Social Media Management

This section covers the tools, templates, and guidelines used by the RLadies+ communications team to manage social media across platforms.

Platforms

RLadies+ maintains official accounts on:

The WeAreRLadies rotating curation runs separately on Bluesky.

Brand voice

We sound like a friend who’s excited about what the community is doing — not a corporation issuing announcements. Our voice is direct, warm, and grounded. We’re a movement but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

Do:

• Use “we” and “our” — we’re part of the community, not above it
• Lead with what’s happening, not who we are
• Keep it short — punchy lines, not paragraphs
• Name people and chapters specifically — spotlight others, not the org
• End with a clear call to action (link, sign-up, “come say hi”)
• Use the purple heart 💜 as our signature emoji

Don’t:

• Sound corporate, formal, or institutional
• Use jargon or acronyms without context
• Over-explain — trust the reader
• Centre the global org over the people and chapters
• Use exclamation marks excessively — one per post max
• Say “females” or “women only” — we say “gender minorities in R”

Hashtags: #RLadies, #RStats, plus event-specific tags (#PositConf, #useR, #LatinR)

Posting guidelines

• Frequency: 2–3 posts per week on each platform
• Timing: Weekdays 14:00–16:00 UTC for best reach
• Accessibility: Always add alt-text describing the image, including any text shown in the image
• Language: English is the primary language; translate or encourage chapter-language posts
• Content review: Posts about controversies, partnerships, or policy changes must be reviewed by the leadership team before publishing

Platform-specific sizes

Tools

Canva

The RLadies+ Canva workspace contains all brand templates and assets.

Brand templates

Templates are published as Canva Brand Templates and organised by content type. Find them in Brand > Brand templates in the Canva sidebar.

To use a brand template:

1. Go to Brand > Brand templates in the Canva sidebar
2. Click the template you need
3. Select Use this template — this creates your own copy
4. Choose the page with the right size for your platform
5. Edit the text and images
6. Export as PNG (or GIF for animated content)

Workspace folders

Designs in the Canva workspace are organised into folders:

📁 Social Media
   📁 Posts       — Post templates (by content type)
   📁 Covers      — Platform-specific cover/banner templates
📁 RoCur          — Rotating curator templates
📁 Rebranding     — Rebrand announcement designs
📁 Assets         — Editable R+ logo and brand elements
📁 Archive        — Old/unused designs

Brand Kit

The Canva Brand Kit contains the official RLadies+ colours, fonts, and logos. When editing templates, use colours and fonts from the Brand Kit — do not enter custom values. Access Brand Kit colours by clicking any colour swatch and looking for the Brand colours section.

Buffer

Buffer is used for scheduling posts across platforms. The RLadies+ Buffer account is connected to our Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts.

Access

Contact the communications team lead for Buffer access. Team members are added with Approval Required permissions by default — a team lead must approve posts before they go live.

Scheduling a post

1. Log in to Buffer
2. Click Create Post
3. Select the channels (platforms) to post to
4. Write the post text — keep the brand voice guidelines in mind
5. Upload the image in the correct size for each platform (see platform sizes)
6. Add a scheduled date and time
7. Click Schedule Post (or Add to Queue to use the default posting schedule)

Tips

• Customise per platform: Buffer lets you tailor the text for each platform in the same post. Use this to adjust hashtags and handle mentions.
• Preview: Always preview how the post will look on each platform before scheduling.
• Queue: The default queue posts at optimal times during the week. Use this for evergreen content.