CIS-A2K/Media Strategy/Best Practices

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On CIS-A2K’s social media accounts

Listed below are some of the best practices we have adopted in line with the best practices of the Wikimedia Foundation and CIS:

• Do not endorse any products
• Do not endorse any political candidates
• Do not engage in any dispute with other accounts
• Do not evaluate or attempt to resolve complaints by celebrities or their fans about edits to a Wikipedia article. Direct them to the FAQ for Article Subjects.
• Do not post sarcasm
• Do not post “snarky” or in unfriendly tones
• Do not retweet or repost anything that contains any of the above
• If you see hateful comments from one user to another, note them, check with the Communications team member, and hide the hateful comments. Reach out to the person who was attacked and apologize for their experience. Provide email addresses to the team, if available.
• Do not post media that is not either owned or co-owned by CIS-A2K (such as photos we take), in the public domain or licensed under CC0. An exception is media used with permission from the author. That permission may come in any written form (such as an email).
• Remember the “five pillars” of Wikipedia’s fundamental principles, especially neutrality and civility.
• Check with the Communications person before posting if you have any doubts about a post.

If you work with CIS-A2K

Do not post anything on your personal accounts that could be confused with CIS-A2K official messaging. Your personal accounts don’t speak for CIS-A2K. To help prevent confusion, you may want to include a notice on your social media accounts that you are posting on your own behalf and not as a representative of CIS-A2K.

CIS-A2K employees on their personal social media accounts

CIS-A2K employees’ social media accounts are their business—unless they are used in ways that inhibit their ability to do their jobs. For instance, fund-raisers should not post anything unkind about donors; attorneys should not post anything controversial about ongoing cases; communications team members should not post belligerently about members of the press, etc.

Please do not take on angry critics or engage with members of the press in discussions about CIS-A2K on social media or the comments sections of websites. You may have the best intentions, but as a CIS-A2K employee, you can be mistaken as speaking for the organisation. The more urgent the critic or reporter is, the more dangerous the situation can be. Please excuse yourself from the situation and email manasa@cis-india.org with a link.

If you post political opinions on social media, please refrain from mentioning CIS-A2K or CIS-A2K projects. If you post frequently about politics, it may be a good idea to include in your Twitter profile bio “These views are mine, not my employers,” or something similar. If you find yourself in a social media confrontation about politics and someone mentions CIS-A2K, it is probably best to not reply at all. Feel free to reach out to manasa@cis-india.org if you have doubts about what is transpiring. What you do personally on social media is your business, and it is important to feel free to advocate for what you believe.

Please check with your team before blogging about your work with CIS-A2K on Medium or other outside platforms. Personal reflections may be fine, but statements such as "At CIS-A2K, we..." need to be cleared with the communications team. We would rather you blog with us, and then post with commentary to our Medium account. We can help you with engagement to get the most out of your posts.

Guide for A2K team using main CIS-A2K's official accounts

When posting, please adhere to these steps or consult a member of the team on why you are deviating from them:

• Email manasa@cis-india.org and cc a2k@cis-india.org your general thoughts about a post or a draft of a post, adding any needed explanation—for example, if the post is motivated by a special event or commemoration.
• Check the post immediately after posting and periodically after it goes up to see if there is any major reaction, positive or negative. Respond appropriately checking in with the team on any issues or problems.
• Measure and track your post taking note of any noteworthy metrics or responses.
• Periodic case studies with links, screenshots and metrics are to be documented as Learning Patterns.
• Cultivating good relationships with like-minded organizations and social media influencers is highly encouraged.
• When drafting posts, remember to be factual and friendly.
• It is important to remember that we serve the Indic Wikimedia community and that they are our primary target audience for these posts and this means keeping in mind the Indian context and ethos.

Likes, retweets and reposts

In engaging with social media, we need to be aware of the morale boost a like or retweet can give our Indic Wikipedia communities in sharing exciting news that they may have posted. We should be quick with likes, replies, and comments from our accounts, as long as they are constructive and helpful. We RT Wikimedians and like-minded organisations with big news or relevant information about the work that we do and support.