Social Media Style Guide Template
When multiple people manage a brand's social media, inconsistency is the default outcome. A style guide fixes that — but only if it's specific enough to be actionable rather than aspirational.
This template covers every element a social media style guide needs. The Voice section mirrors the brand voice exercise but is adapted for platform tone — the same brand sounds different on LinkedIn versus Instagram, and the guide documents how. The Visual section covers approved colour usage, logo placement in graphics, image filter and mood rules, and text overlay guidelines.
The Hashtag Strategy section documents primary, secondary, and community hashtags by platform with notes on how many to use per post format. The Response Guidelines section covers how to handle common comment types: praise, questions, negative feedback, and trolling — with example language for each.
The Platform-Specific Standards section has rules for each active platform: character limits, optimal image sizes, caption structure, and format preferences. The final section covers approval workflow — who can post without approval, what requires a review, and how to handle urgent reactive posts.
Delivered as a PDF that can be saved as a living document and updated as platforms change.
What you get
- Voice and tone, adapted for each platform
- Visual rules, hashtag guidance and response guidelines
- Platform-specific standards and an approval workflow
- Provided on request through the contact form
Who it's for: Social media managers, content teams, and brands with multiple people posting on social channels.
How to put the style guide to work
A style guide only changes behaviour if the people posting actually use it, so start by filling in the sections that cause the most disagreement today: who can post without approval, how to answer a critical comment, and which hashtags are in or out. Write each rule as an instruction a new team member could follow on their first day, with one example of the right way and one of the wrong way, rather than adjectives like friendly or professional.
Run a short walkthrough with everyone who posts, including freelancers and anyone covering holidays, and keep the finished guide where they already work, such as a pinned document in your content calendar. Review it every quarter and whenever a platform changes its formats, because image sizes, caption limits and features move. When something goes wrong in public, update the response guidelines straight afterwards so the same mistake does not repeat. Check any claim, disclosure or sponsored-content rule in the guide against the advertising rules in the markets where you post.
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