Social media for some businesses is a little like participating in Hawaiian Shirt Friday at the office. The company can kickback and relax, showing a bit more personality, but it certainly shouldn’t walk around the office barefoot while talking inappropriately to co-workers. The same principle should be applied when managing a business account on Twitter.

1. Use Your Company Name and Logo.
   It’s important to use the brand’s name and logo mark as the handle and avatar. That sounds so obvious, right? It should be. However, with the popularity of social media, brands become butchered and common sense flies out the window! Some companies manage to distort their brands so much that they are barely recognizable, both visually and through messaging.
2. Give your company a voice, but don’t make it your own. (Unless you are a company of one.)
   It’s not that a business shouldn’t have a voice, but it should be one that encompasses the entire firm, not just one person. Also, it’s okay if one person manages the account, but the tweets should reflect the company as a whole. One account in particular (which shall remain nameless) is established as a business, but tweets as if everyday is Hawaiian Shirt Friday. These personal opinions, thoughts and feelings need to be kept for personal accounts, not used on the business account. A tweet about loving a certain sports team may turn off fans of other teams. Mentioning anything about politics may cause half of the followers to get angry and stop interacting with the firm. Not only would personal tweets possibly offend customers, but the company also comes across extremely unprofessional.
3. Don’t confuse your followers by using a company name with a personal image (or vice versa).
   There are several offenders guilty of butchering a brand via social media. One of the worst is a large business that uses their name as the handle and a photo of the tweeter as the avatar. Talk about confusing! It is unclear who owns the account and whose views are being represented. The account could be tied to the company or perhaps someone signed up for the name having no affiliation. In either case, it is a poor reflection of brand standards.

Even when you're wearing a Hawaiian shirt, don’t forget to sport your brand standards too!