Social media/Strategy for the Wikimedia Foundation
The big idea
[edit]The big idea is connected to our goals, but it is not the same thing. It shapes our content and choices. It defines the type of content our followers should expect from us when they follow us on social media. And it is our overarching concept that is reflected in every piece of content we publish.
The big idea for the Wikimedia Foundation
[edit]We tell the human stories of how the Wikimedia Foundation is advancing free knowledge in the world.
Let's break down the big idea and clarify each part of it:
human
[edit]Humans are at the center of everything related to the Wikimedia movement, including the Wikimedia Foundation.
- Our projects are run by thousands of volunteers from all around the world.
- We are a social movement.
We are special and unique as an organization in the technological landscape because of the work humans do to ensure free and neutral information is accessible to everyone.
People want to see themselves reflected in our content.
stories
[edit]Creating narratives around our social media channels provides an easier path for our audiences to receive, digest, and understand what we do.
Stories are accessible, relatable, empathetic, inspiring, interesting, powerful, engaging.
- People exist within stories. They are how we connect.
- Stories are how people can see themselves as part of the free knowledge movement.
the Wikimedia Foundation
[edit]Our organization needs to be able to stand on its own. We aspire to establish the Wikimedia Foundation as a brand that:
- powers the product and technology work that makes Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects possible,
- is the leader in the tech for good landscape, and
- promotes free knowledge and ensures that humans remain central to compiling and curating it.
The Foundation coexists with other groups and affiliates within the movement. While we amplify other efforts, we need to better distinguish ourselves to increase understanding of the differences.
- This is an opportunity to better explain the free knowledge ecosystem, what the Foundation does, and its role in this universe. There is a role to be played in enabling the Wikimedia movement to tell its own stories.
advancing free knowledge
[edit]The guiding principle for the Wikimedia Foundation, following everything the Foundations does and stands for.
- Strategically, all content published on the Foundation's social media channels must always go back to the movement's vision of a world where everyone can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
Social media is a tool that serves our larger goals as part of the free knowledge movement. Through our social media channels, we can exhibit what is being done by and within the Wikimedia Foundation to support the movement, noting that there is a fundamental human quality to what the Foundation is made of.
- Free knowledge is what keeps us grounded to our goals.
Target audience
[edit]Who is our audience?
[edit]- Tech Contributors & Collaborators: Those contributing to our free knowledge projects are an important audience to communicate to and collaborate with. As a technology organization, tech contributors have valuable insights to share. This group includes everyone that is a collaborator, even those unaware of the larger movement.
- Advocates: Those actively following our mission, as well as those aware of and motivated about the free knowledge movement, but still evaluating how to get involved.
- Social searchers: New audiences using social to search for cause-driven content that they can share or support.
How do we engage with them?
[edit]- Tech Contributors & Collaborators
- We do want to be appreciative of their contributions and allow for their voices to be heard and great work to be seen.
- We do not want to put the Wikimedia Foundation above the contributors. The movement always comes first.
- Advocates
- We do want to celebrate and inspire their passion and advocacy for our cause and direct their energy in helpful directions.
- We do not want to discourage or dampen their enthusiasm or passion.
- Social searchers
- We do want to encourage further involvement with our mission and show them how to engage and learn further.
- We do not want to exclude them or discourage future involvement.
Who else do we want to reach?
[edit]- Policy Makers: As a global brand, the Wikimedia Foundation is a leader in advocating for laws and policies that help knowledge on Wikimedia projects to be freely accessible for all. It is essential that policymakers worldwide familiarize themselves with the Wikimedia projects, Foundation, and movement, and our social channels can play a vital role.
- Media & the Press: All content added to Wikipedia has to come from verifiable sources. Journalists are fundamental players in this equation, as their stories help create knowledge on Wikimedia projects. Social media is a way of keeping the media informed of how our model works and what the Wikimedia Foundation does.
- Partners: From other nonprofits, to collaborators, to donors: we are in this mission together. We want to ensure we are reaching partners on our channels, including those that are not already following us, so that we can call on them to repost or share supportive content.
