Guidance for writing a social media post
Social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn allow authors to share links to other work.
When content is shared on social media, it reaches not only the author's subscribed followers but also has the potential to be reshared by others, which means authors can reach new readers internationally who otherwise might never have come across their work. Messages that go viral can be retweeted or shared hundreds or even thousands of times.
Authors can also add hashtags (#) to certain terms in their social media posts. The authors' tweets or posts become more findable by users who search for the terms specified by the hashtag.
These guidelines represent current best practices for tweets and other social media posts (e.g., Facebook posts) and are in keeping with the recommendations other organizations make regarding social media post composition.
The conclusions and implications section of the translational abstract or the public significance statement are good starting points for the content to include in a tweet or other social media post.
- Distill the essential message, finding, or implication into a concise package using words the average member of the public would understand.
- After this message, include a link to the study.
- The message should serve as a "hook" for the reader to click on the link to find out more about your study.
- Ideally, social media posts should be brief and to the point.
- Use proper grammar and spelling.
- Avoid all-caps, which is perceived as shouting, and text speak, which can come across as unprofessional.
- Some shortcuts are okay to save space, such as using an ampersand instead of the word "and."
- Use a URL shortener such as bitly (https://bit.ly) to make the URL of your study as short as possible.
- Include up to 2 hashtags in your post for terms that users might potentially use in a search for content like yours.
- Integrate these hashtags into your post or put them at the end of the post.
- To make a single word into a hashtag, put the pound symbol (#) before the word (e.g., #psychology to make "psychology" into a hashtag).
- To make a two-word phrase into a hashtag, remove the space between the words (e.g., #memoryloss or #MemoryLoss to make "memory loss" into a hashtag; writing this as #memory loss will make only "memory" into a hashtag).
Examples of tweets about an article
Drawn from APA Journals (@APA_Journals)opens in new window
- Continuous feelings of love? The parental bond from #pregnancy to toddlerhood https://on.apa.org/1NFslTqopens in new window
- Visual choice behavior by #bumblebees confirms unsupervised #neural network's predictions https://on.apa.org/1NctYI6opens in new window
- How do people who are happy with their lives view the world? https://on.apa.org/1QP3wF0opens in new window
- Does #aging affect predecisional processing? https://on.apa.org/1KirObB #neuropsychology
Examples of Facebook posts about an article
Drawn from APA Journals (www.facebook.com/APAJournalsopens in new window)
Example 1 (article from Psychology & Neuroscience)
Studies have shown that meditation can improve #anxiety and distress. To better understand #meditation as a therapeutic intervention, it may be important to distinguish between emotion regulation outcomes and emotion regulation processes. Menezes & Bizarro (2015) looked at whether 6 weeks of training focused meditation improves emotion regulation processes in a sample of healthy college students. Findings suggest that focused meditation training may enhance emotion regulation processes: in particular, greater perceived access to effective regulation strategies and acceptance of emotions, promoting psychological benefits beyond relaxation training. To read this article, see: https://on.apa.org/1LXAtyFopens in new window
Example 2 (article from Spirituality in Clinical Practice)
A recent study examined associations among #gratitude, spiritual well-being, sleep, mood, fatigue, #cardiac-specific self-efficacy, and inflammation in 186 men and women with Stage B asymptomatic heart failure (Mills et al., 2015). The researchers found that gratitude and spiritual well-being were related to better mood and sleep, less fatigue, and more self-efficacy, and that gratitude fully or partially mediated the beneficial effects of spiritual well-being on those endpoints. To access the free article, click here: https://on.apa.org/1GcEYzqopens in new window
Example 3 (article from Couple & Family Psychology)
When parents learn of their child's significant behavioral challenges, the outcome is often like a shock to the system, leaving parents feeling unprepared (Mendez et al., 2015). Their ability to cope is enhanced if the couple engages in coparenting, or a coming together to work through the challenges. Couples who work together balance each other, work as a team, and build each other up. Couples who move apart from each other in challenging times are more likely to see themselves as playing good cop/bad cop. To read the article on #coparenting young children with challenging behaviors, see: https://on.apa.org/1JBVMD8opens in new window