Doc 13

Social Proof & Communications Playbook

The Fellowship's voice in public: channel cadences and roles, what Central posts versus what chapters post, and the five content pillars.

v17Draft Source PDF

The AI Fellowship competes for something more valuable than money: attention and trust. Every chapter event, every member win, every project launch is a story that either gets told or disappears. Untold stories make the community invisible - and invisible communities don’t grow.

Social proof serves four functions for The AI Fellowship specifically:

Recruitment: A prospective member in Nairobi or Singapore deciding whether to join is heavily influenced by what they see: Are the people interesting? Is the work real? Does this community look alive? Social proof answers those questions before anyone sends them a message.
Retention: Members who see their own work or name featured feel seen. Recognition is one of the most powerful retention tools available to a volunteer community.
Sponsor credibility: Any organization considering sponsoring an event or the AI World Cup will look at the community’s track record. A well-documented history of events and outcomes builds the case without a sales pitch.
Mission accountability: Posting about what the community is doing - regularly, honestly, specifically - holds the community accountable to actually doing things.

13.2 What to Capture at Every Event#

This is a minimum. More is always better, as long as consent is in place.

Before the event#

[ ] Promotional graphic posted (at least 5 days before)
[ ] “We’re getting ready” story post (48 hours before): venue, speaker lineup, team forming

During the event#

[ ] Wide shot of the room (establishes scale, atmosphere)
[ ] Close shots of participants working (energy, focus - great for Instagram)
[ ] Speaker/facilitator in action (get the moment of engagement, not just the slide)
[ ] Whiteboard/sticky note shots (shows the thinking process)
[ ] Team formation moments (especially for hackathons)
[ ] Candid conversations (two people talking, laughing - community feel)
[ ] Any notable moment: first project demo, prize announcement, breakthrough
[ ] Group photo (the “class photo” - always useful, always memorable)
[ ] Video clips: 15-30 second clips for Instagram Reels/Stories and LinkedIn. Aim for 3-5 usable clips per event.
[ ] Quote capture: When someone says something quotable, write it down immediately. These become captions.

After the event (for recap content)#

[ ] Testimonial photos: 1-2 participants willing to give a brief quote on camera or in writing
[ ] Project demo shots: every project that was presented gets at least one photo

See Document 11 (§11.9) for the full consent form template, which covers both adult and minor variants.

Quick summary of workflow#

Form collected at check-in (all events)
Photographer given a “no-photo” list for anyone who did not consent
Scanned forms uploaded to chapter Notion within 48 hours of event
Any public post with identifiable individuals requires consent on file
If a member requests removal of a photo or video, it must be removed from all public channels within 24 hours

13.4 Central Media Library Structure#

All chapter media should be contributed to the central library. This creates an asset pool that the community can draw from for website updates, sponsor reports, and global social content.

Recommended structure (Google Drive or Notion):

AI Fellowship - Media Library/
├── 2026/
│   ├── [City] - [Event Name] - [Date]/
│   │   ├── photos/
│   │   │   ├── raw/ (unedited originals)
│   │   │   └── selected/ (curated, ready to post)
│   │   ├── video/
│   │   └── consent-forms/ (scanned PDFs)
│   └── [City] - [Event Name] - [Date]/
├── brand-assets/
│   ├── logos/
│   ├── event-templates/
│   └── social-templates/
└── best-of/
    ├── top-photos-all-time/
    └── featured-member-spotlights/

Naming convention: [YYYY-MM-DD][City][EventType]_[##].jpg Example: 2026-03-15_Lagos_Hackathon_047.jpg

Upload responsibility: Chapter Director or designated communications lead uploads within 7 days of event. Folders that are not populated within 30 days of an event receive a prompt from Central.

13.5 Posting Cadence#

The goal is consistency over frequency. A chapter that posts reliably once a week is far more effective than one that posts 10 times during an event and then goes dark.

Recommended Minimum Cadence#

Channel	Frequency	Content Focus
LinkedIn	2-3x per week	Event recaps, member wins, project highlights, AI education, thought leadership. LinkedIn is the professional home - this is where sponsors, potential members, and press will look.
Instagram	3-5x per week (feed + stories)	Photos, Reels, behind-the-scenes, member spotlights. Stories daily during events. More visual, more community-feel.
Twitter/X	Daily during events; 3-5x per week otherwise	Real-time commentary, links, AI news reactions, quick quotes. The most conversational channel.

