Social media tips

Social media tips
Social media posts should be:

Immediate
Twitter and Facebook work better if you post something immediately.
For example, if you're running a cycling event take a quick photo with your phone and post it with a short message.

Conversational, friendly, confident
Just be yourself. Don't be scared to show a bit of personality, as long as you're on message.
Positive and optimistic about our ability to make change
There's a lot to gripe about, the world's a terrible place, but mainstream media is already pummelling people with that message, so let's be the glimmer of home and inspiration to make change.

Tidy and accurate
Make sure spelling is right. Avoid long strings of !!!! or ............ (AND IF YOU'RE OF THE CAPITALS PERSUSASION, PLEASE HOLD BACK, LET'S NOT YELL AT OUR PEOPLE.....!!!!!!!)

Shareable
Aim to provide content that's worth sharing - whether that's an amazing new cycle lane or a fun biking image. It's likely to bring new people to our pages.

Adding variety
Check out what else we've been posting about that day - is it more of the same or something different? If it's more of the same and it can wait until tomorrow, save it for later.

Using photos where possible
Images are important with social media. As many posts as possible should have a nice image with it, because they catch attention more effectively, and are also prioritised by Facebook and Twitter. Make sure they're decent quality.

A few tips for Facebook

Links: If you're linking to something, you can paste the link in to your post, and it will generate a preview. You can then delete the ugly link, and it'll keep the preview.

You can schedule posts. Timing can be important:
We have fairly steady engagement throughout the week, but people are more likely to be online and using Facebook around 8am, noon, and 9pm. They are also online a lot on weekends.
You can schedule the post by writing as usual, and then setting a time.

Twitter tips
• Keep it short - it's 140 characters!
• Be aware that it sinks to the bottom very fast
• Everything is public, even replies
• Tag other people using their Twitter handles - if you include other people in your post, they're more likely to retweet it. E.g. "Great to have @WgtnCC support our bike valet parking, so much energy and amazing work!" Make sure you have their Twitter handle correct, don't guess!
• Hashtags - you don't need to #hashtag #random #stuff, Twitter picks up words in its searches with or without the #. But if there's a viral #, eg. #ParkingDay, use it.

Include @CyclingANZ in your tweets
Follow Cycling Action Network on facebook