Did your company’s social media responsibilities suddenly fall into your lap and now you’re not exactly sure what to do? Worse still, is your experience with social media a few thousand posts shy of being a digital native? Don’t worry. Ashlee Stepp, our social media strategist at SkillPath, has come up with 15 dos and don’ts that are so easy to follow that even your grandmother could do it. 

Don’t …

1. Respond immediately to a rude comment. Think through your response carefully because you are representing your brand. Additionally, when you do respond, don’t be rude. BUT … make sure you do respond.
2. Sound like a robot. People don’t want to hear from a machine, they want to hear from you. They want real emotion and feelings related to their post or comment.
3. Write like everything is sunshine and fairies. It’s unrelatable and gives off a fake impression. Even the best companies have things that go wrong and the smart ones acknowledge it.
4. Misspell words…you will lose any and all credibility
5. Add 50 hashtags to a post. It looks desperate and it’s annoying. Hootsuite says 9 to 11 hashtags get the most engagement, but they are quick to remind us that hashtags MUST BE RELEVANT to the content.
6. Write how you text. C u L8r is unprofessional when posting to a professional platform.
7. Don’t overthink every post. It’s not going to make or break your company. When I first started I’d spend SO much time perfecting a one-line tweet when, in reality, it didn’t matter. Write a simple sentence on the link that you are directing them towards, or what you are currently doing, and then MOVE ON.
8. Show political affiliation in your posts. You can end up losing a lot of your followers because, these days, you lose credibility instantly.
9. Overthink it. When in doubt, keep it simple   

Do …

1. Be transparent/real/authentic. People can relate and connect to ‘real.’
2. Grab the attention of your readers through a compelling question or thought-provoking statement. Make people want to continue reading.
3. Be brief. The content should be in the article, not necessarily all in the social media post. Write just enough to make people want to continue reading.
4. Write to help people or solve their problems, rather than sounding sales-y. Example—"Organizations are taking a hard look at how to prepare tomorrow’s leaders. What strategy is your company taking? Check out some of our solutions that can help you define your organization's learning and development path at ___.” It solves the problem of preparing new millennial leaders by offering solutions and advice rather than saying something like “Buy our new leadership solutions.”
5. Write towards your audience to ensure your content is relevant to the people who are reading it. Give the people what they want and provide value to your customers.
6. Let people know about great things your company does. We want to read good news about the people and companies we follow, so don’t be shy about telling the world. Write about it using active voice so it’s current and seems time-sensitive.

Use these 15 tips and you’ll have an easier time handling your company’s social media, or even your own. Ashlee says you can get a great start with just using these tips and then, as you grow more comfortable, you can get more into the nuts and bolts of scheduling, what kind of content does better on different platforms and more.

The trick is to not be intimidated or scared. As long as your posts sound professional (in a good way) and your content is good, you can make a huge difference in how your company is perceived.