If you want to get the most out of your social media marketing efforts, knowing what to avoid is just as important as knowing what to do. To help you out, here is a list of best practices for both categories:

Avoid these 4 things

1. The first thing to avoid is acting like social media is nothing more than a megaphone for making commercial announcements. Since most users are on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google+ because they like to interact with others, you need to engage before you can expect to see positive results.

2. The second mistake to avoid is not allowing your employees to use social media to get things done. If you’re going to put them on these networks, make sure they can actually take action when someone reaches out with a question or complaint. Otherwise, your business will only look bad.

3. The third item that you can avoid is the constant use of hashtags. Although many businesses use hashtags all the time because they think they are trending or will increase their visibility, the reality is that it just makes them look silly. While there are plenty of legitimate uses for hashtags, just make sure you don’t cross the line into spam territory.

4. Last but not least is not to promise too much. While it’s important to share content, make sure the content you share is really good. Otherwise, it won’t be long before people lose interest in clicking your links.

Make These 5 Social Media Strategies A Priority

1. The first thing on the list is that you should use a URL shortener. This will not only prevent posts from looking cramped as a result of a long URL, but also give you more tracking information about the performance of different links.

2. The next thing is to make good use of images. While it’s obvious that platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are image-driven, even on other sites, smart use of images will allow you to get more attention for the things you share and post.

3. The third is to unlock your creativity and your desire to experiment. Although many companies are a bit afraid of trying different things, the reality is that as long as you stay away from doing something offensive, you’ll probably get a lot out of being open to new things. Not everything will work, but the things that do work can greatly increase the effectiveness of your efforts.

4. The last two things are to take advantage of proven social media management tools and keep an eye on new trends within the social world. The former will help you optimize the time you spend on social media, while the latter should expose you to some interesting opportunities.

5. Even if your social media results have plateaued, once you put this information to work, you’ll find that it won’t take long for you to start seeing the kind of results you’ve always expected from social media marketing.