Writing style guide

Learn the finer points of Hootsuite's writing style here.

We write in American English and generally follow AP for style and Merriam-Webster for spelling, with exceptions listed in these guidelines.

Abbreviations and acronyms
Capitalization
Charts and graphs
Citations
Currency
Dates and time
Hashtags

Lists
Names, terms, and publication titles
Numbers and measurement
Swearing, cursing, obscenity, profanity, vulgarity
Punctuation
Titles, headlines, headings, and subheads

Abbreviations and acronyms

First use

If it's possible some readers won't be familiar with an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out on first use. After that, you can use the short version.

If an abbreviation is well known and the context makes its meaning obvious, there's no need to spell it out: the IT department, HTML code, machine learning and AI.

Know your audience and use abbreviations and acronyms to suit them. For example, when writing for a financial services audience, you can list well-known financial regulations (FINRA, HIPAA, and so on) without spelling them all out.

Geographic regions

We used to follow AP style and use a period when abbreviating geographic regions like states and countries (U.K., U.S., and so on). We've relaxed on this guideline and tend to drop periods from abbreviations everywhere unless they're needed for clarity.

Capitalization

Title case, sentence case, and camel case

Write almost everything in sentence case.
Use title case only for actual titles (the first slide in a presentation, the title of a document, the name of a course, and so on) and for CTA buttons.
CamelCase looks dated. (Which is why we're now Hootsuite, not HootSuite.) We use it only in some "hoot" hashtags for clarity and accessibility (see Hashtags section).
We used to avoid ALL CAPS, but reintroduced them as an option with our 2019 brand refresh. Decide what you'll use them for (category labels, quote attributions, etc.) and use them consistently.

For guidance on whether to capitalize a specific term, see our Glossary.

Job titles

Write job titles in sentence case whether they appear before a name (chief marketing officer Maggie Lower) or after (Maggie Lower, chief marketing officer).
Capitalize only formal titles: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pope Francis.

Capitalizing feature names that are also generic terms

Many terms in our industry are also generic terms: stream, tweet, organization, board, and so on.

In most contexts, don't capitalize these terms. It can feel affected and forced, especially with repeated use, and the natural tendency over time is to relax into using the generic version anyway. (Think World Wide Web to web.)

Do capitalize feature names in the following contexts:

When introducing a feature: Hootsuite Streams help you listen to the conversations that matter.
When instructing the reader about how to find or use the feature. Follow the capitalization used in the UI label, and bold the feature name for emphasis and clarity: Tap Settings, then tap Notification settings.

Regardless of whether a feature name is capitalized, don't capitalize descriptors like box, tab, menu, field, link, board, widget, and so on: the Settings list, the Sign Up link.

Charts and graphs

Text in charts

When creating charts, focus on making the text and design work together to help readers quickly scan and understand what you're presenting.

Title. In most cases, use the survey question as the title.
Axis labels. Must be clearly legible and meet web accessibility standards. If labels are long and space is an issue, consider running y-axis labels inline with their data points, rather than at the left. (Edelman often does this.)
Data point labels. Include the number or percentage for each data point. Round to the nearest whole number. Include the % symbol for percentages.
Notes. Lead with source (for example, Source: Hootsuite Social Trends 2021 Survey.) Include any important info on "other" responses, calculation methods, sample size, and other details as relevant. For sample size, note spaces around equal sign (n = 9,487).
Branding. Include the Hootsuite logo with wordmark.

(Yes, this is old brand and needs an update. Good catch, eagle eye!)

Citations

Cite authoritative, primary sources for all data, statistics, and quotations of published material.

Failing to do this looks sloppy, undermines our credibility with our audiences and customers, and can expose us to a (small but real) risk of legal action.

"Primary" means an original research project, or the originator of an idea, statement, or piece of instruction. If you find a stat in a blog post or infographic (say, on Social Media Today), take the time to find the original source (usually a study, an analyst report, etc.).

"Authoritative" means it was published recently enough to still be relevant (nothing from 2012, please) and written by a credible expert. Content created by a solution vendor can be authoritative, but approach their data with a more critical eye — they're selling something.

A few more notes on citations:

Capitalize titles of works as they appear in the source publication.
When drafting a copy deck for long-form content, note that Google Docs does not natively support endnotes. You can use Insert > Footnote to add footnotes while drafting and then have the designer convert them to endnotes when laying out the final document.

