GV has a series of official accounts to promote content from the main site such as GV Facebook, @globalvoices, and GV Tumblr.

All Regional and Lingua community members can have their own Global Voices social media accounts. This guide can help you with that.

Lingua sites can set up language-specific accounts, as well as regions on the main site who have also created successful accounts, to interact with their communities and let readers follow specific topics. When regions and languages crossroads, a conversation is required between the Lingua Manager, the Regional Editor, and the Translation Manager to determine the workflow depending on the needs of both editors.

This document explains how to set up a nice generic GV design for your Twitter or Facebook account and links to graphics you can use to spruce it up. None of the instructions here are rules, they are just ideas and suggestions for those who want them.

Remember to communicate with the Lingua Manager the credentials of the Twitter account once it is set up to avoid accounts becoming defunct if you disappear for some reason, and to add the Lingua GV email, also assigned by the Lingua Manager. For Facebook pages, it is a good practice to add the Lingua manager or managing editor as “admin” on the page.

Naming conventions

It is recommended for new Lingua Facebook and Twitter “usernames” to use naming conventions matching those that already exist. For instance:
@globalvoices[lang_code] (i.e. @globalvoicesnl) (Dutch Lingua)
@gv[in_language] (i.e.@gvenespanol) (Spanish Lingua)
@gv[language] (i.e @gvbangla) (Bangla Lingua)

While for Facebook pages and Twitter “names”, they should follow the above guidelines. The name of the page should be Global Voices in [Name of Language]. For example:
Global Voices In Amharic (በአማርኛ)
Global Voices по-русски
全球之聲
Global Voices en Español

Colors

To start, we can set up a nice simple theme with shades of green and gray that match our site. Twitter doesn't give you that much control, so keep the colors simple and classy.

Graphics

On Twitter and Facebook, there are two main graphics of use: The little avatar icon that they call picture, and the background or cover image.

Avatars

Twitter and Facebook need an icon to represent you in other people's feeds and at the top of your page.

For most GV accounts you can just use this avatar. Download it to your computer, then upload it to Twitter in SETTINGS > PICTURE settings panel:

Promote

For auto-posting, you can use IFTTT which is a platform for automation, with ways to auto-post to Twitter and Facebook based on RSS.

You can also promote your posts manually on Twitter using the ‘Share This’ tools that you will find below post content and in a similar box at the top right of posts. The advantage here is that it avoids having the tweet button show a lonely “0” next to it, as well as lets you edit the text you are going to tweet.

Twibbon and Header Photo

You can add a Global Voices Twibbon to your Twitter or Facebook avatar. Global Voices logo will appear on the right-hand button corner of your photo. The campaign was created by Jillian York in 2009 and we have now hundreds of supporters.

 

Above is a sample photo you can use as a Twitter Header photo. You can use any photo you like, as long as it is a high res photo. Good examples are photos from the summit, GV Meetups that you attended, or a collage made from the contributors’ avatars as done above.

Posting

All GV accounts on Social Media should meet our social media posting guidelines:

• Meet the standards of our Editorial Code.

• Please be careful when tagging authors and editors on sensitive issues, they may not want to be tagged or we might be inviting unwelcomed trolls to harass them.

• Be careful when using photos and videos
  • Remember to include credits.
  • Be sensitive or avoid using photos of children, victims or suspects
  • Do not use images that are too shocking or disturbing
  • Add a “Graphic warning’ for images that may be disturbing to some people.
• Keep personal opinion out while tweeting or posting from GV’s accounts on Social Media.
• Be careful not to show favoritism for certain GV authors, or regions, or topics in your tweets and posts.
• While live-tweeting or posting breaking news be vigilant about your sources – we don’t want to misreport in the heat of the moment.
• Use “Breaking News or Breaking” sparingly and diligently – on social media something 10 minutes-old, is no longer “Breaking.”
• When accounts are handled by multiple people:
  • Be mindful and respectful of other tweets or posts that have been published or are scheduled and optimized in the queue.
  • Take a thorough look at the published stream, to avoid redundancy or interrupt live-tweeting sessions.