Hey folks,

Let's cut down on multiple posts of the same blog links to the two flagship social accounts, and aim a little higher for inspired posts there.

I count four posts to the Wikipedia Facebook page and four to the @wikipedia Twitter account in the past two days for the latest News on Wikipedia blog post. Buffer says those eight posts to our largest accounts have resulted in just 971 clicks, and that about one in every 200 people who saw two of the Facebook posts engaged in any way. (Strong engagement would be about four times that.)

This is just one example of a larger issue, and I'm not singling this out as egregious, just a good case study. News on Wikipedia, thanks to Joe's impressive expertise, is a place where we can really shine. 

Our social guidelines urge us to "remember, our social handles are also about conversations, not just one-way broadcast pushes." Repetitive posts have drawbacks: People who follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook may have seen the promotion of a routine blog post multiple times, and tune out (we do see unlikes on Facebook); the algorithms note unengaged posts and drop us down as an account; repetitive posts send a message that we are pushing an agenda (blog post clicks) at the expense of fresh communication; they drain the accounts of the lifeblood of inspiration and seem canned. 

The team has settled into some great and extremely useful practices around blog creation, checking in on posting, and measuring metrics. But in this area of pushing blog posts to the main two accounts, I believe the process has gone too far into an assembly line. The flagship accounts are our big stage; let's be more mindful about posting there and seek a little more inspiration. 

After talking with Katherine, I'm working on a tune-up of the best practices I hope to have finished next week. I'll also chime in here on posts to those two main accounts especially. But for now, I'd urge us to think of them as a place for our greatest hits, and work to craft posts there that are important, central to the mission of free information for all, especially engaging, or just fun. 

Thoughts? 

Jeff Elder

Digital communications managering

Wikimedia Foundation

704-650-4130 

@jeffelder

@wikipedia

The Wikimedia blog

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