Central vs. Chapter Posting#

Central posts:

Global announcements (AI World Cup, new chapter launches, major milestones)
Curated best-of content from chapters (with credit)
AI education content relevant to all chapters
Partner and sponsor-related content

Chapters post:

Their own event recaps, photos, and member spotlights
Local AI news and community happenings
Chapter-specific recruitment and event promotion

Chapters use the handle @aifellowship.[city] on Instagram (or equivalent). On LinkedIn, chapters post from a chapter LinkedIn page or the Director’s personal profile with the Fellowship tag. Central coordinates amplification - if a chapter post is notable, Central reposts or shares to the main account.

13.6 Content Pillars#

Every piece of content should fit one of these five pillars. When in doubt, ask: which pillar does this serve?

Pillar	Description	Examples
Member Wins	Celebrating what Fellowship members are building, achieving, and learning. The community is the product - show it.	“Meet [Name], who just launched [project] after building it at our Lagos hackathon.” “Congrats to [Name] on landing a role at [company].”
Project Highlights	Specific projects built in the Fellowship community. Show the work. Show what’s possible.	Demo video of a hackathon project. “Here’s how Team X solved [problem] in 24 hours.” Code + impact story.
Event Recaps	What happened at an event. Give people who weren’t there the feeling of having missed something worth attending next time.	Photo carousel + summary. Key quote from the event. “10 things we learned at our Lagos workshop.”
AI Education	Short-form educational content: explainers, research highlights, tool reviews. Establishes the Fellowship as a place of learning, not just networking.	“What is retrieval-augmented generation and why does it matter?” “5 open-source AI tools every builder should know.”
Behind the Scenes	How the community is built. Director stories. Volunteer appreciation. The messiness of organizing things.	“This is what setting up a hackathon looks like at 11pm.” “Meet [Director Name], who’s been running the [City] chapter for 2 years.”

13.7 Tone of Voice Guidelines#

The AI Fellowship’s voice is: warm, ambitious, direct, and genuinely global.

Warm: We talk about people by name. We celebrate specifically, not generically. “Aisha’s project on crop disease detection won the qualifier and is now being piloted with farmers in three states” - not “our members are doing amazing things.”

Ambitious: We believe AI can be shaped for good. We don’t hedge this. We are optimistic without being naive. We talk about what’s possible, not just what’s safe.

Direct: We don’t use corporate filler. “We’re excited to announce…” is not direct. “Today we’re opening qualifiers for the AI World Cup” is. Short sentences. Active voice.

Genuinely global: We name cities and countries. We acknowledge that Accra and Auckland and Amsterdam are all in this together, and that the work looks different in each place. We do not default to a US/European frame.

What to avoid#

Hollow language: “synergy,” “ecosystem,” “leveraging AI to unlock potential”
Excessive exclamation marks
Generic stock-photo captions (“Innovation is happening!”)
Posting about the Fellowship as a brand first and the people second

13.8 Story Formats#

Member Spotlight Template#

[First Name] [Last Name] | [City] Chapter

[1-2 sentences: who they are, what they do or study]

[2-3 sentences: what brought them to the Fellowship / what they’ve built or contributed here]

[1 sentence: what they’re working on now or what’s next for them]

Quote from the member in their own words (2-3 sentences max)

[Photo: headshot or action shot from an event - with consent]

[Tags: @member (if they agree), #AIFellowship, #[City]]

Event Recap Template#

[Event Name] - [City] | [Date]

[1 sentence summary: what happened, how many people, what was the vibe]

[2-3 sentences: what was built / discussed / learned. Be specific. Name a project or insight.]

[1 sentence: what this event was for - what’s it building toward?]

“[Best quote from the event]” - [Person’s name]

[Optional: stat that matters - “8 teams. 26 hours. 3 projects already in development.”]

Thanks to [Speakers / Sponsors / Volunteers] for making it happen.

Next up: [teaser for next event]

[Photo carousel: 4-6 photos in order - room shot, working shot, speaker shot, group shot, project/whiteboard shot]

Project Highlight Template#

Project: [Project Name]

Team: [Names] | [City] Chapter

Built at: [Event Name, Date]

The problem: [1-2 sentences - what problem were they solving and for whom?]

What they built: [2-3 sentences - how it works, what AI technology it uses, what makes it interesting]

The result: [1-2 sentences - did it work? What was the outcome at the event? Is it continuing?]

“[Quote from a team member about the project or the experience]”

[Link to demo / GitHub / writeup if available]

[Photo or screenshot of the project in action]

13.1 Why Social Proof Matters for Community Organizations#