Websites/Mozilla.org/One Mozilla/Documentation/Blog-Guidelines
Mozilla Blog Guidelines
I. Introduction
The Mozilla Blog Guidelines were developed in an effort to ensure streamlined communications that advance the overall mission of Mozilla and to ensure that we are offering clear distinction between personal opinions and those of the organization overall, as well as which are ongoing discussions versus finalized project announcements. In the past, press, our users and even Mozillians often found it hard to follow what the Mozilla project stands for with regard to different industry developments. The objective of these guidelines is to make the most of the power of so many passionate, knowledgeable voices for the greater good of the open Web, and not to limit the free and open communication which is a hallmark of the Mozilla project. (*more background information on why we need blog guidelines can be found below*)
II. Blog Guidelines - Summary:
- Official news, announcements or any important updates will be posted on Mozilla-hosted communications channels first, but can be cross-posted to a personal blog at the same time
- Mozilla announcements link to Mozilla-hosted supporting content, not to personal blogs
- Every multi-author blog has a dedicated Content Lead. The Content Lead decides whether or not a blog post has to be flagged or reviewed by the PR team. (*more details on Content Leads below*)
- The PR team should review any major announcement before it is posted, and may also support with a communications plan
- If you would like to set-up a new Mozilla Blog, please file a bug and the PR and Creative teams will help get you rolling.
III. What makes a Mozilla Blog?
Mozilla-hosted blogs are a trusted source of information for our users, press, community, developers and partners. It’s important to be clear and transparent in all communication that goes out via these channels.
Mozilla-hosted blogs wear the current Mozilla theme and branding, making them easily recognizable as an official voice of Mozilla. They should include a short description of the information that people can expect to receive there and a brief profile of the responsible author or team.
An overview of our Mozilla-hosted blogs can be found here [LINK to separate Wiki page]
IV. Publishing to a Mozilla Blog
Any official Mozilla update or announcement, especially those related to Mozilla’s overall strategy, vision and mission, our products or future plans, will be posted on a Mozilla-hosted channel first, before it goes up on a personal blog.
The Mozilla PR team will not directly point press towards personal blogs. Links in an official Mozilla announcement should refer to a Mozilla-hosted blog or other Mozilla-hosted supporting channel.
It is up to a team’s Blog Content Lead to decide whether a draft blog post needs to be reviewed by or flagged with the PR team (more on Content Leads and on content that needs flagging below).
If you are not sure if your blog post needs review or if it’s worth flagging with the PR team, please feel free to reach out to your Content Lead or the PR team directly and ask for feedback. An overview of the Content Leads for our blogs can be found here [LINK to separate Wiki page]].
Important Mozilla news and announcements have gone through a review and sign-off process, either with a Content Lead or the Mozilla PR team. They are in line with the general Mozilla messaging and are being posted on one of the Mozilla-hosted blogs. They are agreed upon within the wider project and can be referred to as “Mozilla says...”.
V. Starting a New Mozilla Blog
If you are planning to set up a new communications channel on the Mozilla infrastructure, please [file a bug here]. The PR and Creative teams will help you define the channel, develop any visual assets and identify the right platform to reach your target audience (developers, users, contributors, etc).
Every team who runs a multi-author, Mozilla-hosted blog should appoint a Content Lead. It is up to the Content Lead to decide whether or not a draft blog post needs to be reviewed by or flagged with the PR team. More on Content Leads can be found here [LINK to separate Wiki page].
VI. General Communications Guidelines
Mozilla does not in any way censor or limit its employees' blogging and tweeting. However, be aware that there are some issues that are discussed in internal meetings that you should probably not blog or tweet, such as partner deals, where we've signed confidentiality agreements, personnel matters, and internal financial information.
However, as you all know, we limit these internal discussion solely to matters that we cannot share more broadly. Someone will usually explicitly state "please don't talk about this in public" when such things come up. In general, a good rough guideline to follow is that if you want to blog or tweet about something not well-known or something you are not directly involved in, talk to someone who is involved first, the PR team or your team lead to make sure you are aware of all the details.
Offline Conversations on Behalf of Mozilla
The PR team put together a few guidelines you should follow when participating in online or offline conversations on behalf of Mozilla:
1. Wording and Messaging
The PR team can provide you with key messages, overarching story outlines, latest numbers and figures to make sure our communication is consistent and accurate. Our messaging is available on the Intranet [link] and is continuously being updated by the PR team. It’s important for everyone to get familiar to the latest Mozilla messaging around our projects, products or various industry topics.
2. Be transparent
If you are writing or speaking about Mozilla and your work or participate in industry-related discussions, always make sure to use your real name and identify yourself as a Mozillian. If you are not speaking or blogging officially on behalf of Mozilla, always make sure to state that this is your personal opinion, which does not necessarily reflect Mozilla’s views.
3. Stick to your expertise and responsibility
You are responsible for what you write, press may quote you or refer to your post as Mozilla news. So make sure to stick to your area of expertise and share knowledge which you think is useful to others. Add value to current discussions, lead respectful and fair conversations. Do not offend our competitors, users or other Mozillians.
4. Respect internal information
Respect information that is shared internally only, especially when it comes to major announcements regarding revenue streams, partners or other project-strategic issues. If you are not sure about certain topics or receive press queries, please ask the Mozilla PR team, so they can help responding to it in a professional and on-message way.
