Social Media Guidelines

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING COPY

Be Creative + Engaging

• Opening of post - think about a grabbing hook or lede when writing copy

  • • Starting with quotes for captions

    • Having locally-focused statistics gets more attention

    • ICYMI for past things grabs attention

    • Personalized questions

    • Large dollar amounts

Tailor Copy to Each Platform

• • INSTAGRAM

    • Include "link in bio" language and social media manager double checks that link is in bio

    • Include hashtags about #topics in-text when possible

      • e.g. "#ColumbusPolice deployed tear gas and other chemical agents on protesters multiple times in May and June."

  • FACEBOOK

    • If the copy includes a link, do not include a graphic

      • Helps drive traffic to the link, in most cases

      • EXCEPTION: Static pages on our website do not have header images. Include media for these links.

    • Our website stories/articles perform well.

  • TWITTER

    • Character count is 280, so be mindful, especially when sharing links

      • Can us bit.ly to shorten link URLs

    • If the copy includes a link, do not include a graphic

      • Helps drive traffic to the link, in most cases

      • EXCEPTION: Static pages on our website do not have header images. Include media for these links.

    • On Threaded tweets:

      • If your tweet must be longer, separate it into a thread

        • Very rarely should a donation or newsletter ask be at the end of a thread

        • Format threaded tweets as follows:

          • e.g.: "This is the first #tweet in the thread. (1/2)" , "This is the second tweet in the #thread. (2/2)"

    • Our website stories/articles perform well.

Follow AP Style & Be Calculated About Breaking It

• Post copy should generally comply with AP style, but for certain circumstances on certain platforms (especially Twitter), there are valid reasons to break it.

  • • • i.e. it's Quicker to do $440K and 4 years - justified reason to break it

AP Style Tidbits for Social Media

• Numbers

  • Headlines: $440K

  • Stories: $440,000 or $4.4 million

• Attributing

  • “According to” is referring to content, not a person - use “said” or “explained” for a person.

  • Usually, “[title] [name] said” vs. “said [name], [title]”, but sometimes can be quicker to do latter especially on Twitter

  • Say “[source] told [our reporter]”

Use Correct Handle / Account Tags

Always double check that you have tagged the correct accounts when tagging other users or organizations on social media.