Tone of voice
[edit]Foundation's tone of voice
[edit]To pursue knowledge is to believe in the power to create almost anything.
For the past 20+ years, Wikipedia has striven to be a collaborative effort. This is an ambitious goal that is hard to put into practice. Yet, here we are.
Wikimedia projects stem away from the traditional ideas of what and who learning is for. As a tech leader, we pursue knowledge and advocate for its protection.
We follow the movement's leadership in seeing knowledge as more than just an idea, but as a life force that nurtures all.
What we stand for
[edit]To carry out our mission requires energy, patience, and belief.
Our audience is also action- and cause-driven. They want to see that energy to build connections.
This approach also helps create reasons to believe the free knowledge movement and what it stands for are worth contributing to.
Our tone
[edit]We are devoted to an important cause that often needs championing, but we cannot do it alone.
The people in our community and beyond are those we wish to inspire and the ones that inspire us.
We are:
- Empathetic
- Brave
- Passionate
- Reasoned
Our path to success
[edit]| FROM | TO | BY |
|---|---|---|
| A “hero in the shadows”, nurturing and supporting the free knowledge movement. | A leader in technology for good that is recognized for championing the access and sharing of free knowledge as a bridge to culture and connection. | Communicating the need for and value of free knowledge on Wikimedia projects now and into the future, across channels, platforms, and languages. |
Content pillars
[edit]Basic principles for the Foundation
[edit]- Mission-driven: We are a technology organization that is also a nonprofit. We were born from the open movement and embrace transparency in all our work. In order to connect with our audience, we need to share the mission behind the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as the impact it will have now and in the future.
- Holistic content: There are so many things happening inside the Wikimedia movement that are unseen to the wider world. We are focused on sharing what is happening across our free knowledge projects and showing their impacts in a clear way.
- Global voices: As we are one made from many. It is important to elevate the creators from around the world both within the Wikimedia team and our amazing partners and contributors – in their own words.
About our content pillars
[edit]Our content pillars enable us to focus on areas of storytelling. While there is a baseline mix of content, they are meant to fluctuate each month.
By “turning the volume up and down”, based on the yearly calendar, communication priorities, and current events, there is a flexible structure to keep our audience engaged and grow new audiences organically.
Our insights tools will help determine the balance of content under each pillar. It will also help us ensure that we are applying a DEI lens to the balance of content, so that it is appealing to our global audiences.
Content pillars overview
[edit]| Topical and timely learning | Novel and new learning | Why support | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Our mission & work | 2. Our projects & campaigns | 3. Our advocacy & partners | 4. Our team | 5. Our community | 6. Our impact |
| Share our movement and passion and why it matters on a global level. Educate and inspire with what drives us all forward. Reinforce an understanding of the Foundation as a Tech & Product-first organization, our nonprofit model, and why we fundraise. | Share with our audiences all of the projects that the Wikimedia Foundation is leading. Highlight them as important parts of the whole mission, but also as a jumping off point for thought leadership topics. | We need help achieving our goals, and there are several partners that can help us with that. We can showcase our advocacy, share why it is necessary, mention the partnerships that help us expand knowledge access, and inspire others to join us. | Share with our audiences the people working behind the scenes to make sure the Wikimedia Foundation is moving forward with our goals. Include specific teams and voices that are parts of the whole mission. Present the Foundation as a Tech & Product-first organization. | Highlight our contributors that fuel our platforms and elevate their passion, smarts, and dedication. Present the key community initiatives being developed as part of our overall goal towards knowledge equity, such as those that are tackling the knowledge gaps. | Tell the story of the scale and impact the Wikimedia movement and the Foundation have around the globe, both aspirationally and tactically with data. Explain what are the goals we are currently trying to achieve (e.g. work on closing the knowledge gaps on Wikipedia). |
| Baseline | |||||
| 20% | 20% | 20% | 10% | 20% | 10% |
This distribution breakdown allows for a combination of many factors, such as alignment to our brand values and content that can be easily prepared or anticipated. We will monitor this distribution regularly to achieve balance on a yearly-basis, while also having flexibility about making posts that serve our communications needs and are relevant to the current trends and events going on around the world.
