We’ve all heard of the social media catastrophes community managers have unleashed on behalf of their brand or organization, either intentionally or accidentally. 

Whether it’s promoting your dress that unfortunately shares its name with that of a national tragedy, livetweeting your termination, or broadcasting your personal political beliefs, it’s important to keep these five tips in mind so you or your organization doesn’t make the same mistake, alienate your audience, and damage your brand.

1. Slow down.

Social media is a fast-paced world, but the easiest way to prevent failing on social media is to slow down. This can be the difference between a brutal misspelling and a genuinely good tweet. Tweeting responsibly allows you to read your post to ensure that it doesn’t reflect too much of your emotions and that it won’t harm your readers’ sensitivities.

2. Don’t feed the trolls.

It’s very important to respond to users who give both positive and negative feedback on your social networks, but there’s a difference between being an engaging community manager and feeding the trolls. It is unfortunate, but if your organization is making news (good or bad), some people will come out of the woodwork to make a pithy remark that is aiming to get you to come out and say something.

Don’t take the bait. There’s nothing wrong with providing productive feedback to both positive comments and negative ones. Gratitude and humility are always solid go-to’s for positive comments, while genuine productive feedback can help those with negative comments.

Trust your gut. If you feel a community commenter is trying to get a rise out of you, she probably is. Let it be.

3. Be stone-faced. But not completely.

It’s important to empathize with your community, but showing too much emotion on social networks can be the first steps on a road to failure.

If you appear to be too rosy, your posts run the risk of coming off as aloof and too flippant.

If you appear to be too critical, your posts will alienate members of the community and sound the alarm for negative feedback - both from your community and the media. Just ask Amy.

You do want to show opinion and personality, however, to instigate lively conversations. Find the balance that’s right for you and your community.

4. Give social media duties to someone you trust. Or Us.

Your interactions on social media build real-life relationships that can help you achieve your goals. Where there’s an integration of offline and online interactions, social networks grow most strong. It’s common for most organizations to give the social media management responsibilities to interns, or make it a task for another very busy employee. In reality, we recommend employing a community manager to run your organization’s social media efforts. Or, you could work with us! 

5. Content rules all.

Your brand’s content is ultimately what drives your engagement. Don’t stretch too far from your mission – if you run the social media page for a restaurant but you’re talking about a political story (even without taking a side) or writing about what’s going on in the stock market, you’re not  creating the content your audience needs to see from you.

Focus on what your supporters care about – and do that well. Taking the time to prioritize content that works to generate fans and keep them engaged will eventually pay off. You can check Facebook Insights at least once a week to see what content is most appreciated by your fans (check “People Talking About This,” “Reach,” and “Virality”) or gets the most traction through the Facebook EdgeRank formula.

TIP: Photos with quotes, famous personalities, and posts that relate to current events or holidays
(where they aligns with your mission) get people to engage with you.

Following these five tips won’t result in a massive number of fans or immaculate analytic responses overnight, but they can help prevent a social media meltdown and will inevitably prove to strengthen your organization’s brand.

Full disclosure: Some of these tips have been inspired from the Make Your Social #Failproof webinar by uberVU. Check out uberVU for more social media marketing tips, and download their e-book “Make Your Social Failproof” here.