SOCIAL MEDIA: GUIDANCE AND TOP TIPS FOR DELIVERY PARTNERS Prepared May 2016 by The Prince’s Trust Digital Marketing team.

* CONTENTS BECOMING AN ONLINE ADVOCATE: DOs AND DON’Ts ‘STAND OUT’ SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMPLES TONE OF VOICE AND CONTENT PRINCIPLES TOP TIPS GLOSSARY

* DO’s AND DON’Ts

DOs AND DONTs Professional Personal Apply sound judgement  ONLINE COMMUNICATION POSES SIGNIFICANT RISKS AROUND SAFEGUARDING FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE WE SUPPORT. FOR YOUR SAFETY, WE ASK THAT YOU FOLLOW THESE GUIDELINES: Professional Personal Apply sound judgement  Engage with The Prince’s Trust nationally Follow relevant stakeholders Check publicity consent Reference Prince’s Trust in user name X Official communications route Accept friend requests from young people See the Social media guidance for Prince’s Trust Delivery Partners document for more details.

* SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMPLES

NATIONAL Here is a collection of positive social media examples that have been shared online by Prince’s Trust staff, Delivery Partners and third party influencers. Take a look through and be inspired by how you can use social media to shout about the work you are doing.

NATIONAL

SOUTH OF ENGLAND

CENTRAL ENGLAND

WALES

NORTH OF ENGLAND

SCOTLAND

NORTHERN IRELAND

* TONE AND CONTENT

YOUTHFUL, FUN AND TONGUE-IN-CHEEK IF IN DOUBT, REMEMBER THE VALUES TONE GENUINE AND HELPFUL YOUTHFUL, FUN AND TONGUE-IN-CHEEK IF IN DOUBT, REMEMBER THE VALUES NOT PATRONISING Tone of voice Good communications is at the heart of everything we do. How we speak to our followers makes a huge difference to the way they feel about The Trust and whether they choose to support us, or turn to us for help. Our tone of voice is: Positive: Celebrating the achievements of our young people, staff and supporters Remember the values: Our Prince’s Trust values should run throughout our online content Inspiring: Encouraging people to support us, or turn to us for support Down-to-earth: Speaking to our audiences on a personal level, without being too casual or informal Don’t be afraid to be youthful: We are a youth charity and our language should reflect this e.g. Woop! Yay! and Wow! Consistent across all communications – including emails, printed materials, website content and social media posts Clear, direct and to the point. We use short sentences, avoiding jargon, acronyms and abbreviations Don’t forget! Although The Prince’s Trust messaging occasionally references that we help ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘vulnerable’ 13 to 30-year-olds get into work, education or training, it is important to note that this is not the language we use when communicating directly with young people. In fact, many of the young people we work with do not classify themselves in this way.   Other terms that shouldn’t be used externally, include: Kids; Teens / teenagers; Suffering; Deprived; Needy; Underprivileged etc.

MAKE IT ‘RITE’ WHY DOES IT MATTER TO YOUR AUDIENCE? RELEVANT INTERESTING USE IMAGES / VIDEOS TO BRING IT TO LIFE Make it RITE Your social media content should always be ‘RITE’. See our checklist below to find out why:  Relevant: Whether it’s useful, informative or helpful, every post should have be relevant to your audience Interesting: Our posts should add value to our followers and encourage them to complete a call to action e.g. read more, sign up, share  Timely: Social media works in real-time, so post updates while conversations are happening to have maximum impact. Don’t wait until tomorrow, or next week. It won’t work in the same way  Engaging: Create a ‘connection’ between The Trust and our audiences. Find a ‘hook’ to make your posts exciting But, without good content, we can’t adopt these practices. Our content helps us tell our story and make an impact on our key audiences.   Real life stories of our amazing young people are often the best way to attract people’s attention and interest. These stories can paint a picture of the challenges our young people have had to face. They can also reveal the dramatic turnaround that many young people achieve. Visit: https://www.princes-trust.org.uk/about-the-trust/success-stories for the latest case studies. TIMELY POST / RESPOND QUICKLY ENGAGING ASK QUESTIONS AND MAKE CLEAR WHAT YOU WANT USERS TO DO NEXT CASE STUDIES, IMAGE GALLERIES, TOOLS AND RESOURCES etc

