How A11YChi does Social Media (as of December 2018)
- Goal Summary
- Social Channels Used
- Methods Used for Managing Social Media Posts
- Types of Posts
- Characteristics of an Accessible Post
- Content Acquisition
- Hashtags Used
- Post Types per Weekday/Weekend Day
- Times of Day
- Special Posts/Series
The goal of social media activities is to:
- promote activities and events of the Chicago Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design Meetup
- promote activities and events related to accessibility, including other meetups in other geographic locations (as we have a global reach), local accessibility-related events, etc.
- create awareness of digital accessibility, through articles, blog posts, etc. related to digital accessibility.
- new member acquisition
We use Twitter and Facebook for social media marketing. Twitter has one single account. On Facebook, we have a group and a page; these should be consolidated to the best platform. We used to publish to LinkedIn, but lost that with a change to social media management software. I (Dennis) do share select posts on my personal LinkedIn account.
Presently, we use Tweetdeck for Twitter posts. For Facebook, we use Facebook's native scheduling capabilities for Pages and Groups.
Hootsuite was used to manage posts to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. However, with a recent change to the number of posts that could be scheduled for free accounts, and the lack of alt text for attached images, Hootsuite was dropped. I have looked at Buffer, but have not made the move yet. Buffer is said to offer alt text for attached images.
One important thing that will likely drive which platform we use is support of alt text on attached media. Presently, Hootsuite does not provide this support. Buffer has support in their product roadmap, and is believed to now support it (Dec. 2018). Tweetdeck offers alternative text for attached images.
At the November 2018 meetup, attendees were asked what social media platforms they used. Twitter and Facebook came in low. Instagram was used by the majority. While not an intuitive choice, we should investigate how we might leverage Instagram, as that is where the people are.
We post several types of posts.
These posts promote upcoming A11YChi events. Example:
Join the waitlist for Accessibility for Everyone with @laurakalbag Nov 15th https://www.meetup.com/a11ychi/events/243947005/ #A11y #WebDev #Accessibility #Design #UX
At times, we'll also prompt for sharing of posts, especially if we are behind the RSVPs for an event:
Pls RT RSVP for Accessibility Legal Update with @LFLegal Oct. 19 meetup.com/a11ychi/events… #legal #a11y #accessibility #chicagotech
We begin promotion of meetup events two weeks from the event date. We start posting event promotional posts at that time. I increase frequency of these posts as we get closer. Once we're within a week of the RSVP deadline, or the event if not need to send RSVPs to our venue sponsor in advance, we change the post to note the approaching deadline.
RSVP by tomorrow at noon for our next meetup, Accessibility Legal Update with @LFLegal http://meetup.com/a11ychi/events… #Legal #A11y #Accessibility
Within 48 hours of the actual event, we begin posting for the event, such as the live stream, live captions, hashtag used, spomsors, etc. We have several types of posts that help support an actual A11YChi meetup event.
After the RSVP deadline passes, we post the live stream URL. The day of the event, we post the live stream URL out several times that day; morning, afternoon and near the time of the event. If the event begins at 6:30pm CT, I post this post at 6pm, 6:15pm and 6:30pm. THis last half hour, I tend to limit the posts to Twitter only.
Our live stream of tonight's meetup, Accessibility Legal Update with @LFLegal begins in 30 mins. goo.gl/hoyaiK #A11y #Accessibility #Legal
Note: Google Shortened URL is no longer available.
Similar to the live stream posts, I post on the live captions information.
Live captions for tonight's Accessibility Legal Update with @LFLegal goo.gl/ZRh6w7 #A11YChi #A11y #Accessibility #Legal
Note: Google Shortened URL is no longer available.
The day of the event, I post the information on how to follow along with hashtag A11yChi. The frequency increases up to the time of the event and at least one shortly after the time.
Follow along with tonight's Accessibility Legal Update with @LFLegal and ask questions too by following hashtag #A11yChi
The day of the event, I post, thanking the sponsors for the event. These sponsors presently include:
- The Venue
- ACS Captions, provider of live captions
- McDonalds, sponsor of live captions
- Any other sponsors we have for an event I typically post these once in the afternoon and once immediately after the event (7:30-8pm). Examples:
Thanks to @ACSCaptions for providing #captions for tonight's Accessibility Legal Update. acscaptions.com #A11yChi #A11y
Thanks to @McDonalds for sponsoring the live captions for tonight's Accessibility Legal Update. #A11yChi
I monitor other meetups and events for accessibility topics. I use Meetup.com by following many other tech and accessibility meetups here in Chicago and other metropolitan cities. I receive other tech events with accessibility topics from Twitter, email, etc.
