View source for Freegle Affiliated Group Name and Logo Guidelines

===General things to consider when 'naming' a community===
*Community names should be consistent to avoid confusion for members of the public. They should ideally have the same format across all platforms (Freegle Direct, Facebook, Twitter, etc).
*Community names based on a town rather than area tend to do better.
*More than one way of describing a location should be avoided where possible.
*Local acronyms, that are meaningless to most people, should be avoided.
*Acronyms should be checked carefully before naming and avoided, e.g. Freegle Friendly Support (F.F.S)

===Best practice examples for community names===
Example area/town name = Blue River<br>
Example Community Name = Freegle<br>

When existing communities move to Freegle, the community name may be something else already e.g. GreenCycle. New communities to Freegle, though, must be named Freegle as this helps to raise our public profile everywhere.

====Freegle Direct====
''Suggested format'': “AreaNameGroupName” eg “BlueRiverFreegle” <br>
Set up by NGT with a short name and avoiding hyphens wherever possible eg BlueRiverFreegle 
 
A longer descriptive name may be used for the website eg Blue River Freegle.
<br>The Freegle Direct volunteer email address is automatically generated from the shortname. In this case it would be BlueRiverFreegle-volunteers@groups.ilovefreegle.org

The actual name displayed alongside this on Freegle Direct would be Blue River Freegle

====Facebook (FB) Page Name and Facebook (FB) URL====
A space between words is needed for the page name for FB search optimisation.<br>
''FB Page Name suggested format'': “Area Name Community Name” e.g: “Blue River Freegle” - this what the FB page should be called when it is first set up.
<br>Once the FB group has been “liked” 25 times a username can be chosen to give a better URL – this is good to have for publicity purposes and can be words with no spaces.
<br>''FB Username (URL) suggested forma''t: “AreaNameGroupName” e.g: “BlueRiverFreegle” - the URL would be: www.facebook.com/BlueRiverFreegle [note: FB search will recognise “BlueRiverFreegle” if it’s typed in with or without the capitals]

====Twitter====
A space between words is needed for the profile name so that it is searchable on Twitter.<br>
''Twitter profile name suggested format'': “Area Name Community Name” e.g: “Blue River Freegle” (Profile names are limited to 20 characters only).<br>
Twitter handle/tag: these are limited to 15 characters and all one word – creativity may be needed! eg “BluRiverFreegle”<br>
The “Area Name” and “Freegle” (or other community name) should be put in the biography section of the profile.<br>
The ilovefreegle URL should be used as the website link in that section of the profile.<br>
The logo designed by the media team should be used rather than the default picture as a photo.

====ilovefreegle Mapping====
Map drawn at communtiy creation by NGT.<br>
''Suggested format:'' “Region, Area Name Community Name” so that they show up in logical order eg “S.East: Blue River Freegle

====Email Addresses====
Freegle Direct will have same name format stemming from the community name (as above - BlueRiverFreegle-volunteers@groups.ilovefreegle.org)<br>
If a different account is going to be used to create an address for a new community (eg. Gmail): <br>''Suggested format'' : “AreaNameGroupName@’ e.g: BlueRiverFreegle@gmail.com

====Freegle Shortlink====
''Suggested format'': Freegle.in/AreaName, Freegle.it/AreaName e.g. Freegle.in/BlueRiver, Freegle.it/BlueRiver

===Logos===
The Graphics Team will provide a set of logos for use on Freegle Direct, Facebook, Twitter and promotional material at the start up of communities.<br>
''Suggested format'': Text inside the Freegle Heart - Area Name or area name at the top, community name at the bottom. Both capitalised and uncapitalised area names can be used, but freegle should always be lowercase for branding purposes.

====Standard Communities====
''Suggested format'': Text inside the Freegle Heart - Area Name or area name at the top, community name at the bottom.<br>
Both capitalised and uncapitalised area names can be used, but freegle should always be lowercase for branding purposes.

====Specialist Groups====
''Suggested format'': the format used for the Sussex Disability Aids Community can be used for other communities: “freegle disability aids” inside the heart and “AreaName” underneath.



These guidelines were adopted by the Board at their meeting of 29th October 2014 and subsequently amended in January 2018 as part of the 'ditching Yahoo' review of procedure.  There was also one amendment following a proposal at the AGM in November 2019.

===Links===
*Previous Freegle UK document - Group Affiliation Team - Naming New Groups
* AGM 2019 Proposal [[https://discourse.ilovefreegle.org/t/agm-2019-agenda-item-7-group-names/683]
*[[New Groups Team - NGT]]
*[[Document Approval Policy]]
*[[Glossary]]

[[category:Policies, Procedures, Remits]][[category:New Groups Team]]