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This is a guest post by Carrie Oakley.

If you’re not already on the social marketing bandwagon, you’ve probably missed out on a ton of opportunities and forgotten one of the most important lessons in marketing – go where your customers are instead of expecting them to come to you. Today, almost the entire world is on one or more social network – Facebook has over 500 billion users and counting, and Twitter is fast catching up. So if you have a business to promote and you’re not online on either or both of these social networks, you’re not fit to be in the business of marketing.

If you’re already online, yet not receiving the kind of attention and popularity you deserve, then you’re probably doing more of the wrong things and not enough of the right things online. Social networks, while not governed by any rigid rules or policies, do have their own set of unwritten and unspoken norms. And if you violate any of these, you’re going to do yourself more harm than good. At the same time, if you do all it takes to promote your business, you’re just another fish in the ocean, an insignificant one at that.

If you want to script a success story on social media, here’s what you should and shouldn’t do:

 Do create a profile that’s concise and clear – your fans want to know what you do and what you have to offer them.

 Do work on maintaining your profile and updating it regularly.

 Do use your site to reflect all that’s going on in your company.

 Do communicate with your fans and followers and respond to their queries and doubts promptly.

 Do direct visitors to your page to your site, openly and not through trickery.

 Do keep any promises you make – if you promise discounts and freebies, don’t include fine print that’s barely visible and which only make customers think you’re devious and underhand.

 Do be sensible when sending friend requests – send out a formal introduction and be polite, and if the response is negative, don’t continue to badger them with more requests.

 Don’t rise to the bait when there is criticism or negative commentary on your page – it’s a part of social marketing that you have to deal with constructively, not reactively. Instead of trading insults with the concerned fan or follower, respond maturely to their complaint or rant, and if your organization is in the wrong, make amends before the negative message goes viral and you lose your credibility.

 Don’t spam your followers’ and friends by defacing their walls with links and sending out constant streams of gibberish on your Twitter feeds. It’s like the boy who cried wolf – too many unimportant messages drown out the few salient ones that must get through to your customers.

 Don’t spread negative news about your competition, even if it’s true. Your page should besolely about you and your strengths, not a means to deface and besmirch the competition.

Social media marketing is all about socialization with your customers and fans on an informal basis; it’s all about knowing the right distance to maintain and the right lines to cross; and once you get the hang of this, it’s easy to pave the way for success through social media.

This guest post is contributed by Carrie Oakley, who writes on the topic of online college . Carrie welcomes your comments at her email id: carrie.oakley1983@gmail.com.

Further reading:

How To Manage Social Media Usage In The Office

How To End The Negativity From Social Media Users

Louis Gray Interview – Early Adopters In Social Media

3 Common Social Media Marketing Blunders

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