‘It’s All About The Sash’ social media post guidelines

Instagram

* please tag @itsallaboutthesash AND #itsallaboutthesash and/or #iaats for a chance to be featured on our grid or in our story. Get into the habit of tagging us - we love it when you do 🥰

* please check the spelling of your hashtag/s

* if you would like a chance to be featured in our Instagram story, tag @itsallaboutthesash on your story

* PLEASE ensure that your profile is set to public. We can not re-gram from private accounts & often can not see your photos if we don’t follow you. If you would like your photo to be featured & don’t want a public account, please message the photo & text to the Admin on Instagram 

* we feature in order of priority on our grid and/or story:

- FOTF Winners & placegetters

- clubs/organizations promoting events that have FOTF/FITF/Best Dressed competitions. This also includes photos of sashes, judge & organizer announcements, guidelines, timings, prizes etc 

- line ups of finalists

- line ups of heats 

- interesting, inspiring or amusing racing fashion related content (subject to admin discretion)

- groups of FOTF contestants (winners/placegetters or not - no preference as we adore group photos)

- individuals dressed for the races including sponsors, judges etc 

~ please note, we try to share all photos that meet our guidelines to our story within reason. People who tag us in numerous photo posts will be limited to ensure variety of content. As we are tagged in so many posts we limit what we share to our grid

* photos will be shared on a basis of how busy a time period it is. Multiple photos of winners may not be shared. We apologize if we don’t get to share all of your photos.  We usually share general racewear photos & additional photos of winners in our story as it receives a huge amount of views! 

* if you have done everything above & your winning photo has not been shared, please contact Admin by private message

* our Instagram ‘featured stories’ section has some troubleshooting guides that may be of help 

Facebook

Facebook is so much more user friendly for our followers & we encourage users to post directly to our wall. We have admin approval set up to avoid unwanted non-racing fashion related spamming to our page from entities outside of our group. The following is a guideline of what we encourage: 

* all Instagram grid posts will be shared to our Facebook group wall if they haven’t been shared already by an individual or club, using a re-gram app 

* race clubs/FOTF organizers are encouraged to share advertising & information about upcoming FOTF events worldwide

* FOTF entrants are encouraged to share their winning or non-winning outfits. We LOVE to see you! 

* everyone is encouraged to ask questions & offer helpful suggestions ie Where do I buy...? Who will be at.....? What time will.....? When will.....? How do I....? Etc etc We believe education & learning is key to all of our growth! 

* everyone is encouraged to share interesting fashion related articles, shows, exhibitions, events, newspaper articles, blogs etc

* businesses & coterie organizations ie milliners, fashion brands, racing support groups, professional guilds etc are welcome to announce racing fashion events ie high teas, parades & workshops/training courses, millinery competitions etc 

* positive stories and reviews about race days & events 

* live streams of FOTF events (please ensure the person taking the live stream is aware of the appropriateness of language being spoken in their direct range)

* polls & discussions are to be directly posted by members to the wall. Please ensure the wording of poll questions & discussions are in a way that is helpful to members, clubs and organizations running or competing in FOTF events. Polls & discussions will only be approved by Admin if they are deemed to meet this criteria at the time of posting. Please be mindful that polls & discussions that may identify an event, club, organiser or individual in a negative way will not be accepted. If a discussion or poll leads to or is altered to identify others negatively in its contents or comments, please report to the group admin as every comment or post is not monitored. We understand that all members have different levels of experience in the area of competing, organizing etc FOTF competitions so will accept any discussion topic or poll that is deemed helpful or educational. We ask that people with experience in these areas, support these polls & discussions as a learning tool for others. Please note - we strongly encourage members to post under their own name & not under the anonymous setting Facebook offers. Annonynous posts/polls will only be allowed at Admin discretion & after discussion with the particular member

Please note: (in regards to our Facebook page)

* posts that may be relevant for future reference will be placed as an announcement for easy access ie survey results, articles, guidelines, guides etc 

* if you have content ideas ie a survey topic, a blog topic etc, please contact the Admin 

* sale & business advertising posts will be deleted. Please use a dedicated sale page

* using our Instagram hashtags on Facebook will not guarantee posts being seen by Admin. Please post directly to our Facebook wall or DM the Admin to her personal account

* if you are unsure about something you would like to post, contact the Admin via her personal account  

* we do NOT have a messenger set up for our ‘It’s All About The Sash’ Facebook group. Please DM the Admins personal account 

* ‘public voting’ competitions will be shared as a whole competition out of fairness to all members competing in each competition (we will not accept posts by individuals asking for votes)

* please report any content that does not meet our guidelines via the report function. We do have several ‘Facebook Admin Assist’ tools set up to help assist in these areas as all content (ie comments) are not monitored by the Admin, however require group members to report in order to activate 

Relating to all of our Social Media

It’s All About The Sash do not discriminate and will post about all FOTF Wins! Please let Admin know if we’ve missed an event. FOTF/Best Dressed Competitions are not only held at horse races but are also held at the harness racing, dressage events, luncheons, shows/fairs, the Polo & more! 

Please note: We share winning photos of all FOTF/best dressed competitors. Out of fairness to all members, requests to have photos removed from this group that are publicly shared by race clubs/media sources/professional photographers & reposted in ‘Its All About The Sash’ will not be considered without exceptional reason.

* ‘Exceptional reason’ may include (but is not limited to): a photo that was used without permission, photos of children being used where legal permission has not been given or other legal issues are concerned, photos that show previously unidentified profanity or nudity. Please check with individual organisers/race clubs media policy if you believe a race club has used your image without permission. If you do request a photo to be removed for exceptional reasons, we ask that you contact the original person/organization who posted or sent us the photo first to ensure it is removed from its original source.

* ‘Exceptional reason’ does not include (but is not limited to): not liking the photo/angle at which a photo was taken, planning on wearing the outfit again and not wanting exposure, replacing a photo with a different/better one.

Out of courtesy, when reposting photos, please give credit to the photographer if you didn’t take it yourself. Please also ensure you have permission to share said photos. We encourage members to contact professional photographers to purchase photos of themselves in high resolution if they like a photo that has been taken. 

Please note that this group works with a positive ethos. Comments & threads that have a negative tone, are initiating drama or are targeting/bullying others will be deleted. Comments & threads that negatively identify an individual or organization will also be deleted. Members who use this group to negatively identify an individual, organization or competition will removed. Members who bully other members whether within the group or privately in regards to content in this group will also be removed. We apologize for the deletion of any positive comments that may be removed when a comment thread is deleted due to the above reasons. Please contact individuals & organizations directly if you have any concerns with them.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate your ongoing support & have provided these guidelines for fairness to all. Admin xo

~ revised February 2023