Social Media Posting Policies and Procedures

Social Media Policies

Please note that some of these policies use "should" and some use "must." Anything using "should" can be stretched if there is good reason.

General Post Creation Policies

• Above all else, content must be interesting for our audience (attendees)
• Twitter length should be no more than 120 characters
• Facebook length should be no more than 140 characters max
• Blog post length should be between 600 and 1500 words (less is more)
• Images increase engagement so if possible, an image should be included in the post
• Videos have higher engagement than pictures so a short video should be included if possible.
• Shorter is better for videos because the Internet has a short attention span. Videos should be kept under 1:30. Unless it's a tutorial or a streaming video, all videos should not be more than 3 minutes.
• Any videos or images included in a post must be of good quality. We will not post images or video where you can't tell what's going on.
• Links or shares should include a short message from us.
• Before we advertise for any other event the convention should already be in contact with that event and cross-promoting.
• All posts must be positive. Trash-talking about another event, product, or person makes us look bad.

General Posting Policies

• All posts must be managed though our Social Media department.
• On platforms that create a link preview (e.g. Facebook), the URL must always be removed from the post.
• All posts should have perfect spelling and grammar, but the only exceptions are appropriate Internet-slang or memes. Social Media must fix any posts that aren't perfect before posting.
• Social media must edit posts _as needed_ to increase potential engagement across the different platforms.

Departmental Social Media Posts Policies

• Departments are to generate their content and announcements as soon as possible so we can schedule the posts over the coming year.
• Each recurring post should be changed so that it is unique to encourage maximum engagement. Social Media can do that but it is best if the department does it before submitting posts.
• Submitted content may take more than a week to go live. If a post must go live sooner, include a "post by" date when submitting content.

Content Procedures

Content Submission Procedure

1. Using the policies above, write or curate the best content you can. Even curated content should include a short blurb, but if you're not a good writer it's okay to rely on the Social Media department to improve your post.
2. Email your content to sm [at] snafucon.com
3. You may want to @tasha and @susana in HipChat to remind or alert them that they have an email waiting for them.

Staff Content Posting Procedure

Social Media may create or curate own content. This is how to handle content from staff outside the social media department.

1. Receive content in RT
2. Mark the RT ticket as owned by you and 'open' to indicate you are handling it
3. Review post for appropriateness, spelling, and grammar
4. If post is curated content, review the link closely for appropriateness
5. If you believe the post is good to go and you are authorized to do so, schedule it for posting
6. If you want help editing the post, or you are not authorized to post directly, post the content in the marketing room for workshopping.
7. All Marketing staff are to assist in workshopping to the best of their ability (if you have no ability, you don't need to help).
8. Once the post is approved by Marketing, schedule the post, or have an authorized individual schedule the post.

SM Content Posting Procedure

This is the procedure for posting content created by social media.

If you feel it is ready to go and you are authorized to post without workshopping, and the content isn't time-sensitive:

1. If you are authorized to do so, schedule the post at least 2 days from today's date.
2. Post the content in the marketing room and indicate the date that it will go live.

If you need to work shop the post:

1. Post the content in the Marketing room. Follow the steps outlined in "Staff Content Posting Procedure" for workshopping and posting the content.

If the post is time sensitive and you are authorized to post without workshopping: post or schedule it

If the post is time sensitive and you are not authorized to post without workshopping: pester the people in the Marketing room who are authorized to post it, to post or schedule it.

Content Ideas

Short Content (Twitter/Facebook)

Most short content should be 120-140 characters.

• Quick cosplay, art, prop, or gaming tip.
• Links to other interesting or useful articles our attendees would like.
• Links to other interesting or useful videos our attendees would like.

Links can be videos from YouTube, other Blog posts, whatever you can find on the internet that our attendees would find. For example, Sam watches woodworking videos and one of those channels made a cosplay prop once so he submits that as curated content for our social media.

Blog Content

Blog articles should be 600-1500 words.

• Tutorials and How-Tos for Cosplay, Art, Prop Making, Gaming, or anything else relevant to our attendees.
• Reviews of stores, games, and other cons, relevant to our attendees (Must be positive! Can include some areas for improvement, but overall we need to be positive and not bash things or events)
• Anything relevant to our attendees.