Citation formats

We use a few different citation formats, depending on context. Choose the one that best fits your format and context.

In long-form and print assets

Use endnotes for long formats (like reports) and footnotes for short ones (like infosheets). Include the publication date if it isn't in the title. Include author if relevant.

RadiumOne. The Dark Side of Mobile Sharing. 2016.
Edelman. 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer.
Holmes, Ryan. 7 Tips From an Astronaut on How to Master Remote Work. LinkedIn, 2020.

In web and blog

Link to source from body text.

More than half the people on this planet use social media.

In presentations and infographics

Link to source from the bottom of the slide or section. Include a "source" label.

Source: Hootsuite, Social Trends 2021

In email and sales copy

Link to source from body text. If you're laser-focused on driving readers to a call to action, you can mention the source but skip the link.

In our Social Trends 2021 survey, 73% of all marketers ranked “increased acquisition of new customers” as their top outcome for social in 2021.
According to Edelman’s Trust Barometer, 53% of all global consumers see employees as the most credible sources for learning about companies.

Currency

Abbreviations

In headlines, it's acceptable to abbreviate million, billion, and thousand to M, B, and K.

If you need to specify a currency (US dollar, Canadian dollar, and so on), add the short country code before the amount, like US$237.

Decimals

Do not include in round figures (for example, use $299, not $299.00)

$28 million, $4 billion
US$100, CA$133, AU$144
In headlines: $28M, $4B, $10K

$299
£9.99

Dates and time

Dates

In North America, use month-day-year: January 1, 2018.
In APAC, use day-month-year: 1 January, 2018.

Decades and centuries

Decades: Use numerals (1980s) or shorten using an apostrophe (‘80s). Note that the apostrophe is placed before the final two digits to replace the century — not between the number and the s.
Centuries: Spell out.

Time

In the product and in email, use am and pm (no periods) with no space. Rationale: In cases where using periods may cause awkward formatting issues (e.g., line breaks), it’s acceptable to omit them.
Everywhere else, use a.m. and p.m. (with periods) and include a space.
Use a hyphen between times to indicate a range.

Date examples

North America: January 1, 2018
APAC and ANZ: 1 January, 2018

Decade and century examples

The twenty-first century
The 1980s
The '80s

Time examples

In long copy: 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
In product and email: 9am, 9:30am, 9:30am-10:30am.

Hashtags

Hashtags resist governance, so our hashtag style guidelines are pretty relaxed.

That said, default to CamelCase where possible and practical. It helps accessibility and avoids potentially awkward misreadings. #susanalbumparty

When posting to a Hootsuite account and using "hoot word" hashtags, use camel case for legibility (e.g., #HootTip, #HootAmb), with the following exceptions:

#Hootcast
#Hootsuite
#Hootup

#HootAmb
#HootChat
#HootCommunity
#HootDogs
#HootEssentials
#HootGiving

#HootJobs
#HootPartners
#HootPerks
#HootsuiteLife
#HootTip

Lists

Capitalize the first word of each list item in bulleted or numbered lists.

If list items are complete sentences, include end punctuation. If list items are sentence fragments, don't include end punctuation.

List example (complete sentences)

Log in to the Hootsuite dashboard.
Click App Directory.

List example (incomplete sentences)

In this live webinar, you’ll learn:

How to create content that drives business leads
The difference between direct and indirect lead generation posts
How to expand your reach through Twitter Ads

Names, terms, and publication titles

Names and terms

Use quotes when introducing a term that your audience may not know, such as "dark social." See this blog post for an example.

For guidance on specific terms and product names, see our glossary, words to avoid, and Hootsuite product names.

Publication titles

When referring to the name of published material, follow these three guidelines:

No additional formatting if it's hyperlinked and/or the name of a website, web page, webinar, course, or podcast. (I.e., no italics or quotation marks.) Otherwise...
Italicize if it's a "big" published thing (book, report, newspaper, magazine, album).
Use quotation marks if it's a piece of a big published thing (article, chapter, blog post, podcast episode, song).

