Editorial Publishing Workflow

It's your job to come up with headlines, but don't worry! You have help. When you start brainstorming headlines, feel free to send an @here to the #headlines chat in Slack. Anyone who is can will help brainstorm headlines with you.

General tips for headlines:

• Be specific, especially about places and people. EX: U.S. Congresswoman --> Joyce Beatty

• Include words you would use to search for the story. EX: Columbus, gentrification, police, protests

• Don't neglect the verb. Nouns are the primer driver for SEO, but verbs can create a higher click-through rate. Make sure to use strong verbs.

• Keep it short. Headlines for our CMS have to be less than 66 characters.

Tools

• Airtable - where we track and edit social content

• Canva - tool for making graphics (there are tons of templates in the 3 template folders in there!)

• Hootsuite - content scheduler

Steps:

1. Write copy

   1. • Instagram:

        • • don't actually list links in the copy, cause they don't work. Simply say "link in bio" when referring them to check something out. In the next steps you will add that link to our Linktree.

          • 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."

      • Twitter:

        • Be mindful of the character limits (280) and consider threading tweets when necessary. The unfortunate thing is we cannot schedule threads, so they have to be done in real-time. I usually set an alarm for when the tweet is to be posted and then go in and thread. Always include links in copy.

          • Can us bit.ly to shorten link URLs

      • Facebook: Aways include links in copy

2. Create post media

See brand guidelines here

Specs per platform:

• Twitter:

  • • Photos — Should be rectangular at 1200x628px

    • Videos —Supports up to 1280px wide

    • Graphics — Should be rectangular at 1200x628px, Less than 5MB in order to upload to Hootsuite

    • GIFs — Allowed

    • Note: 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.

• Facebook:

  • • Photos — Can be either square (1080x1080px) or rectangular (1200x628px)

    • Videos — Up to 240 minutes long, Supports almost all size ratios, Live videos get most engagement

    • Graphics — Can be either square (1080x1080px) or rectangular (1200x628px), Less than 5MB in order to upload to Hootsuite

    • GIFs — Allowed

    • Note: 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.

• Instagram:

  • • Create an Instagram graphic (or photo) for each story post

    • Specs:

      • • Photos — Should be square at 1080x1080px

        • Videos — Can be up to 60 seconds long, Bitrate of up to 5Mbps, Frame rates must be 23fps or more

        • Graphics — Should be square at 1080x1080px, Less than 5MB in order to upload to Hootsuite

        • GIFs — Not allowed :(

        • Reels - see here

General notes:

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.

Log into Linktree and add any links relevant to the social posts there.

Generally, consider turning off (with the slider, don't delete it) an older story.

Via Mailchimp