Look & feel
[edit]The visual system (i.e. branding, look and feel, graphic elements, fonts) used on the Wikimedia Foundation social media channels was redesigned in June 2024.Our objective is to strengthen brand consistency and recognizability, so that content can be clearly understood by audiences as coming from our brand.
This re-imagined look & feel respects the social media strategy presented in this page. It is also translated into templates that are applied when producing both static and video content. These templates have been categorized into five distinct groups for improved usability.
Image templates
[edit]Square images for feed
Vertical images for Stories
Text templates
[edit]Square images for feed
Vertical images for Stories
Quote templates
[edit]Square images for feed
Vertical images for Stories
Image + text templates
[edit]Square images for feed
Vertical images for Stories
Image + text + color templates
[edit]Square images for feed
Vertical images for Stories
Content labels
[edit]A crucial aspect of our design system is the implementation of a labeling system for recurring content in our feed. This provides users with a quick reference to the post's topic and helps set expectations for future content. Common types of recurring content include:
- Team stories & highlights
- About and from the Foundation
- Learning content
- Community content
- Press content
- Events
The labeling system is designed to be flexible enough to accommodate new content types in the future or for specific one-time purposes.
The Foundation is one organization made up of many. Some are employees; many are contributors; but all create the whole. “Our” is welcoming and accessible.
Our community is such an important part of our organization and “Our” inclusively brings them into our content. “Our” creates a connection between the Foundation, staff, and community by including them altogether as a part of this fluent device in our social media channels.
This creates a flexible system that is easy to grow over time and can include a variety of content.
Imagery
[edit]Images are crucial in the Wikimedia Foundation’s social media platforms. Given the vast community library, selecting the most appropriate images for the post content is essential.
Below are some important factors to consider when choosing images.
- Ensure the image can quickly and simply represent the featured article. If the image is too abstract or deviates from the post copy, consider choosing a different image or a layout that is less dependent on imagery.
- Use images that fit well within the template's image ratio. For example, avoid using extremely vertical images for Image + Copy + Color 4 to prevent significant cropping. Instead, choose square or horizontal images for optimal presentation.
- Make sure the image is of high enough resolution to look good on all platforms. Aim for images that are at least 1000px wide or higher.
- When selecting multiple images for a carousel or story, ensure they complement each other and highlight the main aspects of the article. Avoid repeating similar images in subject matter.
- In a carousel or story setting, if there are images with people, try to use them at the beginning of the experience.
Type
[edit]The Wikimedia Foundation social design system comprises 13 unique type styles from 2 font families (Montserrat and Source Serif 4). It is important to follow these designated styles for all posts.
When resizing the type for space limitations, we try to make minimal adjustments to preserve the consistent appearance.
More information on typography on Meta-Wiki.
Color
[edit]The Wikimedia Foundation's color scheme comprises three distinct palettes: The Core, The Legacy, and The Creative. These colors are meticulously defined with specific values for seamless integration into your designs.
When utilizing colors on Wikimedia Foundation's social platforms, we reserve the strong colors for content related to Wikimedians or movement members, and employ the lighter hues for other posts.
For a comprehensive list of hexadecimal values and a detailed exploration of the brand colors, refer to Meta-Wiki.
Margins
[edit]All social content should adhere to a 50 pixels margin grid. These margins have been carefully designed to be the perfect size, ensuring layouts remain clean and consistent while providing ample space for the content to breathe.
All text and important information must be kept within these margins to maintain structural consistency across posts.
Template selection
[edit]Choosing the right template is more of an art than a science. For recurring content pillars, templates are more specific. For freeform content, we start with the parameters set when first imagining that particular post. See the example below on how to narrow down the template options based on the content.
