Social media guidelines

This guide provides approved practices for creating, posting and working with social media.

Contact communications@waterloo.ca with feedback or questions.

In this guide

  1. Purpose of the guide
  2. Definitions
  3. Why the city uses social media
  4. Roles and responsibilities
  5. Using personal social media accounts
  6. Opening or closing a social media account
  7. Requesting a social media post or campaign
  8. Creating content and style guide
  9. Engagement and customer service
  10. Social media account inventory
  11. Social media account creation form

Purpose of the guide

The Social Media Guide provides an overview of approved practices for creating, posting and working with social media. It is designed to help employees, volunteers and committee members understand the opportunities and risks that come with using social media at work.

As the social media space is constantly changing, this guide will be updated to reflect new developments as they arise.

It was last updated and approved in April 2021.

Definitions

Social media: internet-based websites that enable transfer of information and networking between the corporation and interested parties (sometimes referred to just as ‘social’)

Corporate/divisional accounts: corporate accounts are administered by the Corporate Communications division with support from service centre staff and represent the entire organization. Divisional accounts represent other units within the city and may be administered by staff in those areas.

Contentel: any information (such as text, graphics or video) that is communicated on a social media channel.

Engagement: any interaction someone has with a social media account that shows interest in a post or a comment/request for service.

Campaign: a series of posts on a common topic or theme, sometimes with paid delivery such as Facebook or Instagram Ads.

Why the city uses social media

The City of Waterloo started using social media in 2011. It has become increasingly important as more people learn digital skills and transition away from traditional media as their primary source of information.

Using the city’s corporate accounts, we use it to:

  • increase trust in the city through greater dialogue and openness
  • build ties with partner organizations and affiliated groups
  • create content that can enhance, add to, or correct mass media coverage
  • transmit information quickly in times of crisis or emergency
  • reach specific audiences through targeted accounts and content
  • provide digital customer service options

Using the city’s corporate accounts, we do not use it to:

  • receive 'on-the-record' official feedback (this is done on Engage Waterloo)
  • promote non-city activities such as events, fundraisers or other community-led initiatives
  • promote business, political or other partisan interests

Divisional accounts are responsible for creating their own content guidelines with their communications consultant.

Roles and responsibilities

Corporate communications is responsible for maintaining the city’s reputation and overall social media presence. This includes social media governance and guidelines, the operation of main corporate accounts, and administrative oversight of divisional accounts. 

The manager of communications is responsible for approving the creation of any social media accounts affiliated with the City of Waterloo.

Communications consultants are responsible for developing and posting content on corporate social accounts on behalf of clients and partner organizations. They also act as a point of contact for paid campaigns or starting a new social media account.

Social media account administrators are permanent city staff who are responsible for a divisional social media account and have been trained to oversee content and manage responses.

The public information officer is a member of the communications division responsible for posting and listening to social media in times of crisis per emergency management protocols.

Customer service staff are responsible for responding to specific service requests as assigned by the communications division.

City employees are encouraged to use social media for professional purposes and are responsible for doing so according to the responsible Code of Conduct (PDF) and Respectful Workplace (PDF) policies. Read further guidelines in the section below.

Elected officials are governed by the Council Code of Conduct (PDF) and not required to follow the corporate Social Media Guide.

Council committees are governed by the Committee Policy (PDF) and not permitted to use social media to communicate on behalf of the city.

Staff committees and volunteers can engage in social media activities on behalf of their groups under the supervision of their staff liaison. The liaison is responsible for ongoing adherence to relevant corporate policies and guidelines.

Contracted individuals/organizations (such as consultants or freelancers) must receive approval from the manager of communications before using a corporate, divisional or project-based account, and follow the Social Media Guide.

Check the starting a social account section below for more detail.

Using personal social media accounts

The Social Media Policy (PDF), requires city staff to follow the Code of Conduct (PDF) and Respectful Workplace (PDF) policies when using personal social media accounts.

This means that an employee’s use of social media maintains public trust in the city and doesn’t create an unsafe workplace for other employees through harassing posts.

This applies to any account where a staff member is identifiable, even if the bio statement does not mention the city. Misconduct on personal social media can lead to disciplinary action despite disclaimers such as “opinions are my own.”

Staff are encouraged but not required to use personal social media for professional purposes.

Best practices include:

  • an accurate bio statement and profile photo
  • connecting with other professionals in your field
  • sharing publicly available information and official posts
  • not sharing confidential, partisan or political content
  • answering reasonable questions from the public if asked directly
  • not jumping into questions directed to the city’s official accounts

Though staff may receive comments on city business through personal accounts it cannot be used as official feedback for inclusion in council reports. This must be done on the Engage Waterloo platform or official channels such as corporate email.

Opening or closing a social media account

The city’s corporate accounts cover a wide range of topics but business units may believe a dedicated social media presence is required to meet their goals.

