Social Media policies

Introduction: These rules are to make RedEye’s social media presence as powerful as it possibly can be. Some of these rules are also so we can keep track of what we are posting, as it’s easy to accidentally post/retweet something to the CSPN’s account if you forget to log out. I formed these rules by looking at the CSPN’s most successful posts (besides sports/breaking news/contests/good news about manual) and creating guidelines based on what seems to be working.

General Rules:

• As a rule, the password for all the CSPN accounts should be given on out rarely and as-needed
• Every single post on the site should have at least one corresponding Twitter post promoting it
• Instagram is to be used more for extra content and act as a supplement to posts rather than used to promote them. Not all posts on the site need an Instagram post
• If you need an article tweeted out, please ask me. If you already have the password, please check with me before doing so
• If you would like promo material for your post to be put on Instagram, please send me the photos or videos. As with Twitter, even if you have the password, please check in with me before posting something
• The only things that don’t have to be cleared with me are breaking news tweets and live-tweets of events
• ALWAYS LOG OUT AFTER YOU POST WHAT YOU NEED TO POST

Twitter-Specific Rules

• Every post should have at least one photo, even if it is just that story’s featured image. Since you can now post up to four photos on Twitter, please utilize this feature if you have four good photos to post. When we attach photos to our tweets, we generally get more retweets/favorites
• Rather than posting the headline in inverted pyramid type format (i.e. “Manual students discuss the new dress code”), use a quote from the article/video or an interesting/more obscure detail from the story to hook readers in. However, don’t make it like Buzzfeed/Upworthy (i.e. “You’ll never guess what this Manual teacher said”). An example of the ideal text of a CSPN tweet would be to have a short quote or interesting detail from the story, followed by a link to the story and a relevant image.

Instagram-Specific Rules

• All posts should be sent through the Social Media Director before being published. In a breaking news situation where there isn't as much time for editing, the Social Media Director should be made aware of the post.
• All images should be of such quality that they could go on the website, even if taken with an iPhone
• All stories should have supplementary Instagram content
• For now, the main thing we need to remember is to treat Instagram as a supplement to stories rather as a way of straight up promoting them (i.e. how we use Twitter). For example, don’t post the feature image of a story with the story headline and the link underneath. This is primarily useless because you have to copy and paste links from Instagram, which no one is going to do. Instead, post a picture or video with extra content related to your story. Then, you can say “Visit manualredeye.com for the full story”
• For example, if you were doing a story about a YPAS concert, you could post a video of someone you interviewed playing their instrument with an extra quote from them as the caption, and then say “Visit manualredeye.com for the full story on the concert” at the end