never do…

4. #1: Don’t forget to tweet regularly.
Especially if you are B2B.And follow your clients and potential
clients.They care.

5. #2: Don’t forget to maintain a Facebook page.
Especially if you are B2C. If you are selling directly to a
customer, you must have a presence on the #1 social
network.

6. #3: Don’t ignore GooglePLUS.
It may seem just like something extra to do, but a “+1” is
literally a bump in your Google ranking. It’s actually, for this
reason, the most powerful social network.

7. #4: Don’t social media vomit.
First, over-saturating your posts will be more likely to get unfollowed.
And it’s best to scatter posts at peak times. Of course you don’t have
time to remember to post at certain hours.
Try a social media tool like HootSuite that will schedule everything at
those peak times. (Except there still isn’t automation help for Pinterest.)

8. HootSuite organizes your
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
And it even lets you keep dibs on
what your competition is up to.

9. #5: Don’t neglect follow-up.
You probably know already that asking questions is a great way to
interact with your community. But you gotta respond to those responses.
Social Media Managers like HootSuite allow you to keep your Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn mentions all in one place and know exactly when
someone posts.

10. #6: Don’t delete negative comments.
As long as they aren’t profane, deleting a bad review or
comment will:
A. Make you seem suspicious
B.Tick the hater off into just posting more.
(Plus you can’t delete someone else’s Tweet anyway. If it’s
egregious, you can flag it.)

11. #7: Don’t ignore negative comments.
Respond to them publicly.Then, try to fix the
situation.And go out of your way to contact that
individual to help fix the solution personally.
Usually they’ll feel compelled to remove that
comment themselves.

12. #8: Don’t thank for following.
It’s a strange activity.You would never think of publicly
thanking a friend on Facebook or a connection on LinkedIn
for accepting you, would you?

13. #9: Don’t thank for retweeting.
That makes it about you.To thank them, go ahead and RT
some of their content that is relevant to your followers.

14. #10: Don’t auto-tweet responses.
Whether it’s direct message or tweets -- more often than not
that dang thanking for following or asking for a favor -- it’s
insincere. It’s actually bordering on ruder than not interacting
at all.

15. #11: Don’t make an ask on first connection.
Technology may make us more separated, less sincere, but
there’s still a requirement to build a relationship. Like any
other type of sales, don’t offer a call to action until you’ve
learned more about the client and personalize it to them.

16. #12: Don’t copy-paste responses.
Everything you do in social media is public. Boilerplate
sometimes works in private email responses, but you can’t
have a twitter stream or a newsfeed filled with the same B.S.

17. #13: Don’t forget to favorite.
Not really sure why, but people really like to have their stuff
starred “favorite.” It’s totally OK to RT and favorite your
mentions. Just favorite other stuff too.

18. #14: Don’t forget to promote old content.
You work hard to create good content on your blog, to build
stats about your company, to share great tips. Don’t forget to
schedule to re-promote this good stuff. It gives you credibility
and boosts your SEO.

19. #15: Don’t take yourself so seriously!
You are more likely to gain followers by sometimes being
funny.After all, it’s not just media, it’s social.

20. #16: Don’t make it all about you!
Yes, social media is a fast, free and easy way to market your brand, but it’s
also works on reciprocation. Schedule not only old posts and new and great
news about your brand, but make sure at least half of what you post
(especially on Twitter) should be by others, people interesting to your
audience and, especially, your current clients.
Show you are loyal.

21. These “16 Social Media Don’ts” were originally posted on
SocialMediaToday
The Web’s Best Thinkers on Social Media and Web 2.0

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