The communications division can help determine if a new account is the best solution, and if so, will assist with the application process. 

The city currently uses SproutSocial as a tool to schedule posts and monitor feedback from multiple accounts. It is recommended that applicants for new social accounts purchase a license to be included in this system. The current cost is around $50/month (subject to change).

What to consider before applying

  • Is your intended audience on social media and if so, how can you get their attention?
  • Can your goals be met by the city’s current corporate channels?
  • Does the account align with the reasons we use social media?
  • Do you have the resources to manage the account indefinitely?
  • Can you provide engaging content on a regular basis?
  • Do you have a budget for things like photos, paid advertising or social media software?
  • What staff position will serve as the permanent account administrator?
  • How does a new account support the city’s overall communication and strategic goals?

Application process

If, after answering the above questions, you still believe you need a dedicated account, here are the next steps for prospective account administrators:

  1. Obtain approval from your supervisor/manager to move forward
  2. Contact your communications consultant for advice and assistance
  3. Review the social media account creations questions with your communications consultant
  4. Submit application to manager of communications for approval

Upon approval, your communications consultant will reach out with next steps including training, account setup, billing information (if paid campaigns are anticipated) and monitoring.

If the account is not approved, the reasons for doing so will be discussed between the communications manager and the group making the application.

Closing a social media account

All social media accounts and related contacts remain the exclusive property of the city. If you would like to close your social media account please contact your communications consultant.

Requesting a social media post or campaign

If you have an idea for an original social media post or campaign, please contact your communications consultant or email communications@waterloo.ca.

While one-off items will be considered, posts and campaigns are better as part of a communication or business plan.

Requests to share posts from external social media accounts

If you would like the communications team to share a post from a non-city social media account, the follow criteria are required:

  • It’s connected to a city or public sector initiative
  • It is timely and aligns within the current social media calendar/schedule
  • It doesn’t contain commercial messages, advertising or political content

The main city accounts do not share messages that could show political, partisan or business favoritism. This includes posts about third party activities such as charities, community events or other non-city activities.

Creating content and social media style guide

Content is what drives social media, attracts followers, promotes engagement and helps people in an emergency.

At its best, government social media content is engaging, informative and helpful to public life.

Best practices for creating social media content

Be engaging and unique: thoughtful and intriguing content leads to conversations that build relationships and create value for the city and its followers. Avoid a repetitive social presence and create content customized for the channel and context. If you have a campaign that requires multiple messages, create distinct posts instead of rescheduling the same one.

Get noticed: to get someone’s attention, use simple, impactful language that clearly describes the point of the post or a call to action. Unique video and images can also help but should be used intentionally to add meaningful information to the post.

Inform and educate: in the public service, social media takes on an added dimension as a tool for transparency and building trust. Our content is often used to educate the public on new programs, initiatives and policies, and must do so accurately and fairly.

Boost it with a paid campaign: for longer term or strategically important campaigns, it is recommended that budget is allocated for sponsored content. This allows content to be delivered automatically over the course of the campaign, to a targeted audience if necessary.

Consider boosting if you:

  • want to reach an audience beyond those who already follow your account
  • need to reach a specific demographic or location within the city
  • have already tried unpaid posts and haven’t reached a goal

Use social media as part of a larger communications plan: posting to social media alone is unlikely to achieve a long term impact. Your communications consultant can help craft a comprehensive plan.

Legal requirements

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) provides rules for the accessibility of websites, including social media. While social media websites do not qualify as ‘city-owned’ we strive to make our social media as accessible as possible using available features. The accessibility section below (link) covers this in more detail.

The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) applies to any personal information that appears on social media. Personal information such as emails and addresses should not appear on any city social media channel. The terms of engagement (link) section below covers how to obtain personal information for the purposes of customer service.

Intellectual property rights are owned by the creators of any original work, including artwork, music, photographs, written works or graphics. On social media we can only use video, photography or graphics that have been legally acquired and licensed.

This can be achieved by:

  • using materials acquired or created by the communications division
  • taking your own photos or video (in conjunction with a photo consent form or notice if there are subjects with faces visible)
  • sharing works with written permission from other social media users

Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) is more for email marketing and doesn’t typically apply to messages sent through social media networks.

Contests and giveaways must be reviewed by the city’s legal division prior to release to the general public. Contact your communications consultant or communications@waterloo.ca for standard terms and conditions to get started.

Accessibility

Social media networks have built-in accessibility features that can help people with disabilities overcome barriers to perceiving content. This section outlines best practices for making content available to everyone.

Write in plain language

Writing posts in plain language, per the style guide below is one of the best ways to help people understand content as quickly, easily and completely as possible.

