To be accepted in social media circles, it is best to adopt good media etiquette. Getting the balance right between writing engaging content with a marketing purpose is key, particularly where social networks are concerned, you want to be ‘liked’, doesn’t everyone, therefore your marketing message requires subtlety and patience; there’s nothing more sure to receive a big fat thumbs down than clumsy in-your-face hard sell...(not to mention those duff toy elves perched for posts at Christmas, arrrrh)!

Many businesses know they must be in with the social media crowd without understanding the modus operandi.  Simply launching in to a variety of social accounts without a strategy is a waste of time and resource, plus it's demoralising for the non-marketing person who has been given the job just to regularly post 'stuff'. Becoming a respected community member really takes considered effort, the skill is to be strategic but to be discreet about it.  

Here are five socially acceptable and respectful tips:

1. Watch your language, match your tone and style to your network, writing for social media requires a different approach to off-line media and the web.
2. It’s not all about you, no more than 50% should be about your company more than that is a bore...yawn.
3. Serve your audience, be responsive, and it goes without saying do respond, courteously, with speed to negative criticism and monitor your response rate.  Social listening is key here.
4. Regular feeds, schedule regular media posts to maintain presence, update and be productive or your followers will switch off.
5. Fitting in, do some research to decide the social platforms that best fit your business or brand, there are vast array, with the obvious being Instagram, particularly since it's part of Facebook  or rather Meta both are great for reaching consumers (nationally and locally). Twitter can be a bit nasty and more youth are switching off for that reason, and then there's LinkedIn and Wikipedia for B2B.

Finally, do monitor your social media activity, know, as best you can, your ROI, measure your impact and influence.  There are a number of free analytical tools, make sure you are using one.  If your conversation is a bore, you will know, and quickly by the level of engagement; refine your strategy, tone your language and continue to measure your brands sociability.

Mix and mingle but above all have fun, be creative and circulate.