Facebook stopped being the casual site for college students long ago (at least in the fast-paced world of technology). This means you need to stop using Facebook casually. Unless you’re stuck in a unibomber-like shack, you most likely have Facebook friends who are coworkers, relatives, acquaintances, etc. The point is not everyone who sees your posts is your bosom buddy.  So don’t be an idiot. Don’t post pictures of yourself doing a keg stand at your friend’s Fourth of July party (that one’s obvious), but also don’t bore people with the minutiae of your everyday existence.

Now, that doesn’t mean you have to stop being yourself, it just means you should take just a little more time dashing off your posts, and fight the urge to post about every single thing you do every single day. Posting “You’ve got to check out the black bean burger at the Emory!” is one thing. Posting “Ate a burger for lunch, yum” is another. What’s the difference? People can get value out of the former post – you’ve brought something you love to their attention and they can try it for themselves if they want to. The latter post is just something you did with no redeeming details. Facebook isn’t your personal diary, it’s a social networking site.

The thing to remember is that just because you’re posting online – Facebook really isn’t any different from real, face-to-face human contact (remember that??). People are still people, and they’ll still say “So what?” whether they’re talking to you in person or reading your posts in their news feed. So quit it with the “quiet night at home, zzz” posts. No one cares. But don’t get discouraged. You can make people care by adding just a modicum of thought and changing that post to, “Spending a quiet night at home tonight, but I hope to see you all at the big LCD Soundsystem show tomorrow. Their new album is amazing and tickets are still available!”

And speaking of putting a modicum of thought into things: Spell things correctly, please. And use punctuation. Those buttons actually do have uses besides making smiley faces.

Just because your company is blogging or posting to Facebook and Twitter doesn’t mean all grammar goes out the window. You should still take care to spell check your content, use AP Style and proofread your posts. The information highway shouldn’t mean you take a detour to sloppy, incomplete sentences or heaven forbid post proofs or product that hasn’t been approved by your clients. To maintain credibility in the marketplace, make sure you take the time to train whoever is doing your social media maintenance in the proper etiquette of business writing. Sure, all posts needn’t be as buttoned up as traditional correspondence — personality and a voice are a way to capture and build a following. But don’t simply cop out and hand the social media responsibilities over to an intern because you might feel uneasy about learning these new, unexplored territories. Take a tutorial and get with the times! And follow, what is being tweeted so you’re not embarrassed down the road.