Linked publication title examples

Medium (site)
The ROI of Social Media (guide)
The New York Times (newspaper)
The TSA's Instagram Feed is Terrifying and Totally Awesome (article)
Hootcast (podcast)
UN Women: Why the World Couldn't Ignore #StopTheRobbery (podcast episode)

Unlinked publication title examples

Medium (site)
Social Media Trends to Put Into Practice in 2017 (webinar)
Hootsuite Platform Training (course)
Hootcast (podcast)
The ROI of Social Media (guide)
The Forrester Wave™: Social Media Management Solutions, Q2 2017 (report)
Everyday Bias (book)
The New York Times (newspaper)
Rumours (album)
"The TSA's Instagram Feed is Terrifying and Totally Awesome" (article)
"Dreams" (song)
"UN Women: Why the World Couldn't Ignore #StopTheRobbery" (podcast episode)

Numbers and measurement

See also: Currency and Dates and time sections

Numbers

In North America, use U.S. measurements: inches, feet, acres, miles, ounces, gallons, pounds, tons, etc.
In general, spell out the numbers one through nine, and use numerals for 10 and higher. Abbreviated forms are acceptable in cases where spelling out the number isn't feasible or appropriate (for example, in an infographic or a presentation slide): 10K, 18M, 2B.
Spell out a number if it begins a sentence, or rewrite the sentence.
In English, use a comma as a thousands separator, and a period as a decimal separator. Note that this also applies to a single-digit thousand number (e.g., 1,000).

Decimals, fractions, and percentages

Spell out fractions (hyphenated, like two-thirds) or use decimals.
Use % for percentages unless there's some reason to spell it out. (AP style used to prescribe spelling out percent, but changed in 2019. As long as you're consistent in your choices, it's not a big deal either way.)

Ranges of numbers

Use a hyphen for a range of numbers.

Punctuation

Dashes and hyphens

Hyphen: Except where otherwise noted, we follow AP style for hyphenation.
En dash (option + minus sign): Use to separate numbers in a range: Consumers aged 16–34.
Em dash (option + shift + minus sign): Use to indicate an abrupt shift in a sentence, or to set off parenthetical content. Use spaces before and after the dash (dashes without spaces can mess with line breaks in digital content.) Schedule and publish to Instagram — in one click. Prove — and improve — your social ROI.

Commas

Use the Oxford (or serial) comma before the final conjunction in lists of three or more items: this, that, and the other thing.

Quotation marks

In nearly all cases, use double quotation marks.
Use single quotation marks in headlines, and when nesting a quote inside a quote.

Swearing, cursing, obscenity, profanity, vulgarity

When writing for Hootsuite, do not swear unless you have a compelling reason to do so and have cleared it with the brand team.

Once upon a time, we were a small startup with a chip on our shoulder. Today, we're a globally respected brand. We have a lot to lose if we disrespect our audience with casual profanity.

Ask yourself:

Is using this language necessary for my content to achieve its goal?
Has the brand team seen and approved this?

Acceptable use

In the following cases, replace all but initial letter with hyphens (blow s--- up), or with symbols if preferred for design effect (know your s#!%):

When a needed quote or definition includes profanity
When the term is central to the message and is being used strategically

For audio/video:

If it's branded content with a wide audience (e.g., ads, training videos), mute or bleep out of audio
If it's informal, long-form, and/or internal to Hootsuite (Hootsuite events, interviews, podcasts, etc.), it's okay to leave it in

On brand: #KnowYourSocial tag line

Witty tagline at end of video ad. Contributes meaningfully to the message, making it playful and edgy in a way that's appropriate to the intended audience. Profanity replaced with symbols and bleeped out of audio.

Off brand: FB post and article title

Casual profanity featured in social post and article title. It doesn't contribute meaningfully to the message and makes us sound like a bro startup.

Titles, headlines, headings, and subheads

Title case

Use title case only for the title or headline of a piece of content (such as an article, blog post, slide deck, book, etc.)
Capitalize all words except articles (“the”), conjunctions (“and”), prepositions (“of”), and the “to” of infinitives (“to Be”).
Always capitalize the first and last words in the title.

Tip: Use the handy Title Case Converter tool (select Associated Press style) to check your work.

Sentence case

Use sentence case in all headings and subheads (capitalize the first word only).

Punctuation in titles

Don’t use punctuation in a title unless you are presenting a question. Of course, there are times when you will need to use commas for clarity, but avoid if possible. And resist using exclamation points.
If the title includes quotation marks, use single quotation marks, not double.

Title example

Generating Leads with Social Media

Subhead example

A practical guide to improving ROI

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