5. Responding and reacting to feedback and comments
To stimulate honest and exciting conversations, be a good leader. This means you should respond to comments and questions, ask questions yourself or ask for the feedback of your readers. Be fair. However, state a clear position, because this is what encourages lively discussions. If you receive constructive feedback, positive or negative, take it seriously and say that you do. Never delete negative comments, except spam or offensive, distasteful or disrespectful ones.
6. Admitting mistakes
If something went wrong, be honest about it. React promptly and upfront. State clearly that you will do your best, so this will not happen again. Never delete or modify a blog post without saying that you did. This will make it even worse. If you need help with your response, let the Mozilla PR team know and they will be happy to advise.
7. Need help?
If you feel uncomfortable or have the slightest doubt that what you are about to post is good to go out as it it, please contact your Content Lead or the Mozilla PR team first and they will be happy to help.
Supporting Information [this will be published as a separate page on the Mozilla WIKI]
The blog guidelines are part of an Engagement initiative to push our official communication channels more effectively. This should help us to make Mozilla's position on projects or industry developments clearer and to help press finding relevant and official information faster.
Related projects:
Communications Channel Audit [Google Doc link]
In 2011, the Mozilla PR team conducted a communications channel audit which found that there are more than 150 Mozilla and Mozilla-related communication channels: blogs, forums, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and news groups.
Blog Consolidation Project [Wiki link]
The PR team, Creative, IT and WebDev have also been working on consolidating Mozilla's blogging platform. Strategically rolling up Mozilla’s key blogs onto a single platform will allow us to direct traffic more effectively and present our brand and our messages to community, press, and users more clearly.
Why do we need blog guidelines?
Mozilla is growing and more projects lead to more discussions, which again lead to more threads to follow - a process that makes it harder to follow what the Mozilla project stands for with regard to a certain topic.
In the past, journalists, our users and even Mozillians often found it hard to identify Mozilla's position on different industry developments. By offering a clear distinction between personal opinions and those of the organization overall, we aim to avoid misunderstandings regarding ongoing discussions versus finalized project announcements, particular in the press.
The PR team is proposing the Mozilla blog guidelines to help people to hear Mozilla’s voice out there, loud and clear. Therefore, we need your help: our external communication needs to be consistent and journalists should be able to find relevant information fast, easy and trustworthy enough to be referred to in their articles.
We want to encourage you to spread the word about Mozilla, build-up on everything we achieved and get credited for out there. Help us to tell people why Mozilla is a great organization - and one that is speaking with one voice and acting as “one Mozilla”.
Our external communication and every Mozillian involved as a blogger or spokesperson has an impact on our reputation. Reputation is how other people think or speak about us, always based on our behavior – past, present and even future. Reputation is not about image. You cannot build up reputation artificially; it needs to develop over time.
About Content Leads [this will be published as a separate page on the Mozilla WIKI]
Every team who runs a multi-author, Mozilla-hosted blog appoints a Content Lead. The Content Lead is accountable for the content that is published on the team’s blog. It is up to the Content Lead to decide whether or not a draft blog post needs to be reviewed by or flagged with the PR team. Any posts needing review should be provided in draft form to the PR team three days ahead of time (*more on review timings below*).
Overview of Content Leads
Table to be added / teams to add their Content Lead
Review timings and time zone-friendly posting
If you would like the PR team to review your blog posts, please send it to communications@mozilla.com at least three days before you plan to publish your post. This will give everyone enough time to discuss, review and do some fine-tuning on your post if you need the PR team’s wordsmithing magic or help with the Mozilla messaging. The PR team can also help you to find a good day and time to publish your post, to make sure we get the press attention we want your blog post to receive. If you would like to flag a finalized blog post with the PR team so that they are aware, please do so one day before you plan to publish.
Time-sensitive content that requires a faster turnaround time can also be reviewed by the PR team on short notice: Feel free to drop by the PR team’s desk directly or send an email, flagging the matter’s urgency with [time sensitive] in the subject line.
For globally relevant announcements, keep in mind that Europe (and thus half of the PR team, six PR agencies, and a significant base of journalists and users) is 9 hours ahead of Pacific Time. If you are based on the West Coast, this means that the best time to post something is early Pacific Time, ideally between 6 and 8 am, if not earlier. Everything posted later than that will cause us to lose the opportunity to be part of the day’s news cycle in Europe, or to do any active press outreach at all.
US-based PR team (PT) [link to Engagement Wiki for contact details] EU-based PR team (CET) [link to Engagement Wiki for contact details]
Friday is not a good day for announcements at all, as the EU press team will not be able to do outreach until the following Monday.
Best days for posting news and announcements are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Mondays (journalists need to clear their inboxes from a lot of news and press releases) and Thursdays (press queries from Europe will have to be turned around on a Friday which is difficult on both sides, journalists and spokespeople) are still okay, but not the first choice to do global press outreach.
What needs to be reviewed? [this will be published as a separate page on the Mozilla WIKI]
News and announcements we expect to receive a lot of media attention, such as:
Major product announcements and updates Official responses to a current industry issue Strategic and visionary pieces posted by Mozilla Executives Relevant numbers, figures and market share statistics Statements on competitors, potential partners or Mozilla’s revenue streams Major issues surrounding privacy or security
What doesn’t need to be reviewed?
Content that will not go up on a Mozilla-hosted channel, such as:
Blog or forum posts that reflect your personal opinion and go up on your personal blog or a non-Mozilla platform
Content created by the Mozilla community or content that will go up on our community channels
Content to be posted in MDN, demos, code Content posted to a personal blog, to be aggregated to Planet Mozilla Anything else that we don’t expect to attract any media attention