The Top 5 Rules of Social Media Etiquette

NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Social media is quickly becoming a direct means of driving company revenue, but the ways that brands can earn attention authentically on these platforms is still largely misunderstood. Even as social evolves as a marketing tool, the fact remains that its primary purpose is for sharing information that educates, inspires, or entertains, and provides context for meaningful dialogue. The following 5 rules of social media etiquette will help you attract and build relationships with the followers that mean the most to your business:

1. Focus the majority of your posts on genuine engagement with customers by replying to posts or tweets, reposting or retweeting, and answering questions
2. Do not use automated services for replies or direct messages. These limit engagement with customers and are viewed as spam
3. Be authentic to your brand personality while maintaining professionalism and common courtesy
4. Share quality information that your audience cares about and will build your credibility  
5. Be dependable to your followers by maintaining a consistent presence

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140815/136583   
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130117/NY44355LOGO-a  
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110831/NY59180LOGO

For additional discussion on how brands can engage authentically on social media, read the latest article by Kemari Howell, marketing coordinator for Pubsoft.com, on PR Newswire's Small Business Toolkit:  http://bit.ly/1px3RlI

PR Newswire's Small Business PR Toolkit is a comprehensive resource that provides small businesses and entrepreneurs the tools to develop an affordable public relations and marketing plan that helps generate interest from potential customers, engage with key audiences and grow their businesses. The toolkit features relevant content such as informative white papers, interactive webinars and how-to articles and premium access to educational resources, as well as the opportunity to take advantage of special offers designed specifically for small businesses. To request information on how PR Newswire can help your small business, click here. You can receive updates on new Small Business PR Toolkit content by following @prnsmallbiz on Twitter.

About PR Newswire  

PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms that enable marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers to leverage content to engage with all their key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry 60 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to-end solutions to produce, optimize and target content -- from rich media to online video to multimedia -- and then distribute content and measure results across traditional, digital, mobile and social channels. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire enables the world's enterprises to engage opportunity everywhere it exists. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, and is a UBM plc company.