If you are an author with a social media presence, you are among thousands of other authors who also wish to use social media to improve their writing careers. Regardless of your reasons for joining social media, you must make sure that you maintain professional behavior and be ethical in all interactions you make with other people. Social media has been around for a long time and people are now starting to make others account for their actions on the digital frontier. The following are things you should keep in mind in order to maintain a disaster-free presence on social media.

All posts can be considered to be advertising: Social media was originally created for social networking purposes. It was never meant to be a place where people blatantly advertise their wares in an effort to get other users of the sites to promote them by buying what is on offer. As an author, you should know that people following you on social media will be annoyed if you do too much promotion. Every post you make should be carefully considered to make sure that it does not offend your followers. As a general rule, you should not allow promotional posts to be more than 20% of your total posts on social media.

Don’t mislead: You are an author and your intention in getting into social media might be to attract more followers and even sell some books in the process. However, it is important for you to be truthful. You should know that many things you say can be verified and if you are exposed as a liar, your reputation might become irreparably damaged.

Follow the rules: Every social media site has its own set of rules that users have to follow. You should never break the rules intentionally, even if it means getting more benefits than what you are currently getting. When you break the rules of a social media website, your account might be suspended or terminated, wiping out the gains you might have made.

Make no attempts to slander opponents: As an author you must know that there will always be competition, no matter where you go. Social media is particularly populated with people who are in direct competition with you. However, you should resist the urge to bash your competition because it might come back to haunt you. Sometimes you will actually make a person more popular by trying to slander them.

Don’t expect preferential treatment: One of the main uses of social media for authors is connecting with literary agents and editors. Good for you if you manage to become ‘friends’ with one or more respected agent or editor. However, you should not make any attempt to use your close relationship with these people to request favors because you are friends. Always keep in mind that they are bound by certain ethical constraints and you should not put them in a position where they must choose to treat you better than they treat all their other clients.