APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Twitter/Instagram

Twitter and Instagram posts follow the same formatting requirements.

General Format

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Post Author Surname, Year)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

(Post Author Surname, Year)

References:

Post Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words[Tweet or Instagram Post]. Site Name. URL

Example

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(National Geographic, 2020)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

(National Geographic, 2020)

References:

National Geographic [@NatGeo]. (2020, January 12). Scientists knew African grays are clever, but now they’ve been documented assisting other members of their species—even strangers [Tweet; thumbnail link to article]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/NatGeo/status/1216346352063537154

Helpful Tip: If the tweet includes an image or link to an article, indicate that in brackets after the content description, for example [Tweet; attached video].

General Format

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(Post Author Surname, Year)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

(Post Author Surname, Year)

References:

Post Author Surname, First Initial. Second Initial [@username]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL.

Helpful Tip: Use (n.d.) for "no date" in place of a specific date if you're citing a full profile rather than an individual tweet. Be sure to include the retrieval date in these instances, as a Twitter or Instagram profile's content is expected to change frequently.

Example

In-Text Citation (Paraphrase):

(MLA Style, n.d.)

In-Text Citation (Quotation):

(MLA Style, n.d.)

References:

MLA Style [@mlastyle]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved February 12, 2020, from https://twitter.com/mlastyle