Social Media Guidelines

#LoveOzYA social media guidelines

#LoveOzYA has a social media presence across three platforms: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. While our social media is predominantly used to showcase and celebrate Australian YA, we also seek to curate interesting content relating to books, publishing and literacy that will be of interest to our audience.

Overview by platform

Facebook

Aim:

To promote Australian YA content (awards, events, releases) and share the latest interesting news from the LoveOzYA committee.
To develop a reputation as a source for YA related news, trends and commentary.

Content:

LoveOzYA blog posts
Call outs and promotion of the LoveOzYA newsletter
News regarding or featuring the LoveOzYA committee
Invitations to contribute to the LoveOzYA website
Links to events featuring LoveOzYA authors
Links to articles and interviews featuring LoveOzYA authors (particularly if Aussie YA is discussed as a topic)
Links regarding awards and news relating to OzYA
Relevant Facebook posts from OzYA authors and publishers can also be shared across to the page.
Articles featuring commentary on YA/reading/literacy/libraries in general. (Especially if popular/attracting discussion elsewhere on the internet)
Cute bookish pictures, quizzes and articles (these can usually attract great reach and engagement.)
Acknowledging and/or thanking people that have helped the committee/#LoveOzYA in general can make for lovely content and is great practice.

Posting frequency:

Once a day would be ideal. At a minimum, we should endeavour to post 2-3 times a week.
Viewing activity is higher in the early morning between 8am-9am and around 1pm, with a slight rise in the early evening at 5pm. These are good times to post – although engagement remains steady for most of the day except for late at night/early in the morning.
Posting should be no more than once a day unless there is breaking news

Usage guidelines:

Keep language simple and friendly. Our language and tone should never be hostile or offensive.
It may be simpler if Facebook posting is managed by 1-2 people in order to avoid double up or accidental neglect through miscommunication.
Be mindful of not favouring particular books/authors/publishers over others where possible. This does not mean that we shouldn’t post about a book’s movie deal (for example) just because the title has been the focus of posts in the past. Rather, we must strive to be mindful of talking about as many books as we can.
When sharing links to the newsletter, do not simply share the URL. We will achieve more reach and engagement if we post a bookish and/or cute picture and include a bit.ly link as part of the post’s text. Using a link allows tracking the number of clicks a link has, as well as shortening lengthy URLs.
Try to avoid posts that are text only.
Posts should include a picture and/or a link – preferably both if a link does not generate an image optimized for Facebook.
Post text should be friendly and interested – and not too wordy.
When sharing articles on the page, providing a relevant quote from the story as post text, rather than offering our own commentary will allow us to seem neutral, if required. It can be useful to pose a question in the post to engage audience interest. If it’s an issue we do have a strong stance on though, we should make this clear.
If you are ‘liking’ any page posts from your newsfeed, please check that you are liking as yourself rather than the LoveOzYA page (this is easier to do on desktop rather than on the app.) A page that like its own posts can be seen as the online equivalent of awkwardly giving oneself a pat on the back.
When posting about authors/events, please tag their public FB pages in the post text where possible.
Respond to any questions on our posts in a timely manner. If you know the answer or can direct the user to a link with the right information, share it with the user. If not, simply responding that we will look into it shows the user that they have been acknowledged.
Comments without questions will not usually require a response – but feel free to like them if they are positive.

Twitter

Aim:

To promote, share and celebrate Australian YA content (awards, events, releases) as well as the latest interesting news from the LoveOzYA committee.
To boost the signal on YA-related news, prizes, announcements, releases, competitions shared by authors, publishers and other members of the YA community.