This makes up the bulk of posts seen on a daily basis. Posting these has created awareness and educated folks in the digital space. The reach for these have been worldwide. While I'd like to continue these, I'd love to find a way to get more attention to these from local digital pros.
For some events, that have individual segments like Inclusive Design 24, I will promote the event normally, then I will schedule posts for each segment.
On holiday weekends, such as Memorial Day, Labor Day, even during the December holidays, I will create marathons, mimicing the programming on many cable networks. The priority would be to feature recordings of our meetup. However, onlt captioned recordings should be considered for public promotion. Secondarily, we can create marathons around videos by popular accessibility presenters, again, ideally ones that are captioned.
A post can provide just the headline of the post or a personalized lead-in describing the post.
Example (just the headline):
Short note on role none or presentation? by @stevefaulkner
Example (personalized):
In today's episode of @A11YRules, @MarcySutton tells us the importance of listening to developers’ needs and that we ought to be more positive, and to stop making people feel bad about accessibility!
Whenever possible, we try to provide the author or source of the post.
- If an author, we use "by" (Short note on role none or presentation? by @stevefaulkner )
- If now author determinable, we use the source, using "from" (Accessibility and Compliance: How to measure digital accessibility, a free webinar from @dequesystems)
A space or line break should follow the lead-in text and citation.
The URL should be set apart from the rest of the text. This has the benefit of making it stand out more, and making it easier to click to tap on. We no longer use URL shorteners. We used to use Google's URL shortner for tracking. This service was discontinued within the past year.
A space or line break should follow the URL.
Hastags should be on their own line, at the bottom, after the descriptive lead-in text, citation and URL. On almost all posts, the two accessibility hashtags should be used: #Accessibility #A11Y. Then, more contextual hashtags should be used. See below for a list of commonly used hashtags.
Hashtags should use title case, meaning each word within the hashtag should have its first character uppercase. This allows for a better reading experience for screen reader users. Example: #InclusiveDesign #VisualDesign
We try not to intermingle hashtags with the descriptive lead-in text, as this can create a frustrating experience for screen reader users. Placing them at the very end allows them to be by-passed for reading, yet still valuable as a mechanism for discovery.
- #Accessibility
- #A11Y
- #InclusiveDesign
- #WebDev
- #WebDevelopment
- #UX
- #UserExperience
- #Design
- #VisualDesign
- #UXDesign
- #HTML
- #HTML5
- #CSS
- #JS
- #Javascript
- #Angular
- #AngularJS
- #ReactJS
- #Emberjs
- #WP
- #WPA11Y
- #WordPress
- #Drupal
The form field validation trick they don’t want you to know by @karlgroves
http://www.karlgroves.com/2014/09/17/the-form-field-validation-trick-they-dont-want-you-to-know/
#WebDev #WebDevelopment #A11Y #Accessibility
I aquire content for posts from several sources.
#a11y is the most popular search hashtag, followed by the long form #accessibility. You can also search on select disability and assistive technology hashtags, such as #cognitive, #autism, #blind, #deaf, #hoh #deafblind, #nvda #jaws, etc.
@laura_carlson Subscribe http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/webdev_listserv.html#subscribe Check out https://groups.google.com/a/d.umn.edu/forum/?hl=en#!topic/webdev/_ulTIgm8wjQ
Subscribe https://a11yweekly.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=884d5f16016183c67252bd18c&id=0e4af01bd2&e=5304ffdef1 Check out http://mailchi.mp/4e610607e841/accessibility-weekly-66mobile-accessibility-testing-guide-for-android-and-ios-and-more?e=5304ffdef1
- Paciello Group @paciellogroup https://developer.paciellogroup.com/blog/
- Deque @dequesystems https://www.deque.com/blog/
- Level Access (formerly SSB Bart) @LevelAccessA11y https://www.levelaccess.com/blog/
We use #a11ychi for all posts related to a11ychi events, typically the day of.
We should strive for a minimum of two posts per day. There will be more if an event is happening on that day, or a high profile post is happening.
I tend to post technical, UX and design-specific articles and blog posts, event announcements, etc. during the week days. For the weekends, like a magazine or special sections of a Sunday paper, I post items that may take more time to dig into, such as articles on specific disabilities, assistive technology, videos of presentations and talks etc.
Weekdays, I post starting 10:30am (seems like a break time for many) through lunch, into early afternoon. Sometimes I'll post during the evening commute. Weekends, I tend to keep it early to mid-mornings before peope start their weekend activities. I may also post late afternoon Saturdays, and early evening Sundays.