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- Firstly, you need to decide which social media platform is most suitable for promoting your translation workpractical to promote your translations. The two most commonly used platforms by our translation teams are Twitter and Facebook. However, this decision will largely depend on the popularity of different platforms in your country. For example, Twitter is not well used among the general population compared to Facebook in some parts of the world, and in some countries neither Twitter nor Facebook are popular. As an example, you may want to read about the Croatian translation team’s experience of Facebook and Twitter.
- If you already have a social media account for your Cochrane group, we strongly recommend that you use that, instead of creating a new one dedicated to for translations only.
- If you are creating an account on Facebook, we recommend you set up a page, rather than a group, because it is open to all, enabling more people to be reached.
- Once you have created your account, you need to make sure it is on brand. You can to apply the Cochrane brand. Send an email to Sabrina Khamissa (skhamissa@cochrane.org) to request a branded banner with your Cochrane group colour and logo, which appears at the top of most social media accounts, by emailing Holly Millward (hmillward@cochrane.org) with suggestions for possible pictures on www.istock. com. You can see some examples from other translation teams here – take a look at their banners: Cochrane Russia Twitter, Cochrane Croatia Facebook.
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- Include a link to your translation on cochrane.org, rather than the Cochrane Library, as cochrane.org is fully translated and allows users to search in their language, too.
- Use ow.ly or bit.ly to make links shorter, saving characters in the case of Twitter, and generally making links easier for people to read across all platforms.
- Where possible, you should include a picture with your social media posts, which are more attractive and engaging when accompanied by an image. You can take your pick from our pictures folder. Pictures relating to new and updated Reviews are also often shared in the weekly Communications Network digest. You can also use images from freely available picture databases such as https://www.pexels.com. But please be careful about copyright, and do not use pictures that are not explicitly available for re-use.
- Do not post multiple posts one after another; you risk overwhelming your followers. Aim for one Facebook post or one Tweet per day, or a few per week, while you get started.
- It is advisable to maintain regular activity on your account. To save time, consider using a tool such as Hootsuite or Buffer, to schedule tweets in advance. These tools let you schedule, publish, and analyse posts across different social media tools all in one place.
- Extend the life of your posts and content by scheduling the same post, at different times on different days, and then again the following month. Never be afraid to schedule posts more than once! Also check our guide on re-occurring news items here: http://ow.ly/75Wv30cgp6u
Other social media training resources
- Cochrane UK has developed a range of social media resources and training, available here: http://ow.ly/DxO230bLEdL
- Social media webinar: ‘Using social media for effective communication’ http://ow.ly/egtr30bLE9Z
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