LMC 3403 Social Media Style Guide Case Study Analysis

Kruschek Spring 2022 LMC 3403SM Style Guide: First Draft
Due Dates
3/12: Social Media Style Guide First Draft Due by 11:59pm
Case Details
You’ve just been hired to manage the social media presence of a regional chain of popular
bakeries in the Southeast. The chain already has a social media presence on Facebook and
Instagram but has only been posting sporadically and without a specific purpose. Your new
boss has tasked you with adding a company Twitter account to their social media repertoire and
drafting a style guide that would ensure their online presence across all three social media
platforms is both coherent and consistent. Among the things your boss wants included in the
style guide are spelling and formatting standards and color scheme as well as a clear message
with a consistent tone and purpose. Your job is to draft a social media style guide that
addresses these areas in a concise and readable format.
Activity
Social Media Style and Content Guide for a Bakery: length and design appropriate for audience
and genre.
Last week you analyzed the social media presence(s) for a company or organization of your
choosing and drafted an outline for Case Three. This week you will expand your outline into a
full style and content guide for the bakery you work for. Remember, a style guide is essentially a
rule book for how to compose in a particular medium for a specific audience and purpose in
order to maintain consistency in tone and message for a brand. They can, and often do, include
big abstract ideas like what the mission is for the organization as well as precise instructions like
what words are capitalized or what color scheme is allowed. At the very least, style guides give
instructions on both content (what the message is) and form (how that message should look) to
standardize an organization’s documentation or content.
Remember that the style guide should be well organized and needs to include both content
AND form, meaning you should determine what the bakery’s overall message is and how it
should look on each platform. Although companies can and often do crosspost their content
onto multiple platforms, it’s not always the best strategy depending upon the platform. So
determine what the message is and then consider what that message looks and sounds like in
280 characters (Twitter), and what that same message looks and sounds like when it requires a
photo (Instagram), and what that same message looks and sounds like to the demographic who
uses Facebook, etc. for all other social media platforms.
There is a bit of overlap between an instructional document and a style guide, so think back to
what you learned about instructions for Case Two and how you drafted that assignment as you
work on your style guide. Consider who your audience is and what parts of the style guide might
need examples to illustrate any instructions you provide.