As the manager of social media accounts, you are surely a whiz at all things Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even the newest flavor of the week. Unless you dig really deep, however, you may be missing out on some key features that can make life easier for you and for the success of your business as a whole. There are many hidden features out there on all of the different social networks that are not advertised or have not been popularized. Consider some of these features below and how they can affect your business’s social strategy.
Facebook’s ‘Other’ Inbox
New clients and curious customers alike have likely sent you messages, and you know right away. The little red icon will even display the number of unread messages. Unbeknownst to you, though, there could be dozens of unread messages in a hidden inbox called the “Other” Inbox, as shown below:
As you can see, you’ll find the “other” in box as a pseudo-tab to the right of your regular inbox messages. These messages come from people who you are not connected with or who have not liked your page. For businesses, knowing about this feature is huge because it can be tough to connect with every single person in your target audience (impossible, actually), and in some cases consumers want to learn more before they commit to a social following or participating in a social contest you’re running.
It’s just as important to respond to these messages right away as it is to respond to your inbox messages, so monitor this box every couple of weeks to make sure you aren’t missing out on important messages from customers.
Facebook’s ‘View Page as a Visitor’
Posting daily updates to your company or product Facebook page is important, but do you know what users are seeing when they view your page? Likely not. When managing your page, take a moment to click the “…” link to the right of the “message” button. The first option will be “View as Page Visitor.” This will, obviously, help show you what your visitors are seeing. You can see the process in the screenshot below:
Take some time at least once a week to view your page as a visitor. This will provide you with the invaluable customer view so you can try to determine what’s working and what needs some work (more images, better link formatting, etc.). Sometimes as you upload photos or are tagged in photos there are restrictions that you don’t mean to be including, so this actually changes more than you might think.
Twitter’s User Widgets
Embedding your Twitter feed into a sidebar on your website couldn’t be easier—as long as you know where to look.
Navigate to the page you want to embed and click the gear icon to the left of the follow button so you visit your Settings page. Click the last option in the list: “Embed this Profile.” You will then be taken to this page:
This page will have all the information you need to embed the feed. If you aren’t highly technical, or don’t have an IT department to turn to, take a gander at the developer documentation here for a more detailed walk-through of the process.
The embedded feed option would be an obvious option to advertise your own Twitter feed on you website, but you could think bigger, too. This could be a good opportunity to entice new advertisers. For example, if you run a marketing firm, featuring a client’s Twitter feed on your website may be an up-sell option.
Extra: Twitter’s Keyboard Shortcuts
So this hidden feature is “extra” because it may not directly impact your business like the others, but it’s still a cool tool that could be beneficial for the right people.
Someone who monitors dozens of social media pages is also likely someone who can use a few extra minutes in the day. Twitter’s keyboard shortcuts can help you do that. Click on your profile image and navigate to the “Keyboard shortcuts” page.
Scan this list for some of the tasks you perform most often. Saving even a few minutes a day on something as simple as typing can help you free up time to complete other tasks.
Twitter Card’s Data Export
If you are in charge of managing your company’s social media feeds, you probably know your way around Twitter fairly well. But what about the President of your company? Or the CFO? Do they know how to decipher complicated Twitter statistics?
Make it easier for them to understand by exporting some information right into a spreadsheet. Do this by navigating to your Twitter Cards page and just click the button in the lower left corner that corresponds with the proper date range.
Once you export your data you’re set to go. Bring it to a presentation or send it to your boss if he wants something on the fly.
Instagram’s ‘Create Your Own Badge’ Feature
This tip is especially important for companies who want to strictly adhere to a designated set of colors for all materials. You already know that you can feature an Instagram badge on your site that links to your feed, but you can also customize this.
Access your Instagram account from a desktop and edit your profile. Click on the badges tab and pay special attention to the text at the bottom of the page.
You can download a copy of the badge and let your art department go to town (within reason – make sure they also review a copy of the guidelines, found in the same area on the page).
Pinterest’s Place Boards
Pinterest’s Place Boards option allows you to associate a location with a pin or board. To add a place to an existing pin, just click edit and type in a place:
To create a board around a place, turn on the map option when creating the new board:
Place pins and boards are especially helpful if you are carrying out a Pinterest campaign. You might choose to gain followers by creating a Place board for your city that contains popular things to do. You might also pin photos of recent events or launches and attach a place to the pin so interested customers or clients know what you’ve been up to.
Google+ Photo and Video Downloads
If you share photos and videos as a way to promote your business, you may want to alter the photo and video settings in Google+. By default, users are able to download photos and videos you post.
If, for whatever reason, your company is not interested in allowing this feature, you can simply uncheck the box. The photo and video features can be found near the bottom of the settings page. This is a great option if you want to share engaging photos and videos but want to lessen the chance of users downloading them and using them for personal gain.
Tumblr’s Mass Edit Option
Tagging photos with relevant words and phrases is important on nearly every social media platform, and Tumblr is no exception. Its mass edit option allows you to go back in at a later time to add additional tags. This feature also means the person who adds the post does not also have to be the one to tag it. This is especially helpful if you have multiple people managing social media pages.
To navigate to the “mega editor,” as it is sometimes called, simply login to your Tumblr account and go to this link: http://ift.tt/153yloB
You can select multiple posts and edit or add tags from there. The best part is, you can go back and edit tags as often as you want. It’s as simple as that, and yet so many people still miss it.
For a list of even more hidden social media feature, I recommend checking out this article from Bustle. In the meantime, do you have any more hidden features you would add to the list? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comment section below.
from Darlene Milligan http://ift.tt/1XZtVFD via transformational marketing
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/1Nmzt5x
No comments:
Post a Comment