With marketing campaigns now reaching new levels of accessibility for all, where marketing communications are no longer dominated by large companies and their brand managers, interactive marketing has never been so available and achievable for small business owners.

Small business owners have been seeing a barrage of success stories in marketing campaigns that makes use of social media platforms.
Given the ability to freely reach and interact with prospects and clients, even small businesses are running in the same race there potentially larger and richer competitors are running in.

In this article, we would like to discuss seven important social media etiquette tips you should consider as you embark on your social media marketing campaign.

There are many reasons why you would choose social media for your marketing campaign, of course, there is the free publicity you will receive, and it's a very useful technique to establish yourself as a respected authority in your particular industry.
Among the greatest challenges that await small business owners once they take their marketing communications on to social media sites, has a lot to do with being ethical.

Tip number one: Be as human as possible

Build and complete your profile with as much information as possible! Anonymity gives the impression that you have got something to hide. Choose your username so that people can relate to you and your business.
Your real name or your business name is fine to use for marketing campaigns. If you need to give an email address, perhaps have one that is more recognizable instead of an obscure hotmail address.
Being as human as possible simply means that your name is not 'kbz555' and your email address is not 'kbz555@hotmail.com'.

Tip number two: Thoughtfully compose your posts

Of course, you can always be casual with interactive marketing but always check to see if your posts provide a message that actually makes sense. Facebook and Twitter have limits in post characters so you can consider using abbreviations. However, see if your posts read well and consider that not everyone can read text speak.

Tip number three: Refrain from asking retweets, reposts and likes

Asking people to RT, repost and like your post every time is very annoying for your audience. If a post has substance and is worthy of personal recommendation, then people will share it even without you asking for it. Besides, constantly asking for retweets would generally be considered bothersome and you cannot just ask people to take part in such a strategy for your company's marketing communications!

Tip number four: Never hog the network

The heart of social media marketing campaigns is interaction and free-communication. Interaction and communication is a two-way street.
Let people in your network have their share of the say. Allow them to comment and should views clash, politely explain or share things from your perspective. Better yet, send them a DM or a PM to explain things further. This way you will not be all-over the place and your posts will not look like half of a rant-fest or some kind of overheated debate.

Tip number five: Separate your personal agenda from that of your business

Remember that you are building your business' profile while making use of social networking sites for marketing communications. While juggling your personal profile with your business' or professional profile is a common practice, but it will still be best if you get separate accounts for that.
Interaction with people in the industry will be much better received, and far more targeted when those in your network actually have something to do with your posts and updates.

Tip number six: Never develop multiple personality tendencies

Signing up for multiple accounts especially on groups and forums so it will seem like different people commending a business is not, in anyway, fun. It is ridiculous, idiotic and shameful because you will always get caught.
People have tendencies to remember the negative things related to other people over the nice ones. So be you! This also includes reviewing your own business on review sites such as free index and is hugely frowned upon.

Tip number seven: Never spam!

Spam is never, and will never be an acceptable means of getting marketing campaigns to work. It will only tell people that you are desperate to get your business from anywhere. This in turn will give them an impression that your business is, indeed, going nowhere (well maybe downhill)!
Surely, getting close, as is the aim with interactive marketing, provides a good ground for small business owners to actually build meaningful relationships with lots of people. However, it is a must that you never forget that in marketing campaigns you should never every lose your ethics and start spamming anyone.

Thanks to Steve for this Guest Post

This post was written by Steve Rendell - owner of Paper Free Billing, and amateur social media guru.
For your FOREVER FREE account, sign up at Paper Free Billing - leaders in online invoice software.

What people see in your social media accounts such as those posted on your wall and the contents of your tweets will directly give people an impression of what to expect from you and your business.

While you can make use of these platforms for full leverage on marketing communications, it is still best to have professionalism over an overly friendly air about your marketing campaigns.

We wish you every success with your marketing, if you enjoyed this post, and are interested in reading more on the topic, then please take a look at our blog for many other posts like this one.
If you are part of the way there already with your marketing campaign, and have a Twitter account, don't forget to add us @Online_Invoices.

Would you like to write a guest blog post?

If you would like to write a guest blog post for MultiLayer Design or for Kev, please get in touch. Of course link lurve is given in return.

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