Soc ia l MediaAmbassador Handbook

/CornerstoneCharity @CornerstoneScot

/CornerstoneScotland /company/Cornerstone_2

F ind us onsoc ia l media

Thank you for offering to be a Social Media Ambassador for Cornerstone.

We’re sure you know the positive impact social media is having on organisations and your support will make an

invaluable contribution to raising awareness of Cornerstone and the work we do.

Cornerstone currently operates on four social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. We are actively trying

to increase our following across these social media tools and believe you, as our new ambassador, can help us to do so.

Yo can help us achieve our goal by:

Introduct ion

Liking Commenting Sharing TweetingFollowing+++

Following our pages on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube is the perfect

starting point for supporting Cornerstone online. By following our social media channels, you’ll

essentially be endorsing these pages – adding to their credibility and extending their potential reach to a much

larger audience.

As a page follower, you’ll also receive updates when any new content is added to the pages. On Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

these updates will appear in your newsfeed. This is immediately visible when you log into each channel. YouTube is slightly different, as you’ll receive a direct email notification when new videos are added to the

page.

To follow us, simply visit the Cornerstone page on each social media site and click ‘Follow’. (Please note:

on Facebook, you have to first ‘Like’ the page and then ‘Follow’. On YouTube, the word ‘Follow’ is

replaced with ‘Subscribe’).

Fo l lowing

+++

L ik ing , comment ing and shar ingIf you don’t already have a Facebook or LinkedIn page, you can set these up for free by visiting www.facebook.com and www.linkedin.co.uk respectively.

There are three ways to engage with Cornerstone’s activity on Facebook and LinkedIn: Liking, commenting and sharing. Any time you like, comment on or share one of our posts, a notification will appear in the newsfeeds of your own social media connections/friends. Each time you engage with us on Facebook and LinkedIn you help extend the reach of Cornerstone’s messages beyond our own followers.

Liking is the fastest and easiest way to support our online communications. If you see a post/update that you would like to support, click the ‘Like’ option that appears underneath the post. To ensure you don’t miss any posts, try to make a habit of looking through your newsfeed a couple of times each day.

Commenting is the best way to add your own view and input to our posts and shares. To add a comment, click the ‘Comment’ button underneath the post and add your message. Commenting shows your support and will make you well known among our Cornerstone followers.

Sharing is an active promotion of Cornerstone updates on your own social media pages. To share a post, click the ‘Share’ button that appears underneath the post on our page. A new window will open up, giving you the opportunity to add your own comment before sharing on your page. For example, when sharing pictures from one of our opening events, you could write “Don’t miss these fantastic pictures from the opening of [INSERT EVENT]”.

Tweet ingIf you already use Twitter in a personal capacity, you can keep using your existing account for your social media ambassador activity. If you’re new to Twitter, you can create an account for free at www.twitter.com

Favouriting a post on Twitter has the same effect as liking a post on Facebook or LinkedIn. However, on Twitter, a small star icon replaces the ‘Like’ button.

When composing a tweet, you must include “@CornerstoneScot” in the message text. This will ensure your tweet links to Cornerstone’s Twitter page.

Although Retweeting one of our posts is the same as Sharing, the strict character limit of Twitter means it can often be difficult to add your own comment. Please still do this whenever possible and always re-read retweets to ensure that you have not exceeded the character limit.

So that people identify your Twitter account with Cornerstone, it would be great if you could add a short mention of us in your Twitter profile bio. Something like: “Tweets about [insert subject] for @CornerstoneScot” would be perfect. For example: “Tweets about E-learning opportunities @CornerstoneScot”.

On Twitter, you have the ability to favourite, tweet and retweet posts. These options are essentially the same as liking, commenting and sharing. However, there are a few differences to note:

@

What to tweet about?Your tweets are a way to share your personal Cornerstone experience, so it’s down to you what to tweet. You could be a member of staff or a volunteer looking to share updates about your day; a fundraiser aiming to raise awareness of a challenge or to help us engage people in a campaign; or you could simply want to help spread our news by retweeting on our behalf.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Share what you’re up to that day:

Share what’s happening in your region:

Promote one of our fundraising campaigns:

A picture speaks a thousand words, so don’t be afraid to attach photos to your tweets, particularly if you’re at an event. Please remember that you should not post pictures of people we support or children.

Try to keep a balance between retweets and original tweets. When retweeting, remember to try adding your own comment at the beginning of the tweet whenever possible.

Consider adding popular and relevant hashtags to increase the visibility of your tweets. Amusing ones can also work well.

@#

TaggingTwitter relies on the use of the @ symbol for people and groups to communicate with each other. On other social media channels the @ is not as vital but can be used in the same way and is referred to as ‘tagging’.

When you tag someone in a post it could be visible to your audience plus the friends of who ever else you have tagged.

If you wish to mention Cornerstone on Facebook you have to type ‘@Cornerstone Charity’ somewhere within your post. While you can post to our page directly, the coverage you get for doing so is significantly reduced.

If you were to make a post and wanted to include someone else you can use the @ symbol before their name or use the tag feature - the appearance of tagging may look or be different on your mobile devices. Facebook offers a wider range of options with location and photo tagging also available.

Cornerstone regularly update their photo albums on Facebook and if you attend any of our events, make sure to get your picture taken and get tagging afterwards.

@+

# Join ing the conversat ionFacebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all allow for the use of # (Hashtags) which are used to tag topics of conversation rather than people and groups. Hashtags are especially useful on Twitter where the limited word count means additional context is often required. Once a hashtag has been used it can be searched for or clicked to show other posts using that hashtag, allowing the reader to follow the conversation or reference. This also makes your post discoverable by an interested audience.

Provide additional context to a post:

Generate awareness from trending topics:

• A hashtag is used in front of a single word, without spaces, punctuation and special characters - numbers are allowed.

• Hashtags can be used anywhere within a post – beginning, middle or end.

• No more than two hashtags per post is recommended.

• Only use hashtags that are relevant to the content you are posting.

• Hashtags can be used with regular tagging to reach even wider audiences.

• Cornerstone currently uses the following hashtags for each region: #CStoneNorth #CStoneWest #CStoneEast

YouTube

As a subscriber to our YouTube channel, you will receive a notification whenever any new video

content is added to the page. As with Facebook and LinkedIn, you’ll be able to like and comment on each video.

In addition to doing this, you can also share the link on your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages – extending the

reach of the video to a much larger audience.

Please also remember to always add your own comment before sharing the link!

As a Social Media Ambassador, it’s important that you play a part not just in the promotion of Cornerstone, but also by working with us to protect our reputation.

Your agreement with us

We ask you as a Social Media Ambassador to agree to:

• act as a responsible representative of Cornerstone when contributing to online communications.

• ensure Cornerstone is promoted in a professional, ethical manner.

• ensure your interactions with online followers are not harmful to Cornerstone’s reputation, the people we support or the work we do.

• not upload any photos or videos containing imagery of people we support without seeking prior permission from a member of Cornerstone’s Marketing & Communications Team.

• not respond to any potentially negative comments relating to Cornerstone’s services, the people we support, staff and volunteers.

• send an email to marketing.comms@cornerstone.org.uk if there are comments or posts that you feel Cornerstone should be made aware of.

To get a better understanding of what Cornerstone considers to be appropriatebehaviour on social media you can email marketing.comms@cornerstone.org.uk for a copy of our social media policy.

Scottish Charity No. SC004780. Company No. SC070762. The company is registered in Scotland as CornerstoneCommunity Care operating as Cornerstone, with registered office 39 Huntly Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1TJ.

www.cornerstone.org.ukmarketing.comms@cornerstone.org.uk