Content:

LoveOzYA blog posts
Call outs and promotion of the LoveOzYA newsletter
News regarding or featuring the LoveOzYA committee
Invitations to contribute to the LoveOzYA website
Links to events featuring LoveOzYA authors
Links to articles and interviews featuring LoveOzYA authors (particularly if Aussie YA is discussed as a topic)
Links/retweets regarding awards and news relating to OzYA
Retweets of fun/relevant content for authors/publishers/readers/booksellers etc.
Articles featuring commentary on YA/reading/literacy/libraries in general. (Especially if popular/attracting discussion elsewhere on the internet). Retweets or specifically written tweets both acceptable.
Congratulations/best wishes from the committee to authors/readers etc when they have good news.
Live tweeting of relevant OzYA launches/panels/events at which a committee member is present.

Posting frequency:

At a minimum, we should endeavour to tweet once a day between Monday-Friday. Twitter is generally quieter on weekends, so Saturday and Sunday could be an opportunity to schedule filler content: eg links to old blog posts etc. (Days consisting purely of retweets are fine when committee members can only spare a few minutes to scroll through our feed – but we should be careful not to do this too often.)

Usage guidelines:

Keep language simple and friendly. Our language and tone should never be hostile or offensive.
When posting about authors/events/publishers/bookshops, please tag their accounts in the tweet when possible.
Be mindful of not favouring particular books/authors/publishers over others where possible. This does not mean that we shouldn’t tweet about a book’s movie deal (for example) just because the title has been the focus of posts in the past. Rather, we must strive to be mindful of talking about as many books as we can.
If concerned that a book/author etc has been the subject of too many recent tweets posted by our account, consider retweeting relevant sources when news arises instead.
Be mindful of which accounts are being retweeted. Sources should be reputable/well known where possible. In the current twitter climate, many bloggers in particular frequently fall in and out of favour with each other due to different arguments and controversies. We must be wary of being seen to be endorsing or taking sides in these instances.
Liking a tweet can demonstrate good will where retweets may not be the most appropriate way to react to the content.
When sharing links, shortening them with bit.ly is preferable if the link is not already optimized for social media (eg appears in your newsfeed with preview text/image instead of just as a URL at the end of your tweet.)
As a public account, quoting a tweet and including our response (eg ‘Congrats CBCA winners’) will be a more effective representation of our enthusiasm for the YA world than simply @replying only to the relevant tweet/user.
When sharing articles on the page, providing a relevant quote from the story within the tweet, rather than offering our own commentary will allow us to seem neutral, if required. However, it can be useful to pose a question in the post to engage audience interest. If it’s an issue we do have a strong stance on though, we should make this clear.
Respond to tweets with direct questions in a timely manner. If you know the answer or can direct the user to a link with the right information, share it with the user. If not, simply responding that we will look into it shows the user that they have been acknowledged.
If the account receives a question that does not appear to be about soliciting information and seems more confrontational in tone, it is best to liaise with the rest of the committee before deciding whether to engage (see ‘Engaging with individuals’ below.)
It is usually best not to respond to or acknowledge subtweets. People are allowed to say what they want on the internet – even if we might not want to stumble across it.
Avoid hashtagging random words in tweets. Instead, only use existing hashtags during relevant chats/events.

Instagram

Aim:

To use relevant images to promote, share and celebrate Australian YA books and content as well as the latest interesting news from the LoveOzYA committee.

Content:

Instagram takeover content from participating bookstagrammers
Regrams of images from OzYA authors or images from bloggers/readers/booksellers/publishers that have made use of the #loveozya hashtag.
Original images of OzYA books/authors from committee members where relevant.

Posting frequency:

At a minimum, we should endeavour to post once a day, whether it’s original content or a regram.
We should not post more than twice a day. If we are planning to post multiple images on a particular day, be careful not to post everything all at once.

