Cite only original content from social media sites.
- If you used social media to discover content that you want to cite, cite it directly – there is no need to mention that you found the content through a link on social media.
Social media posts may contain text alone, text with audiovisuals (e.g., photos, videos) or audiovisuals only.
- Include the text of a social media post up to the first 20 words.
- Note the presence of audiovisuals in square brackets after the text of the post, for example [Image attached], [Infographic], [Thumbnail with link attached], [Video].
Social media posts may have non-standard spelling and capitalisation, hashtags, links and emojis.
- Do not alter the spelling and capitalisation in the reference.
- Retain hashtags and links.
- Replicate emojis if possible. If unable to replicate the emoji, provide the emoji’s name in square brackets, for example [face with tears of joy emoji]. The full list of emojis can be found on the Unicode Consortium’s website.
- When calculating the number of words in your reference, count a URL or other link, a hashtag or an emoji as one word each, and include them in the reference if they fall within the first 20 words. Do not italicise emojis.