TOP TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS * TOP TIPS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS Once your tone and content is on the right track, follow these social media MOT checks to ensure your social media profiles are working effectively to: Recruit young people Generate positive conversations with stakeholders Position yourself as a thought leader / online influencer

TOP TIPS CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR TO TRACK MESSAGING KEEP YOUR MESSAGES SHORT AND SWEET CREATE A CONTENT CALENDAR TO TRACK MESSAGING MAKE YOUR ‘STORIES’ SHAREABLE WHO ELSE IS DOING SOCIAL MEDIA WELL IN YOUR NETWORK? BE INSPIRED DON’T JUST BROADCAST, HAVE CONVERSATIONS TOO USE SHORTENED LINKS e.g BITLY USE GOOD QUALITY PHOTOS / VIDEOS RESPOND TO EVERYONE SCHEDULE POSTS TO SAVE TIME e.g. Hootsuite

TOP TIPS: TWITTER IT’S OK TO TWEET THE SAME MESSAGE AT DIFFERENT TIMES LIMIT THE NUMBER OF HASHTAGS PIN YOUR MOST IMPORTANT TWEET IT’S OK TO TWEET THE SAME MESSAGE AT DIFFERENT TIMES USE LISTS GROUPED BY INDUSTRY OR TOPIC TO MAKE MONITORING EASIER DON’T MEASURE SUCCESS ONLY ON FOLLOWERS, LOOK AT ENGAGEMENT TOO

TOP TIPS: INSTAGRAM INTERACT WITH USERS AND RESPOND TO COMMENTS LOOKS ARE EVERYTHING. USE THE FILTERS TO ENHANCE YOUR IMAGES POST REGULARLY TO ATTRACT NEW FOLLOWERS AND RETAIN EXISTING ONES INTERACT WITH USERS AND RESPOND TO COMMENTS USE YOUR IMAGES TO TELL A STORY THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN USE SHORT VIDEO CLIPS TO ENGAGE YOUTH AUDIENCES

TOP TIPS: FACEBOOK COMPLETE THE ‘ABOUT’ SECTIONS RESPOND TO COMMENTS ADD A CALL TO ACTION TO YOUR COVER PHOTO e.g. SIGN UP NOW COMPLETE THE ‘ABOUT’ SECTIONS RESPOND TO COMMENTS PIN YOUR MOST IMPORTANT UPDATE CONNECT LIKE A FRIEND, NOT A BUSINESS

* GLOSSARY

GLOSSARY Key terms Definition Direct message A private message sent between users on Twitter. May be known as a private message on Facebook. Engagement Social media engagement refers to the acts of talking to, messaging or otherwise interacting with other people on social networks Followers Users who having opted to bookmark your profile and see updates in their own social media timeline are known as followers Hashtag The hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the “#” sign. #Hashtags are a simple way to mark the topic (or topics) of social media messages and make them discoverable to people with shared interests.  Like The positive process of someone showing you that they are fans of the content you are posting. On Twitter the ‘like’ symbol is a heart and on Facebook it’s a thumbs up icon. On both sites, users can opt to ‘like’ each post Mention The process of ‘checking in’ changes, additions and improvements which triggers an email for the Customer Services Team to take next steps / action Notification An update you may receive via your social media account, or directly in your email inbox if you’re set up for email alerts, that tells you when and how someone has interacted with your post and / or profile e.g. new follower, new share etc. Post An update that is shared through your account is ‘posted’ onto your profile Profile An alternative name for a social media account. A profile contains all of your key information – such as name, contact details and calls to actions Reply A reply is a direct response to your Twitter post Re-tweet A re-tweet, occasionally known as an RT, is where a Twitter user shares your post directly with their followers – extending your reach Share A share is where Facebook users push your post out to their friends – extending your reach

* QUESTIONS? If you have any social media questions, talk to your local Prince’s Trust contact or direct message The Prince’s Trust digital marketing team via Twitter or Facebook: Twitter: www.twitter.com/princestrust Facebook: www.facebook.com/princestrust