Use image descriptions, avoid graphics with text

Mainstream platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram offer an ‘alt text’ field to enter a description of an image for those who are not able to see it fully. These descriptions should briefly describe the image without assigning gender or other assumed identities to the subjects.

If there is text overlaid on the image, such as a title and event details, it should be repeated word for word in the alt text. The preferred option is to post images without text and include this information in the body of the post instead.

Don’t use emoji to replace text

If you use emoji, make sure it adds to the meaning of the text without replacing words.

For example:

“To comment on backyard fires, visit EngageWR 🗣🔥”

Notel:

“To 🗣 on backyard 🔥, visit EngageWR”

Use ‘burned on’ video captions

When creating video content exclusively for social media, hard code video captions directly onto the video so they appear immediately when the video autoplays. This will assist people who are deaf and hard of hearing, and those who choose to watch videos without sound.

‘Burned on’ captions differ from optional captions that can be toggled on or off. The communications division uses Rev.com as its caption supplier and can assist in converting your video. Current rates are $1.25/minute (subject to change).

Social media style guide

A style guide provides best practices for how to present content from a language and graphic perspective. It borrows from the Waterloo.ca guide that we use for our corporate website.

Tone

As a government organization on social media, it is important to maintain a tone that’s both firm and engaging. We strive to use language that is:

  • friendly
  • simple
  • authoritative
  • helpful

Whenever possible, avoid the use of government terms that people may have trouble recognizing. Translate bylaws, council reports and other official wording into plain language.

Links

Links in posts should be shortened using a service such as bit.ly (this is integrated into SproutSocial for users of that service) or a friendly URL such as waterloo.ca/careers. A service such as Linktree can be used for Instagram where hyperlinks can’t be posted in the body of a message.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Although characters are limited, words should be written out in their most widely understandable form. While abbreviations and acronyms may be shorter, they are usually harder for people to understand. Avoid using common internet abbreviations such as LOL and OMG.

Capitals

Unnecessary capital letters make content more difficult to read. Use capitals only at the beginning of sentences, and in proper nouns and acronyms. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, organization or thing. Common nouns such as city, site plan, uptown and bylaw are not capitalized.

Numbers

Use digits for all numbers. Spell out millions, billions and above. For example, 5 million people watched the video today, compared to 15 million yesterday. For number ranges, use 'to' in between numbers. For example, swimming lessons are offered for kids aged 3 to 12.

Date and time

Write out dates and times fully, without commas and ordinals (such as 8th): Monday February 8 at 4:00 p.m. This makes them more readable for people who have trouble understanding short forms or are using screen readers.

Sentences

Use sentence case in social media text, capitalizing the first letter of the first word and using a period at the end.

Emoji

Put the symbol at the end of a sentence ✅

Use inclusive symbols when referring to groups of people 🚫👨🏻

Don’t replace words with symbols, make sure the text makes sense on its own 🆒

Hashtags

Only use hashtags with a clear intent for indexing, not for #VanityPurposes. Using ‘camel case’ can help with readability (camel case is the practice of capitalizing the first letter of every word, such as #UptownWaterloo).

Photography and graphics

Whenever possible, use current images that are inclusive to different groups of people that live in Waterloo. If you need assistance sourcing images, contact your communications consultant or communications@waterloo.ca.

Per the accessibility section above, avoid using text-heavy graphics and if you do, transcribe the text into the image description or post itself. Where possible, it’s usually easiest to use photography rather than graphics in a post.

SproutSocial maintains an always-updated sizing guide for images across social media.

Video

Short videos (less than 2:20) should be posted directly in social media channels, rather than as a link to Vimeo. If there is dialogue, use burned on captions as described in the accessibility section above.

The communications division maintains a Vimeo account to store video content. If you need assistance hosting video content, contact your communications consultant or communications@waterloo.ca.

SproutSocial also maintains an always-updated video guide with aspect ratios, duration and sizing specs.

Engagement and customer service

In addition to producing material for posting, monitoring accounts for feedback and service requests is a core social media function for the city’s main accounts. Responding in a timely and professional manner is important to achieving our social media goals (link).

Terms of engagement 

The purpose of comments and service requests is to facilitate a relevant, on-topic dialogue between the city and the public. While we strive to respond to all constructive questions and comments, we cannot engage in all conversations and reserve the right to use our judgment in selecting the messages we respond to.

Violation of these terms of engagement may result in limited or blocked access. The city will not engage with messages thatel:

  • Are not related to city services or programs
  • Promote, foster or perpetuate discrimination, violence or harassment
  • Contain advertising or commercial messages
  • Invade privacy or encourage illegal activity
  • Impersonate or misrepresent someone else
  • Do not add to the normal flow of conversation

Where possible, these messages should be hidden from public view. If you notice a message that is defamatory or contains illegal activity, contact your communications consultant or communications@waterloo.ca for next steps.

