A Social Media Styleguide - The ABCs of Social Media

A while back we created a social media style guide for TutorateLocal. It’s an adaptation of a style guide from The Chicago School. While we aren't the most prolific tweeters out there, we gained a lot in the process of developing a style guide.

Why a Style Guide?

We wanted to address the scenario of a team that manages a social account. The style guide gives us the tool we need to present a consistent voice, no matter who's tweeting. Below is an abridged version of what we came up with.

The ABCs

Be Accessible, on Brand and Conversational.
Accessible - you need to respond to your audience.
on Brand - you must have a good understanding of the organization you're representing.
Conversational - start original discussions, not just pictures and links from other sources.

Twitter is a conversation. When you represent a business it must be a professional conversation, stay friendly and engaging but please be professional. Here are a few more practices we encourage.

Include relevant images

Pictures tend to increase engagement and using appropriate images will help to reinforce the brand.

example:

Use context words or phrases with links

When posting links, we also try to use "context" words or phrases which help to frame what we are saying. For example, words and phrases such as "Video, News, From our Blog" can be helpful to give followers an idea of what a related link may be about.

example: