My favourite social media podcasts

Social Media is changing every day.  Staying up to date with what's going on can be time consuming, but essential, especially if you're job is to train others in how to use social media for their businesses.  I have to make sure I'm giving my students the latest information.

For the past few years my favourite way to stay current is with podcasts.  I just pop them on whenever I'm driving by myself, and I can usually get through at least two each day.  There are lots of podcasts on this topic, but these are the podcasts I listen to all the time.

⭐ Social Media Marketing Talk Show. This is a great weekly summary of what's happened in social media in the previous week. Never miss an episode if you want to stay up to date.

⭐ Social Media Marketing with Michael Stelzner. Social Media Examiner's main podcast. Great interviews for marketers.

⭐ Stevie Says Social (if Stevie wasn't in Brisbane I'd swear she must have attended one of my training courses. Her podcasts on social media offer some great advice!)

⭐ Brand Authority with Rebekah Radice

⭐ Art of Paid Traffic with Rick Mulready. Great advice on Facebook advertising.

⭐ Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield.

Just search for the podcasts by name in your podcast app. I've been using the Pocket Casts app for about four years and I can't fault it. If you've got an iPhone you have Apple's own Podcast app, or there's also Spotify and Stitcher.

Are there any podcasts you swear by? I'd love some more recommendations.

How to browse anonymously on LinkedIn

Whenever you view a LinkedIn profile that person is notified that their profile has been viewed and who has viewed it.  You can hide those details by changing your profile to browse in ‘Private mode’.    

1. Log into your LinkedIn account

2. Click on Me at the top the screen

3. Click on Settings & Privacy

4. There are three sections of settings with links to each across your screen – click on Privacy 

5. Select change next to Profile viewing options

6. Click in the circle under Private mode

How to add another name to your Facebook profile

As well as the name you are usually known by, you can add another name below your Facebook profile to help others to find you on Facebook.  This could be your maiden name, a nickname or a previous name you used.

1.     Click on your name on the blue band at the top of your Facebook screen, this takes you to your Timeline

2.     Select About, under your cover photo

3.     In the left pane, select Details About You

4.     Click on + Add a nickname, a birth name…

5.     Under Name Type, select what type of name you want to add

6.     In the Name field, type in the name you want to add

7.     Click in the box next to Show at top of profile to have the name appear under your usual name

8.     Save Changes

9.  The other name will appear in brackets under your usual Facebook profile name.

Facebook's new Page features

Every time I run one of my Facebook classes I can guarantee that Facebook will make some changes!  It happened again a few days ago when I was preparing for my latest class.  This time they're rolling out changes to business Page layouts.

How you post

The change you’re most likely to notice first is how you post.  For anything other than a text post you have a box to click.

Share a photo or video	To add an image or video to your post
Get bookings Get people to learn more	If you used either Book Now or Learn More as your Call to Action button, you will see this option.  It adds the same button and link as your Call to Action button to your post.
Get phone calls	Adds a Call Now button and link to your Facebook Page to your post
Get messages	Adds a Send Message button and a link to your Facebook Page to your post
Help people find your business	Adds a Get Directions button
Create an event	Create an event and post to promote it
Create an offer	Create an offer and post to promote it.  Adds a Get Offer button to your post.

This option has been appearing and disappearing from the Pages I manage for the last month.  So look out for it, but don’t necessarily expect it to stay – yet!

New tabs

Look down the left side panel of your Page and you may notice some added tabs.  

Services

If you are a service-based business you can add a description and price for your services to your Page.  Just click on Services and add your description.  When you’re finished, click on Visible to display your services on your Page.

 Shop

You can now sell products from Facebook without using a third-party app.  

 

 

• Click on the Shop tab; and accept Facebook’s Terms and Conditions
• Choose how people are going to buy from you – let people send you a message to ask questions and arrange purchases, or send them to another website to complete their purchases.   
• Select the currency
• Add a description of what you sell
• Then you can start adding your products, with a photo or video and details.  At the moment, you can only sell physical products, not services or digital downloads.

If you don’t see these new tabs, click on Manage Tabs at the bottom of the Tab list.  At the bottom of the Edit Page screen click on Add a Tab.  Click on Add Tab next to the feature that you want displayed. 

This screen is also where you can hide tabs you don’t want displayed (just click on Settings, next to each Tab), and where you can rearrange the order of each tab; just click and drag it up or down the list to its new position.

Page Templates

 

While you were on the Edit Page screen, you may have noticed the new Templates section.  This is not available on all Pages yet. 

The Templates give you an easy way of changing your Page layout to suit a particular business type.  You can choose from seven templates, each of which adds different features to the Page.  Instead of choosing the Tabs you want on your Page yourself, you’re letting Facebook choose which are most suitable for your business type.  On some templates the Call to Action button (called the Primary Button in Templates) is also chosen for you.

