Are you using social media as a tool to market yourself and your company? Scratch that -- are you using social media the right way to market yourself and your company? If you're just stepping foot into the social media world, you may be overwhelmed by the options and opportunities that it holds. Before you proceed to market yourself through these platforms, take a look at some of the things you should steer clear from:

1) Posting personal updates: If you've had a personal accomplishment that is somehow related to your success as a professional or the success of your company, by all means share it! But, if you're posting pictures of your dinner or sharing funny cat videos you're not doing anything for your audience. Some of your followers may even block your account or content if you're straying too far from useful content.

2) Publishing too much and at the wrong times: You shouldn't be posting sporadically or overbearing your followers with an abundance of content. Creating a schedule of posting once a day or once every other day is just enough to keep your fans interested but not overwhelmed. The amount of content you post and the amount of eyes that see the content aren't directly correlated. Figure out when your audience is most likely to be on social media and start from there.

3) Steering clear of videos and photos: Blogs are great, but alternating between text and visual content can increase engagement tremendously. If you can get your message across first through a picture or video, more people will be willing to view it and read on. People naturally process information through visual means more efficiently, and they are more likely to remember it. Don't be afraid to get creative when showing your clients the message that you're trying to get across.

4) Deleting or not responding to negative comments: People that are unhappy for a specific reason should be handled right away, and with care. Of course, if you have a crazy spammer that is posting nonsense you should delete it, but if it is an actual client that has a problem you should resolve the issue properly -- not ignore it.

5) Not using analytics: If you're "doing" social media, what are you really doing? How can you even tell if what you're doing on social media is working if you're not measuring? This is probably the worst mistake to make when it comes to using social media. Measuring what you do can tell you everything from when you're most effective posting time is to what type of content your audience likes the best.

The moral of the story is that a lot more goes into social media marketing than most people realize. Although social media is still a fairly new field to be playing in, there have been tremendous leaps that have made it a vital tool for marketing. If you think that you're utilizing social media correctly, take another look and really hone in on what you're trying to accomplish in the end.

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