How to Correct 3 Major Social-Media Blunders

1. Focusing too much on yourself and not thinking about what is helpful to your audience. I Re-tweet, engage, and share about 60 percent on my Twitter page. (I tend to engage more on the other social networks.)  Because of the size of my following on Twitter, I incline to be less engaging and proportion my engagement so it will not barrage the stream.  I then try to extend them beyond that platform, continuing those conversations on Instagram, Facebook and Google+ where it’s a bit more manageable for me.

2. Focusing on numbers and popularity rather than relationships. The reward in social media is in the contacts you make and the relationships you build. Treat people as friends, rather than as a means to an end.  If you venture to build real and lasting relationships, the ROI will come.

A sense of entitlement is a turn off, so be humble, be kind and be genuinely helpful.  Work hard, and your work will speak for itself.

The key here is treat virtual relationship as you would “real life” relationships.

3. Using too many hashtags that are not relevant to your brand. Be considerate and sensible in your hashtag usage.  If you know that you will be working at an event, be selective and judicious and not over share prior to your events.  Before your chat at events, give a lot of honest, quality love out.  Contribute and give mutual respect and appreciation to get others’ attention.

But keep in mind if an event won’t benefit your fans, feel free to turn it down. You want to be aligned with what you are going to endorse.

Think of social media as a big cocktail party.  Flourish a sense of gratitude and a genuine interest in people, as opposed to what people can do for you — only then will you’ll see the ROI of social media.

We love connecting with people on social media, especially when they want to build a relationship and share real experiences, information and wisdom.  I say this all the time, and I truly mean it: Social media is all about collaborating and cultivating relationships, just like you would in any real-life situation.  So before you get in touch with anyone on social media, please think about the cocktail party metaphor, and if you can’t be the life of the party, at the very least do your best to be the kind of guest who will be invited back.

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/233798