Collecting personal information

At times it may be necessary to collect personal information, such as name, address or telephone number, to assist customer service staff in responding to a question. This should only be requested if necessary, and the information should be transmitted via a private message so that it’s not visible to the public.

In SproutSocial, you can add a direct message link to a public tweet to prompt someone to respond in private. On Facebook and Instagram you can request that someone use a direct message instead of a public one.

If members of the public need an alternate method for submitting a service request, they can use the report an issue form on the city’s website.

Hours of operation and service standards

Main city accounts are monitored by Corporate Communications staff during regular business hours, typically Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Trained customer service staff assist with responses as assigned by Corporate Communications staff.

Relevant comments and questions will receive an initial response within a business day.

Other city accounts may be monitored less than this, although the ‘bio’ section of each account should include a brief service statement so followers can set expectations accordingly.

After hours

Social media accounts are not monitored after hours, though Corporate Communications staff may become aware of urgent issues through email or other internal channels. In these situations, Corporate Communications staff will be made available to post information and respond to questions and comments as necessary.

Emergencies

If the city’s emergency management protocol is triggered, all regular account activity will cease and the public information officer (usually the director or manager of communications) acts as the lead on social media. Refer to the emergency communications plan (link) for more detail.

Measuring engagement

Following a post or campaign, your communications consultant can provide a summary of the engagement that it earned. This can include counting stats like shares, likes and comments, or a qualitative assessment on the type of feedback received.

Social media account inventory

Per the Social Media Policy (PDF), the communications division holds credentials to all social media accounts across the city.

The manager of communications approves the creation of new accounts according to the process outlined above.

Main corporate accounts

These accounts are administered by the Corporate Communications division, with assistance from other staff as noted below. Accounts are monitored during business hours. Content includes:

  • News releases
  • Programs
  • Campaigns
  • Construction alerts
  • Public safety information
  • Emergency service changes such as watermain breaks, snow events and facility closures
  • Coordinated municipal messaging
  • Customer service responses to inquiries
  • Jobs
Twitter (@citywaterloo)
  • Posts by communications staff and human resources (job postings only)
  • Monitoring and task assignment by communications staff
  • Service responses by trained customer service staff
Facebook page (@citywaterloo)
  • Posts by communications staff and human resources (job postings only)
  • Monitoring and task assignment by communications staff
  • Service responses by trained customer service staff
Instagram (@citywaterloo)
  • Posts, monitoring and responses by neighbourhoods staff (currently in pilot phase)
LinkedIn (@city-of-waterloo)

●      Posts by human resources (job postings only)

Arts and Culture

Administrator(s): Culture Planning Specialist

Purpose: Started in 2015, these feeds highlight the city’s arts and culture programs and promotes local cultural organizations and artists.

Economic Development

Administrator(s): Senior Economic Development Officer

Purpose: Started in 2020 these accounts promote city programs that assist businesses and share information relevant to the local economy and business owners.

City of Waterloo Museum

Administrator(s): Museum Program and Engagement Associate

Purpose: Started in 2017, the Museum accounts build and engage the community through sharing stories of our past. Content includes:

  • News releases
  • Programs
  • Events
  • Exhibits
  • Collection
Recreation Services

Administrator: Supervisor, Leisure and Active Living Programs

Purpose: These accounts share information on rec sports offerings and closures/cancellations based on poor weather in summer months. Content includes: 

  • Game sheets and action shots
  • Program registration information
  • Schedules and closures
  • Retweet recreation information from main corporate account
Fire Rescue Services

●      Twitter (@Waterloo_Fire)

Administrator(s): Fire Rescue Services Public Education Officer

Purpose: Started in 2015, this account promotes fire safety and other community initiatives undertaken by the fire department. Topics include:

  • News releases
  • Programs
  • Campaigns
  • Fire prevention information
  • Retweet general information from main corporate account
Friends of Waterloo Park

Staff liaison: a member of Environment and Parks Services

Purpose: started in 2014, these volunteer-owned accounts share information on events and fundraising opportunities in support of Waterloo Park. Volunteers using these accounts must abide by the policies that govern their relationship with the city.

Social media account creation questions

Before completing this form, read the section on opening a new account above.

To request a new social media account, the prospective account administrator answers the questions below in partnership with their communications consultant. If you don’t know who your consultant is, contact communications@waterloo.ca

  1. What social media channels are you requesting?
  2. What role will serve as the permanent account administrator and what other staff are involved?
  3. What social media experience does the account administrator have?
  4. Explain the goals of the account. How will it connect with a specific audience beyond the corporate account? Provide a content plan with 3 to 4 examples.
  5. Given the goals above, what length of trial period and metrics are required to test the viability of the account? (3-6 months is recommended to start)
  6. What metrics will you use to evaluate progress during the trial period?
  7. What funding is available and how will you promote the new account?