Standard

Venues

Professional Services

Shopping

Gaming

Politicians

Restaurants & Cafes

Select View Details to see what features are added with that template.  Applying a template only changes the tabs on the left side panel and the buttons under your cover photo.

Select Apply Template if you want to make this change. You can change back to the Standard Template or to any other template whenever you like.

Have you noticed these changes or any other new features on your Page?  

Canva - great design simplified

Have you seen Canva yet? 

Canva is a free web-based design tool that is bringing the ability to create beautiful images and designs to everyone.  No design experience necessary – Canva is really easy to use. 

Simply choose what you’d like to create – an image for your Facebook page or a Facebook cover, a card, a poster, a document, an invitation or just about anything else you can think of.  There are templates already set up or you can create your own from scratch. 

Once you’ve chosen your background you can drag-and-drop different elements onto your design from Canva’s library of more than one million photos, graphics and fonts.   Most elements are free, but if you use a premium item it only costs $1.  

Even if you use Canva’s templates you can still customise them by changing the colours and fonts; upload your own photos to use; and move elements around.  

Once you’re happy with your design, you can choose to download it as an image or as a PDF, or share it immediately to Facebook or Twitter.

Canva was released towards the end of 2013 and since then I've used it to create almost every image on Techie Mum – Facebook cover and tabs, a media kit, blog header, logo, my app reviews, as well as most of the images on my posts and on social media.

But the first thing I used it for was nothing to do with Techie Mum.  At the end of last year I was struggling with a job I’d taken on for my eldest son’s Year 6 Graduation.  I was putting together a memento for each child using photos from Kindergarten to Year 6.  A Year Book was just too expensive so I had decided on an individual collage for each child.  I tried so many different software options and I just wasn't happy with any of them.  Then, as so often happens, when I was at my lowest and just didn't think these collages would ever get done, Canva was released!  Back then it was by invitation only, and I managed by get one of those invitations!  Within an hour of ‘playing’ on Canva I had found the solution.   Canva has over 100 different photo collage templates!  I think I screamed when I saw this –

  

The photos of each child were uploaded to Canva, the colours and font were changed to match our school's colours and with three other lovely Mums we created 50 photo collages in under two weeks – A3 size – which we then laminated.  This is how they turned out –

Canva regularly adds new elements – more layouts and design features, and they've just added photo filters so you can have fun with your own photos, or Canva’s, before adding them to your Canva creations. 

If you need a little help Canva adds new design tutorials regularly.  There’s no invitation needed now – just pop over here and sign up NOW!

Are you missing Techie Mum on Facebook?

If you haven’t been seeing Techie Mum posts on Facebook recently it’s because of some recent changes that Facebook have made. So how can you continue to see my posts in your newsfeed (if this is what you want)?

·       When you do see a Techie Mum post in your News Feed – Like, Comment or Share.  This tells Facebook that you want to see more of this type of content and you’re more likely to see more of my posts.

·       Go to the Techie Mum Facebook Page and hover over the Like button, then click on Get Notifications.  This means you’ll be notified whenever I post something new on Facebook.

Make your old Facebook posts private

It’s time to check your Facebook privacy settings again!  Facebook have expanded Graph Search to allow users to search all public status updates, photo captions, and comments.  Previously, Graph Search only allowed users to search for people, places, photos, and interests.  

Here's something else scary - if you've been tagged in posts or photos on your Timeline they will appear if someone searches for your name.  This is because at the same time Facebook enables Graph Search to search your posts, it has also removed the privacy setting that lets you control Who can look up your Timeline by name.  Won't this all be useful for prospective employers to check what job applicants have been up to??!!

Graph Search can only search your PUBLIC posts so if your privacy settings are at Friends or better then you should be OK.  

What about your old posts?  When you first open a Facebook account your posts are all Public, so how long after you started on Facebook did you change your privacy settings? 

You can protect your old posts very simply:

1.  Click on the gear icon at the top right of your Facebook screen
2.  Select Privacy Settings  
3.  In the Who can see my stuff section, find Limit the audience for posts you’ve shared with friends of friends or Public?

4.  Click on Limit Past Posts
5.  When you click on Limit Old Posts, the privacy settings for any old posts that were set as friends of friends or Public will be changed to Friends.

6.  Close

Then you’re done – all your old posts will no longer appear in Facebook’s Graph Search. 

This new feature of Graph Search is slowly being rolled out, but even if you don't have access yet, those who do can still search your posts.

New Facebook feature - shared photo albums

Yesterday Facebook announced a new feature – the ability for multiple Facebook users to upload photos to the same Facebook album. 

Currently only the Facebook user who creates a photo album can upload photos to that album.

