ATTENTION: This section will provide referencing guides for publicly accessible posts on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
For social media accounts that are not publicly accessible (e.g. a private Facebook page), the social media post should be cited as personal communication, not as social media post.
The author may be a person/people or an organisation.
If the author's name is an organisation, you can use the shortened name form in parentheses for your in-text citation if the organisation uses it regularly and it has become commonly accepted, e.g. 'WHO' rather than 'World Health Organization'. This saves you space. The full name is provided in the reference list.
| Direct quotes | Paraphrasing |
|---|---|
| Cite the author's name (the poster) and the year of publication as you would for other reference types. Make sure, however, the reader knows that it is a social media post by mentioning the post type in the sentence. | Paraphrasing is when you are expressing the ideas of the author(s) in your own words. |
| Popeyes Vietnam's Facebook post uses a pun mixing Vietnamese with English to create a catchy phrase for their promotion: 'Trăng lên đỉnh núi trăng chờ… iu chill' (Popeyes Vietnam 2024). | Popeyes Vietnam's Facebook post mixed Vietnamese with English to make their promotion more memorable (Popeyes Vietnam 2024). |
In your reference list:
Enclose the full publication date (e.g. 15 November 2021) in parentheses after the author or page name. If the multiple posts are from the same author and same year, put a chronological letter after the year to differentiate their corresponding in-text citations, e.g. 2021a, 2021b, 2021c.
Put title of the social media post in single inverted commas (quotation marks), followed by the type of post in square brackets, e.g. [Facebook post], [Tweet], [Instagram post]. For social media posts with no title, include the first 10 words of content followed by an ellipsis (three dots). Count a URL or other link, a hashtag, or an emoji as one word each. Put these first 10 words in single inverted commas (quotation marks).
If the post includes emojis, try to replicate them in your citation. If you can't replicate the emoji, provide the emoji's name in square brackets (for example: [grinning face]). You can usually find the emoji's name by moving your mouse over the emoji. If that does not work, the full list of emoji names can be found on the Unicode Consortium's website.
Do not change the spelling or capitalisation in a social media post (even if the spelling is incorrect!).
For a post composed exclusively of images or video, describe the post in your own words.
For information from social media profiles, when applicable, use the page title in the reference (e.g., “Home,” “About,” “Reviews”). Italicise the page title. Include the clarence e.g. [Facebook profile] in square brackets. Provide the URL to the profile or page title.
ATTENTION! With information on social media profiles, the content is designed to change over time and is not archived. To be more accurate, it is advised to screenshot the profile and reference it as screenshot in your assignment. Please refer to the section on screenshots for rules and examples.
After type of post, include the name of the page where the post is located.
After post's page name, add accessed date (e.g. accessed 13 December 2021) followed by a full stop, a space then the URL. No full stop after URL.
Author's family name Initial or Organisation's Name (Day Month Year) 'Title or first 10 words of content of post...' [type of post], Name of Page, accessed Day Month Year. URL
Example:
Popeyes Vietnam (6 May 2024) 'Trăng lên đỉnh núi trăng chờ… iu chill cùng COMBO...' [Facebook post], Popeyes Vietnam, accessed 15 May 2024. https://www.facebook.com/PopeyesVN/posts/pfbid02QU1GCah7ceeGWV85AaYoEGZHNauoRqSkEUQVRiUMadYcEdENxnUSBmmXc4HTYuKYl
