There are quite a few examples of businesses and people getting it wrong social media wise, and chances are you don't want to be one of them! 

If you are in business you can't afford to get it wrong - at best it will be a waste of time, effort and money.  It could cost you a LOT of money if you brand takes a mega hit.

Here are some tips to keep you on track:

Before you start, fix your website.

Social media activity needs a quality website full of fresh shareable content to share and start conversations about.  Social media and search engine optimisation has become entwined so what is good for one is going to be good for the other. Without good content and a compelling offer, your tactics could be a waste of time and money.

Claim your property

Even if you don't plan on using it straight away, claim your Twitter account, Facebook business page, YouTube channel.  Unlike domain names that are country specific, Facebook, Twitter etc are global and if someone else claims the name first you will have to resort to adding numbers or letters to your account name making it harder for people to find you.

Have an outcome in mind

If you know where you are going you are more likely to get there.  Before you devote time and effort, work out what you are trying to acheive by having a Facebook page.  Is it to gather leads? Respond to complaints? Encourage your user community to support each other? 

This will provide you some steer as to which networks to use and what support material and mechanisms you'll need to make it happen.

Dip your toes in

Even if just for your personal use. Have some experience using the tools even if you don't intend doing it yourself.  You will make better decisions about your strategy, use of tools and who you employ to do it if you understand the basics.

Take each platform one at a time

You will avoid spreading yourself too thin.  Each platform has it's own set of rules - both in the 'terms of use' sense and how it's user base behave.  For example, many LinkedIn users don't appreciate a connection request from someone they don't know at all whereas this is not only common on Twitter, but necessary!

See what your competition is doing

This will help you understand the competitive environment you are up against.  Follow them and see what they are tweeting about and which ones get re-tweeted.  See how they handle complaints and if they don't respond in a timely manner, you could contact the disgruntled party yourself and offer to help!

Get an expert to help

They can help develop your plan in detail, identify the best tools and platforms, develop policies and help guide you through the early days.  These tools change rapidly, so it can be hard to keep up with all the changes if you are not doing it for a job.

Assign resources

Work out how much time and resources you have to allocate and make sure they have the right tools to make the job as efficient as possible.  The write a plan of when you will be checking your pages, updating status etc. You may want to do this at a certain time each day.

Measure and monitor

Make sure you are monitoring your feeds, mentions etc.  Measuring activity and results such as retweets, likes etc and can link these results to visitors to your website, leads and ultimately sales

Make it worth their while

Give people a reason to be a fan/follower – why should they? You can offer valuable tips, funny stories, latest news etc. Would you follow someone just so they can peddle their latest wares? Unlikely, so put yourself in their shoes!

Be polite

Acknowledge people who contribute to the conversation – eg blog comments and shares. It's easy to say thank you

Remember that it's not all about you. Stay polite and professional when representing your brand, a social media mishap can go viral very very fast

Be responsive

Don't ignore customer complaints or comments, but don't respond to negative comments by being defensive and firing back at them. Use them as an opportunity to demonstrate how much you care about the quality of your products and level of customer service

If you want to learn from other's mistakes, read about these sometimes shocking often funny social media fails:

• Social Media Fails
• EConsultancy's Epic Social Media Fails