Have you ever been given bad social media advice? You may have been spoon-fed terrible guidance without even really knowing it – Even worse, you may have accepted bad instruction and acted on it.

If you’re a social media newbie seeking some social guidance for your business, here’s a little tip: Don’t ever take the following social media suggestions.

Ignore negative comments

Would you ignore service or product complaints or concerns? Social media acts as a customer service forum; people turn to Facebook, Twitter, etc. to voice concerns or to share with others negative or positive experiences. Acknowledging negative feedback, and allowing people to see that you care and are trying to right the wrong, you will gain the respect and trust your business craves.

Social media doesn’t call for strategizing

Diving into social media for personal use – sure – you don’t need a contingency plan. When using social sites for your business, however, you should not only have a plan in place, you should have goals set. Most importantly, you should know your target audience, and how to engage. Discuss the voice of your business and what type of material, news you want to share. A business is built on strategizing, why should social media be immune to it?

Advertisements are a waste, don’t bother

Social media advertisements can help you further brand awareness and reach the audience you desire, no matter how precise that target market needs to be. These advertisements can help you gain potential clients and interest from a pool of millions already using social networks every single day.

You don’t need social media, your prospects aren’t using it

To get a taste of about how many people are on social media, take a look at this infographic from Search Engine Journal. Bottom line, with these population numbers, you’re destined to hook a few parties. If you’re still having doubts, mock-up a Facebook advertisement, for example, and you’ll see how many people fit your specific target audience. You may be surprised by what number pops up.

Just choose one outlet

Keep in mind that no single social media outlet is considered the Holy Grail. Truth be told, each social site attracts millions upon millions of people – That’s a lot of folks. So, why only dip your toe into one pool? By testing the water with several social outlets, you have the potential to reach a whole lot more people, and gain so many more opportunities.

Send an auto DM to all new followers

Just say no to auto DMs. They come across as impersonal, and quite spam-like.  You want to connect with your audience; build a trusted relationship with them. Shoving an automated response in their face will irritate them and surly not convince them to follow your business or listen to what you have to say. On Twitter, you only get so many characters, so make em’ count.

Auto publish your posts to go out on all social networks

Each social media platform is different from one another, so why revert to a “one size fits all” publishing strategy? A tweet looks completely different than a Facebook post in terms of character space and tagging, for example. Each post should be uniformed based on which outlet it’s for.

Have you ever been given any of these suggestions?