How to compose tweets
Below are guidelines for composing tweets:
Embody the Mattermost brand personality and voice. Be professional, strategic, vigilant, solution-oriented, forward-thinking, concise, and empathetic. Be welcoming and use inviting and inclusive language. For example, when asking someone to take action, use “Would you be open to” instead of “Would you like to”.
Use the active voice. Avoid words and phrases like “has”, “was”, and “have been” when possible. For example, say “Our hackathon starts now!” instead of “Our hackathon has started”.
Include one link in each tweet. Provide a clear call to action by placing a link at the end of each tweet. This may not apply to retweets and responses.
Don’t tweet about sensitive topics. Avoid controversy. Sensitive topics include, but are not limited to, unflattering news about our competitors, items that disparage governments, companies, people or other entities, and political/religious content. Not sure if a certain topic is sensitive? Leave it alone.
Don’t disparage other open source projects. We fully support the open source community.
Write so an international audience can understand you. Avoid colloquialisms, hyperbole, slang, and jargon. Use simple language. Avoid acronyms when possible. For example, say “pull request” instead of “PR” since only a subset of tweet readers are active GitHub users.
Use exclamation marks sparingly. An exclamation mark can be used when an announcement is exciting, but should be avoided when it can be confused with a signal to panic, e.g., “Security update released!”.
Try to avoid putting anything in a negative light. Be an optimist. For example, instead of writing “APIv3 is deprecated, ”write “APIv4 has officially replaced APIv3”. Instead of writing “bug fixes,” write “performance improvements”.
Post during the workday when possible. The best time to post to Twitter during the workweek is between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time. (The official Mattermost account considers the Eastern Time Zone local time.) Avoid posting to Twitter on the weekend or on holidays unless it’s urgent.
Add images to tweets when possible/it makes sense. Images increase engagement. When prompted by Twitter, click the icon in the lower left-hand corner to add an image to your tweet. As a general rule, avoid GIFs, as they tend to be unprofessional.
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