SIG Information
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Twitter Policy

This page covers the SIG's official Twitter policy.

Background

Some Twitter tidbits:


Who to Follow

This group should be fairly limited and highly scrutinized, because it reflects the SIG's "official" viewpoint. For example, we shouldn't follow MadCap Software, because then it would appear that the SIG endorses that particular vendor. We do want to follow peer organizations and thought leaders for technical editing.

The SIG should follow:
  • Offical STC accounts (e.g., @stc_org, @stc2010, etc.)
  • Other STC communities (e.g., @stc_carolina, @stcfrance, etc.)
  • Thought leaders for industry, such as Ginny Redish (ginnyredish) or Jared Spool (jmspool)

Currently Following

When you "follow" an account, there is an implicit endorsement of that account. As such, you should review your following on a regular basis.

Who the TE SIG follows...


What to Tweet


Original Tweets

Pass on useful, pertinent information to your audience. A personal viewpoint and voice are good, because it's expected.

What not to tweet: Do not pass on information they already get somewhere else. It appears you're "filling" the stream. No one wants to hear an organization's representative complain or bash someone or something. Similarly, a tweet should not express an individual's activities, emotions, or health.

Good example:

Bad examples:
  • I just edited 50 pages!
  • Incredibly lonely while copyediting a newsletter.
  • My cough is getting worse.


Automatic Tweets

The following items are ''automatically' tweeted:


Retweets

We should retweet items that may be of interest to SIG members. We retweet from the accounts that we follow, as well as other useful tweets (such as the #writing, #editing, and #grammar hashtags).

DO retweet:
  • General STC news and information (such as conference deadlines and renewal notices)
  • General writing and editing tips and resources

DO NOT retweet:
  • "Local" STC news or events (we're a virtual, world wide SIG)
  • Personal or political observations

Remember, our credibility and the Twitter "klout " is based, in part, on the number of original items we tweet.


How Often to Tweet

How much is too much? Match the amount of tweets a day to what you'd think your audience expects. For an editor audience, we could posit that they would not expect a tweet an hour, because the members do not necessarily adopt new technologies. For example, the large volume of misunderstandings about how to use the email list demonstrates their technology adoption.

You might want to tweet the same content a few times in one day, such as a meeting announcement. Why? People in different time zones watch Twitter at different times, for example India won't necessarily be watching Twitter at midnight their time. Also, the stream is ephemeral; the tweet history doesn't last long, depending on your viewer.


Who Should Tweet

The SIG appointed a small group to create tweets. In addition to the automated tweets from off the site, the following SIG officers can tweet on behalf of the TE SIG:
  • Communications manager
  • Co-managers
  • Webmaster
See Account Information for login information to the Twitter account.


Direct Messages

We currently send (automatically) the following direct message (DM) to all new followers:
Thanks for following us! We tweet items of interest to technical editors and writers. To learn more about the Technical Editing SIG (Special Interest Group) of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), please visit http://www.stc-techedit.org.




Twitter Lists

A Twitter List is an organized group of Twitter users. The @stc_te_sig account is currently included on several Twitter lists .

Page last modified on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 08:43:08am EDT
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