Social@Votesmart.org Protocol

NOTE: As of 2017 this process is not being used anymore. This wiki page exists to document the old process. Please see Communications Content Suggestions for the current process.

Who Should Be Sending Emails to Social@Votesmart.org
Everybody! All Vote Smart departments should become accustomed to sending information, ideas, images, and potential posts/tweets on a weekly basis, and/or be willing to provide more information when prompted. The Social@ email is a way for the people in charge of social media to get updates about the Project that they can post on said social media. NOT EVERYTHING THAT GOES TO SOCIAL@VOTESMART.ORG WILL BE POSTED, and that is ok. We don't want to curb creativity by asking for only great stuff, or only non-partisan stuff, because, someone might not think something is great, but someone else might.

A common reason people do not send material to social@ is that they don't think they have anything "worthy" of posting and/or they are embarrassed to be posting content online. When you send an email to social@ you are not posting anything, and it is entirely up to the staff handling social media to decide whether your submission should be posted. If you send an email with the information "I'm tired" that doesn't automatically get posted on our facebook or twitter. This is not to say you should be sending emails about how tired you are, but our social media staff would rather have to tell you to stop sending pointless emails than keep reminding you to send any emails at all.

Depending on the amount of content we are receiving and the amount we need there may be various requirements for sending a certain amount of content to social@. Your director/supervisor should let you know if you are required to send anything to social@.

Blog Posts and Newsletter submissions as well as ideas or questions about either of those should go to social@votesmart.org

How to Send Things

The primary way we use social media is to interact with our users in a more social way and acquire more users in the process. Instead of simply having content on our website a person can search for, we say "Hey! You can search for this content!". Social media also helps us put a face on the data - the ever important "telling our story". These two reasons, combined with the fact that most of our social media posting is short (a short sentence or two and a link to the site) result in the fact that darn near anything could be possible grounds for posting. Anything from "Read the President's SOTU address: votesmart.org/publi..." to "Turkeys outside the office! (picture of turkeys)" are acceptable posts. The reason we have a social@ email address is that the people who handle our social media (and have the final say on what gets posted) can't possibly know everything that is going on - so you are here to let them know.

Any and all information is welcome, whether it is written to post as is or needs to be edited to fit character limitations. Departments are encouraged to be creative and attempt writing for these platforms using examples provided.

There are 3 basic formats for a social@ email:
1. X thing has happened
This is when something has happened and you think we should post something about it.
Examples:
To: social@votesmart.org
Subject: Elk in back pasture
There are some elk in the back pasture.

With these type of "human interest" posts, pictures are always helpful, but not 100% necessary. For the first email if we don't have a picture we might just tweet: "Some elk outside providing a distraction from the office. #InterninParadise". Just because you aren't 100% sure of how it fits into the image of Project Vote Smart doesn't mean you shouldn't send it. General guideline: "Is this something I would like to or expect to see from an organization's facebook or twitter page?"
2. X thing(s) are on the website
This is when something you have done has been posted on the website. Include links, try to stay balanced/non-partisan
Examples:
To: social@votesmart.org
Subject: Speeches
Remarks by the President: http://votesmart.org/public-statement/755533/remarks-by-the-president-in-a-news-conference#.UK-kJhUZ3ng
Statement from Darrel Issa: http://votesmart.org/public-statement/755568/making-government-suck-less#.UK-kWBUZ3ng
To: social@votesmart.org
Subject: Committee
I just updated the members of the House Armed Services Committee: http://votesmart.org/offices/committee/12/armed-services#.UK-ktRUZ3ng

Send anything you put on the website. Keep in mind, these DO NOT have to be significant. We've tweeted about updating town council members from River City, Iowa. Again, the staff will decide if it is too mundane, or partisan, or unacceptable in any way, so go ahead and send it. You should be proud of the information you update, and social@ will let us tell more people about it. NOTE: The balanced/non-partisan thing largely applies to speeches. If you submit a speech, please try to include something from the other side of the aisle. It's great if it's on the same topic (Something from Obama on the debt ceiling, a response from Boehner) but it doesn't have to be (see the example above). The exception is when it's something of obvious national importance (A speech from the President at the Rose Garden, a letter of resignation from a congressman - these are fine as stand alone posts). For committee updates or key votes or really anything else don't worry so much about partisanship (though try to keep them varied - if you send 10 Parental Notification/generally anti-abortion bills we probably won't post about all 10, or even probably more than 1, cause that's partisan).

3. Actual Posts
If you want to go the extra mile and create a full, finished post for either our facebook or twitter. Remember, the staff member in charge has full discretion. Your post will not necessarily get posted.
Examples:
To: social@votesmart.org
Subject: Speech for twitter
"Read the message #Obama sent to supporters on election night: http://votesmart.org/public-statement/755184/how-this-happened#.UK-mjxUZ3ng"
To: social@votesmart.org
Subject: Facebook post
"Our summer key votes interns hard at work!" Picture attached
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