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Step Up Your Social Ep. 11 — 10 Tricks And Hacks To Step Up Your Instagram Stories

5/22/2019

Instagram Stories just keep getting more popular. Over 500 million people now use them every... single... day!

And their functionality keeps growing as well.

In this episode of #StepUpYourSocial, we cover ten tips, tricks, hacks and strategies that you should be using to take your Instagram Story game to the next level.

We cover:

Growing your reach by tagging location, hashtags and other accounts
Using Stories to create and foster User Generated Content
Using stickers to directly engage your audience
Increasing a post's reach by sharing it to your Stories
Creating solid and transparent overlays
Linking your Story to additional content
Creating drop shadow text
Getting your stickers, gifs or text to move along with your video
And a whole lot more!

Are there any tricks or hacks you like that we didn't cover?
We want to hear them!

Share them in the comments, hit us up on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, or share them online them using the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 10 — Facebook Wants You To Know What Your Competitors Are Doing... So Does Google

4/19/2019

Don’t you wish you had a magic wand you could use to see what your competitors were doing well, so that you could grow your own business accordingly?

Facebook has a free feature, available to all Facebook Brand pages, that might as well be a magic wand. Yet so few brands are taking advantage of this simple, powerful and important feature.

So let’s dig into Facebook’s “Pages To Watch.”

Afterward, we’ll cover some other helpful and free tools you should be using to keep tabs on your competitors across the internet, including mailing lists, other social channels and the almighty Google Alerts.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Create Checkable Bullet Points in Apple Notes and Other Helpful Hacks

4/12/2019

I don't know about you, but I use Apple Notes constantly. I love them for a bunch of reasons, but primarily: they are always with me. And I mean always.

I can jot something down in Notes when at my computer, and through the magic of the iCloud, my Notes are there waiting for me on my iPhone or iPad whenever I need them. And vice versa of course.

Not only that, you can use shared Notes just like you use Google Docs, shared between people.

Sharing Apple Notes

The primary difference between Notes and Google Docs on your phone (in my experience)— Notes are much more seamless. You can practically see things happening in real time between devices, unlike with Google Docs where the phone lag-time can be significant.

To invite someone to collaborate with you on a Note, click the "add a person" button, which looks like this:

Adding a person to your Apple Note

You can then add people via email, text message, AirDrop or by sending them the link in the platform of your choice. You'll know it's a shared note from this little icon:

Shared Apple Notes

And now, just like a Google Doc, anyone with access can add to, edit or delete items in your shared Notes.

Locking Apple Notes

Sometimes you want a safe space to put things in your phone where you know that no one can access them, even if you hand over your iPhone, iPad or computer.

Apple Notes is also the solution for this little problem.

Want to store passwords or... well, whatever... throw it in a note and then right click in on your computer or swipe left on your iOs device and you'll get the option to Lock the folder. When you do so, every time you want to access it, you'll have to input your device's password. Which is crazy convenient if you use fingerprint or face ID!

When a Note is locked, it will be designated by a little lock icon.

Locking Apple Notes

This note is currently "unlocked." If it was locked, the lock icon would be closed.

Clean Up Your Notes Using Folders

I told you I use Notes a lot. And for a lot of different things in my life. So of course, I have a lot of different Notes.

Folders allow me to separate out my Notes by category. I have a folder for personal Notes, another for work Notes. You can have as many as you want, which makes for really quick and easy scrolling. And of course, if you can't find what you are looking for — like with anything else Apple — you can always search all your Notes by the search bar at the top.

You can also pin your primary Note to the top of your folder, to ensure easy access to your most important data.

How to pin an Apple Note

Notes Have Great Formatting Options For Such a Simple Tool

You can create bullet points, numbered lists, and indent right as needed.

You can make text bold, italicized, underlined and all that fun stuff.

You can also add in tons of great tools, including tables:

Adding Tables in Apple Notes

Sketches:

Add sketches in Apple Notes

I'm a writer, not so much a painter □

You can even scan documents, or add in a photo or video directly into your Notes!

Didn't You Say Something About Checkable Bullet Points?

I sure did! Don't get me wrong — I LOVE all of the features I have laid out above. But the reason I'm writing this post is because I just learned something new about Notes and it's already helped me seriously step up my Note game.

We write ourselves lots of reminders: Buy milk. Email client. Finish report. Some of these are one-off tasks. But many of them are recurring.

For years, I've been deleting items that I finished, and rewriting them when it was time to do them again (pretty standard for a grocery list for example). Well no more!

With this one tiny hack, you can now write those tasks out once, and then select or unselect the accompanying bullet point, never having to write it out again.

Here's what this looks like:

Checkable bullet points in Apple Notes

You write your line item and then check or uncheck the bullet point as appropriate. This will change the way you grocery shop (it sure has for me) but also probably the way you run your business!

To access this feature, just click the checkmark in the circle icon:

Accessing checking bullet points in Apple Notes

And voila.

Now add "share this blog post on your social channels" and then go ahead and take it off (after you've done so of course!).

In the mean time, check out more of my iOS tips and tricks.

Have any other iOS tips, tricks or hacks you think the people should know? Leave them in the comments or hit me up on social and let's share them with the world.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 9 — Why Warren Buffet Is A Better Writer Than You

3/26/2019

Warren Buffet is a better writer than you for one simple reason: he knows his audience and he writes directly for them. Are you doing the same?

Don't write your content for "the world," rather write it for an individual. Don't try to make yourself *sound* smart. Try to make your reader *feel* smart.

This episode covers some takeaways from Social Media Marketing World 2019 and pulls from a great presentation given by Ann Handley, the author of Everybody Writes.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 8 — Social Media Acronyms You Should Know

3/5/2019

Step Up Your Social Podcast

Step Up Your Social Ep. 8

Social media can be an overwhelming place, especially when you feel like you don't speak the language.

You’re scrolling through your social channels and you see a bunch of random letters tacked together — TIL, FWIW, IMHO — it can be hard to even know where to start.

So in this episode we cover a list of social media acronyms you should know. This list is neither meant to be exhaustive nor fully up-to-date (since internet language is constantly evolving!).

But in the meantime, you should probably know all of these acronyms if you want to keep up with your customers and your audience.

AFAIK
AMA
BTW
DM/PM
FF
FTW
FWIW
HT or H/T
IIRC
ICYMI
IDK
IRL
MT
NSFW
PT
ROFL
SMH
TBT/FBF
TL;DR
TFTF
TFW
TIL
YMMV

Any we missed? Tweet them at us using #StepUpYourSocial. In the meantime, HTH (Hope This Helps!).

NOTE: This list was modified from a previous blog post I wrote which you can find here.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 7 — Beware Engagement Bait... You Could Be Limiting Your Reach on Facebook

2/19/2019

SUYS Engagement Bait Podcast

Step Up Your Social Ep. 7

There are 5 keywords that, when used in a post on Facebook, automatically limit your post's reach. Facebook has labeled the tactic in question as "Engagement Bait."

While Engagement Bait first started being penalized in the Facebook algorithm over a year ago, Facebook just recently began applying their penalties to video content, as well as to text.

In this episode, we cover the what, the why and the how of Engagement Bait, as well as some tips for avoiding it.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 6 — Stop Inviting Everyone You Know To Like Your Facebook Page

2/5/2019

social media podcast

Step Up Your Social Ep. 6

You start a new Facebook brand page. It's only natural to invite everyone you know to like the page.

The problem is, you're actually hurting your page's future growth when you invite people who like you — but don't care about your brand — to like your Facebook brand page.

In this episode:
• We dive into the Facebook algorithm
• Talk about the difference between "good" and "bad" likes
• Cover helpful tips to grow your page with the right audience
• The importance of using a brand page for your page (as opposed to a personal account)
• And a whole lot more

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 5 — Are You Displaying Your Handles Everywhere?

1/23/2019

Social Media Podcast, Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social Ep. 5

Are you leaving low hanging fruit on the table? Are you missing opportunities to encourage your current customers, fans or audience to start conversations with you online, thus promoting your brand to their own networks in the process?

In this episode, we cover two inter-related topics: the importance of displaying your handles *everywhere* your audience is and the vital role that engagement plays in creating and managing a beneficial social media program.

Never forget — social media is not a tool to speak TO the people. It’s a tool to speak WITH the people. The goal is to have conversations and to build relationships.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 4 - The Power of Microtargeting with Facebook Ads

1/8/2019

Facebook Advertising Audiences

Step Up Your Social Ep. 4

If you run ads on Facebook without first building quality audiences, it's like you're standing in the street, throwing expensive flyers in the air, and hoping for the best.

Facebook offers you the opportunity to microtarget based on tons of different factors.

In this episode, we talk about the importance of microtargeting.

We will also cover the three different Facebook advertising audience types:
• Custom
• Lookalike and
• Saved

We'll cover what they are, how to build them, and why you should be using them to run ads on Facebook.

If you enjoy this this podcast, please consider reviewing it on iTunes. Thanks for tuning in!

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 3 - A Deep Dive Into Stories

12/26/2018

Step Up Your Social - A Social Media Podcast

Step Up Your Social Ep. 3

"Stories" are the Facebook response to Snapchat — fun, quirky bits of content that disappear after 24 hours.

Throughout the Facebook Universe — WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, people are currently sharing over a billion stories every day!

Instagram Stories alone has over 400 million daily active users — more than twice as many as Snapchat.

Stories have all kinds of fun and interesting capabilities built directly into the platform.

In this episode of Step Up Your Social, we cover the what, the when and the how of Stories along with a bunch of tips, tricks and fun things you should try.

Listen today and let us know if you have any questions, or anything to add to the conversation around this fun topic!

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.