How to cite a social media profile

Bluebook (22d ed.) citation format · B18 / R18.10.1 · Internet & electronic

Example

LegalEagle (@djlegaleagle), Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/djlegaleagle (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

What the citation needs

Required

Account name — The source’s name, as the rule for this type gives it.
Platform — The service the material was posted on.

When they apply

Handle — The account’s handle: “@djlegaleagle”.
URL — The web address, where you cite the source online (R18.2).
Perma / archive URL — An archived copy’s address, such as a perma.cc link, given in brackets after the URL (R18.2.1(d)).
On file with — Where a reader can get an unpublished or hard-to-find source: what follows “on file with” — “author”, or the library or journal holding it (R17.1).

In a brief and in a law review

The Bluebook sets citations two ways: the Bluepages for court documents and legal memoranda, the Whitepages for law review footnotes. Here is the first example above as each one prints it, in its typeface.

Court documents (Bluepages)

LegalEagle (@djlegaleagle), Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/djlegaleagle (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

Law review footnotes (Whitepages)

LegalEagle (@djlegaleagle), Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/djlegaleagle (on file with the Columbia Law Review).

The words are the same in both; only the typeface changes.

Governing rules

B18 / R18.10.1

18 — the internet, electronic media & other nonprint resources.
18.10.1 — social media platforms.

Build this citation with the generator, check one you have already written, or paste a whole list of footnotes to check them in order.

Related source types

Internet & electronic: