We live in a world that gets more and more casual by the emoticon. The prevalence of popular shorthand has made professional writing in largely personal spaces murky waters. Here are five suggestions curated by the Friday Five team and inspired by Edelman’s own Edit and Proofreading Q-Tips.

Keep it Brief

Even in spaces where speech is not limited to 140 characters or less, there are benefits to keeping your thoughts concise. Studies have shown that entries that are 150 words or less are more likely to generate conversation.

If Twitter is the intended medium and the author would like a tweet to be passed on, care should be taken to ensure that enough characters are still available for his or her user name to be included in the event of a retweet, without any additional editing necessary.

Link Love

Just as other writing formats require footnotes, social media attribution takes the form of links much of the time. It’s very important to link to original source material. In addition to giving credit where credit is due, links provide meaningful back-up and context for the assertions being made in your writing.

You Are Here

“Here” could refer to anywhere. Perhaps that is why it is so often used as the linked word in sentences designed to provide click-through context. For example: “Click here for a map of the museum”. As Edelman Digital’s Phil Gomes noted, “This draws the eye to the most useless word in the sentence.” A better phrasing might be “Download a map of the museum.” From a search perspective, a linked keyword will mean a lot more to Google visibility than a word like “here” or “this.”

Abbrevi8 Only When Necessary

Professionals should avoid overtly casual abbreviations unless absolutely necessary. Shorthand like “b4” or “l8r” looks trite, even when used without absolute necessity. Acceptable abbreviations when necessary include: b/t (between), and w/ (with).

Disclose Early and Often

If the subject matter you’re writing about references a client or directly addresses your client’s immediate field or industry, disclose that relationship early in your writing and again as separate comments warrant (i.e. Individual tweets count as separate comments). The word client in parentheses after the company name will typically suffice.

With thanks to the following individuals for sharing their insights: APAC: IndoPacific Edelman, Jakarta – James Allan, Hartiasri Ariviani, Prima Harrison, Vida Parady, Bruce Poan, Rudijanto; Europe: London – Jo Sheldon; LatAm: Sao Paulo – Gabriela Bruschi, Tatiana Castro, Andre Larrubia, Osmar Maduro, Michele Vercosa; US: Chicago – Phil Gomes, Matt Groch, Jessi Langsen, Suzanne Marlatt, Dan Santow, Danielle Wiley; NY – Kim Berndt, Esther Buterman, A.J. Desjardins, Amanda Kaufman. Special thanks are in order to this issue’s author, Tracy Waldman.