Usage guidelines:

Keep language simple and friendly. Our language and tone should never be hostile or offensive.
Including a question in the caption of a post is a great way to prompt community engagement. If regramming, position the question before the repost text.
Regram pictures using a repost app, rather than screenshotting the image and uploading it from our account. While it is acceptable to include our own caption underneath the image when sharing it, be sure to always credit the original poster in the caption too. Eg. ‘So happy to see this book in stores! Repost from @randombookstagrammer.’ However, it is also fine to simple include the original user’s caption in the regram.
When posting about authors/events/publishers/bookshops, please tag their accounts in the image and in the caption when possible.
Do not include links in photo captions. They will not work. If referring to a relevant link, place said URL in the ‘website’ section of our profile and use the image caption to direct followers there.
While we can’t regram every image that uses the #loveozya hashtag, we can show good will by liking them as we see them.
Be mindful of not favouring particular books/authors/publishers over others where possible. We must strive to depict as many #OzYA books as we can.
Be sure to include hashtags at the end of every caption (or in a separate comment). As a minimum, we should always be using: #loveozya #ozya #bookstagram #books #book #bookish #ya #yalit #youngadultbooks #youngadult #instabook #readlocal.

Instagram takeovers:

These are currently scheduled for every three weeks. The official hashtag is #LoveOzYATakeover. Each takeover runs from Monday to Friday. During the takeover period, we refrain from sharing other images on the account.

Process:

DM user from @LoveOzYA account to see if they’re interested. Make sure your name is signed at end of DM.
If the user is interested, ask for best email address to contact them. Email through the five prompts and the next available time slot. Ask that they provide all five photos and captions at once, along with 1-2 lines introducing themselves.
On the Monday morning of their time slot, post the Takeover photo. Caption should be a 1-2 sentence about what the Takeovers are (include #LoveOzYA and #LoveOzYATakeover hashtags), then an emoji divider and then the user’s intro. This makes it clear when we are speaking and when the user is speaking.
Later that Monday, post the user’s first photo and caption. The post should begin with “#LoveOzYA Instagram Takeover”, then the prompt and the account username. After that there should be an emoji divider, the user’s caption, the emoji divider again and then our hashtags. In the photos themselves, tag the user, the @LoveOzYA account, the author(s) of the book(s) and, where applicable for those particular prompts, any bookstores or libraries.
Continue to post a photo and caption a day, Tues–Fri.
As Takeovers expand the reach and follower count of the @LoveOzYA account, make sure to follow up the Takeover on Saturday with original content from the website/blog to take advantage of this boost in traffic.

Engaging with individuals on social media:

Direct public engagement with individuals should be approached with caution, particularly when the individuals in question are tweeting or commenting in a confrontational manner. Social media platforms are not ideal for in depth or nuanced conversation.
Any response or statement from the LoveOzYA accounts – whether on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or through direct messaging or email – should be written with the awareness that any communication could easily be made public.
A professional tone should be used at all times. We must be open to constructive feedback and refrain from coming across as defensive or hostile.

Dealing with confrontational engagement:

At times, #LoveOzYA may be tagged in public tweets, posts or comments that may seem confrontational in nature. When this occurs, it’s useful to determine the following factors to gain an understanding of the context:

Who has made the comment? What can be determined from their public profile?
Is the comment part of a broader conversation online?
How much engagement has the comment received in terms of likes, replies and shares?
Does the comment address the work or formation of the committee directly (either with or without a full understanding of how the committee operates)?

In deciding whether to respond, the entire committee should be consulted, where practical and a group decision should be reached. However, the Chair should take action on the committee’s behalf if the matter is urgent.

In the event that the committee decides to engage, here is what should be considered in formulating a response:

The response should come from the relevant #LoveOzYA account rather than from the account of an individual committee member.
The principles in the #LoveOzYA charter should be embodied and drawn upon in the response: https://loveozya.com.au/committee-charter/
It is important to emphasise what we actually do, and clear up any possible misapprehension of our role e.g. we don’t make money, influence publishing decisions, run events. Also, everyone is a volunteer, including the entire committee. It may be appropriate to reference the blog post written by #LoveOzYA on what we do: https://loveozya.com.au/love/what-is-it-we-do/

Statements on behalf of the committee can be posted either on the website and linked to on the relevant social media channels or posted to social media as an image (eg a screenshot of the statement written in the Notes app).