With shared albums, if you create a photo album on Facebook you will be able to add contributors who will also be able to upload photos to that same album.  You can add up to 50 contributors for each album and each contributor will be able to share up to 200 photos each. 

Image courtesy of Mashable

You will still have privacy settings for your shared albums, with the options of Public, Friends of Contributors, or Contributors only.  The album creator will be able to delete and modify photos, and contributors can edit the photos they upload.

I can see this feature being useful for families, where all family members can add photos to a combined album, but with the privacy settings at Contributors only. 

Facebook groups could also create shared albums, where the members of that group could contribute their photos – especially useful for say, a hobby or crafting group; or groups that hold regular events so that it’s not just the Facebook Group administrators who can add photos. 

You might have to wait a while before you see this feature on your profile.  Facebook started rolling it out yesterday to a small group of users before its worldwide release.  

Will you use this new feature?

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Some more information on this feature:  I recommend you read this post from Leonie Smith - The Cyber Safety Lady.  There are definitely some privacy issues with this new feature, and Leonie has a better/more private way that families can share their photos on Facebook.

HASHTAGS - what are they, and how do you use them?

Once each week I'm going to post the answer to a techie question from a reader or a student from my classes.  One topic I've been asked about a few times lately is Hashtags.  While they have been around for a while, there are still lots of people who have no idea what they are or how they work. 

What are Hashtags?

If you use Twitter you will probably have seen Hashtags in tweets – they are the words preceded by the # symbol.  Some Facebook users have also been using them, although the ability to use hashtags on Facebook is only now being rolled out to all users.  You’ll also see hashtags on Instagram, Pinterest and Google+. 

Hashtags enable you to find information on a particular topic or to follow an event or conversation.  When a hashtag is added to a post it turns that word or phrase into a clickable link.  When you click on the link you’ll be taken to a feed of public posts, and posts from your friends, that also include that same hashtag.  It’s just a quick way of following a common topic or conversation.

For example, at a conference, all the delegates can be given a particular hashtag to use, so that when anything regarding the conference is posted on Twitter, and now Facebook, all the delegates can follow those posts.

Can I make up my own Hashtag?

Yes, and No.  If you just make up a hashtag and add it to your Twitter or Facebook posts it doesn’t mean a thing - no one else is going to add it to their posts because they don’t know it exists, and it won’t be found by searching unless you’re lucky enough for someone to search for that particular topic.  You need to let others know about your hashtag so that it can be used and followed. 

For example, you could let your friends know that you are going to use the hashtag #helensholiday to post about what’s happening while you’re away on your big trip, and they can use that hashtag to follow what you’re up to and also to converse with you. 

When you are watching TV you’ll often see a show’s official hashtag being displayed on the screen or announced at the start of the show.  On some shows you’ll also see a Twitter feed appearing along the bottom of the screen – each of those tweets has used that same hashtag, which has enabled the TV show to pull those tweets into its broadcast and display them on your TV screen.

You just have to let your audience/friends/customers know about your hashtag before you start using it. 

Before you make up your own hashtag, check if it is available by searching for it (with the # in front) on the different social networks – Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram.   If there are no posts with that hashtag then it’s yours to use. 

How do I find out which hashtag to use?

You can search for existing hashtags at search.twitter.com – just remember to put the # in front of what you’re searching for.  

For Facebook just type www.facebook.com/hashtag/the hashtag you want (without the #).  With both Twitter and Facebook, at the top of the feed you’ll see the different hashtags that are being used for that particular topic. 

When you use one of these hashtags in your tweet, anyone doing a search on twitter will see your tweet when they search for that word.

Where do I find Hashtags to follow?

Following hashtags can keep you up to date on your interests and the latest news.  You can search for hashtags as detailed above, or try searching in your chosen social network by adding the # in front of that topic and just see what appears in the feed. 

If you just want to see what’s popular at the moment just go to your Twitter home page.  On the left, about half way down the screen you’ll see the Trends box.  This is where you’ll see some of the most popular Twitter topics displayed and those with # in front of them are hashtags you can follow.  If one of them interests you, just click on it and you’ll see all the tweets containing that hashtag.  

Some tips for using hashtags

• You don't have to add hashtags to every tweet or post.  Add them when you want it to be found under a particular topic.

• You can place a hashtag anywhere in the tweet or post, but at the end usually makes it easier to read your main text.

• Don’t get carried away with adding numerous hashtags to your posts.  You just need to add the main topic or two. 

• If you’re using hashtags on your personal Facebook profile, your privacy settings will control who sees your hashtags – it’s the same as for a normal post.

• There are no spaces in hashtags – run the words together.

• You don’t need to use capital letters.

You can use a hashtag to ask for advice, promote your business or a contest, find information or just keep up to date with an event you’re going to.  

Which hashtags do you follow?