Even though Social Media started out as a place for people to make social connections, it has transformed into something much beyond that. At present, social media websites are platforms for marketers to connect with their audiences and promote their products and services to the masses.

However, even though social media is a powerful marketing platform one should not forget that the basic rule of making any success there is to be - Social! Unfortunately many marketers forget their social media manners and create a bad impression of themselves thus scoring negative points for their company or business.

Here are some tips to improve your social media manners and make a good impression on your audiences:

Read the Terms & Conditions

How many of us really pause to reads the terms of service of social networking websites before signing up? However, reading through the terms of service can get you a clearer understanding of the portal and the ethical and unethical practices thereof. This will ultimately guide you to use the platform more effectively.

Make Submissions Personally

One of the ways you can use social media platforms is to make regular updates and share content. However, don't attempt to automate submissions. Not only will it lack a personal touch but it will be considered spam by many websites as a result of which, you may even get banned. Be it voting on social bookmarking websites or commenting on updates... make sure you do your own stuff.

Avoid Self Promotion

Even though marketing is all about promoting your products and services, things are a little different when it comes to marketing on social media. Sharing your content and submitting links is okay but what don't interfere in social conversations and try to cross promote your content, when they may be completely irrelevant.

Share only Relevant Content

The best way to make connections and enhance your credibility is to showcase your expertise and encourage people to follow you. And you can do this by sharing rich and relevant content. Remember, your content should serve to do some value addition for your users and not simply glorify your business. If you want to win votes and encourage people to share your content, make sure you provide worth to them.

Avoid Unnatural Promotion

Amateur marketers often hire small teams to carry out their online marketing activities. This usually involves employees of an office voting for a submission from the same office at the same time. However, popular bookmarking websites like Digg and Delicious etc. have strong filters that identify the geo-location of your IP and other such unnatural indicators to judge the credibility of user-actions. And if you make sure of schemes like this, you will end up getting banned from the website altogether.

Post Quality Comments

If your commenting activities are restricted to 'Nice Post,' Thanks for sharing' etc. then you are losing out on valuable chances to showcase your expertise. When you comment on a post or update, it should add-on to the already existent content. You can appreciate or criticize what has been posted but the bottom line is to contribute.