You have a story. Let's tell it. - Blog

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.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 2 - Twitter Lists

12/17/2018

Step Up Your Social - A Social Media Podcast

Step Up Your Social Ep. 2

In episode 2 of #StepUpYourSocial, we tackle the important subject of Twitter lists.

One common complain about Twitter is that the platform can feel chaotic. Twitter lists are how you make order out of that chaos.

They serve as an amazing listening tool, whether or not your brand is active on Twitter.

Throughout the episode we cover:

How to build or subscribe to lists
The types of lists you should be using
The difference between public and private lists
Using the free tool Tweetdeck to more easily build and manage your Twitter lists
And much more.

The episode is available now. Listen here or wherever you listen to podcasts. That's right — we are now live across the podcast universe! Find us iTunes or the Google Play store, on Stitcher, Overcast, Spotify... If we aren't available yet in your podcast player of choice, let us know and we'll look into rectifying that.

That's for listening. Subscribe today and then get back to telling your story!

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Step Up Your Social Ep. 1: Crossposting vs. Autoposting

12/11/2018

Social Media, Crossposting vs autoposting

Step Up Your Social Podcast, Episode 1

That's right! I've started a podcast.

It's called Step Up Your Social and it's intended to provide quick, actionable tips to help you master your social media. I plan on making these all "flash episodes," around 10 minutes long or less.

That way you can hop in, learn something quick and get right back to work!

Have a topic you want to hear me cover? Drop it in the comments, tweet it at me, or use the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.

In the inaugural episode, I discuss the difference between crossposting your comments and autoposting them.

One of those is good, the other is very, very bad.

Give a listen. And then get right back to telling your story!

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

A Democratic Election, An Undemocratic Result

11/10/2018

Wisconsinites went to the polls on Tuesday In droves. The final results of the election though do not fully reflect the will of the people.

There were five statewide races: Governor (with Lt. Gov on the same ticket), US Senator, Attorney General, Treasurer and Secretary of State. Democrats won all five races. This is the first time that’s happened since 1982.

Dems had unmistakable victories at the statewide level. As you look down the ballot though, the results tell a very different story.

US Congress

Wisconsin has eight Congressional seats all of which were up for election on Tuesday. Going into Election Day, Democrats controlled three of them and Republicans the remaining five. No seat flipped.

All told, Wisconsin Democratic Congressional candidates received 1,350,960 votes.
Wisconsin Republican Congressional Candidates received 1,171,456 votes.

[These numbers have been updated since original posting, as additional totals have been tallied and reported. See most up-to-date vote breakdown here.]

And yet, as mentioned, Dems got three out of eight seats.

That’s right, Dems got 53.5% of the vote, yet took only 37.5% of the seats.

Wisconsin gerrymandering congress

Infographic Created By Brian Evans @BriInWI

State Assembly

When we look at the State Assembly, which had every seat up for grabs this past Tuesday, that disparity becomes even more glaring.

While final numbers are still not fully available for all races, Democratic Assembly candidates appear poised to take right around 1.3 million votes to Republican Assembly candidates 1.1 million votes.

And yet Democrats walked away with only 36 seats, while Republicans took a staggering 63!

That means that Democrats won 54% of the vote and yet took only 36% of the seats.

Wisconsin Gerrymandering

Infographic Created By Brian Evans @BriInWI

A Flimsy Response to a Gerrymandered Map

Republican Speaker Robin Vos’s response to the imbalance of the map: “I do not like the fact that Madison and Milwaukee chose Gov. Evers and they’re the reason that he won. But in the process that we have, Madison and Milwaukee get the chance to vote. I don’t like the outcome all the time, but they have a fair chance.”

Speaker Vos is essentially arguing that Wisconsin should not have a popular vote (or popular representation), but rather that we need our very own electoral college to protect Wisconsin from its two largest cities.

But of course how a city votes is irrelevant (or should be!). It should be how the people vote. And his explanation doesn’t even come close to explaining the clear disparities at play. Of course Madison and Milwaukee have a large role in deciding our state’s leadership. The combined population of their two metro areas makes up over a third of the state’s population. That’s simply how representative democracy works. Or how it’s supposed to anyway.

Wisconsin went to the polls on Tuesday and now we find ourselves with a split government. But that’s not because of how the people voted, it’s because of how the maps were drawn.

Remember that the next time our minority-elected legislative government aims to make sweeping changes to our state — changes like curbing the authority of our newly-elected Governor, because a powerful Executive was good for Vos and Senate Majority Leader Fitzgerald when that Executive was a Republican, but is a threat to their minority-rule now that he’s a Democrat.

Republicans couldn’t draw the statewide map to their benefit and every statewide race went to a Democrat. Despite winning sizable majorities in the popular vote for both Congress and the State Assembly, Democrats continue to find themselves in the minority of both bodies (for Congress, this only relates to the Wisconsin caucus, not the national map).

Partisan gerrymandering is undemocratic. Tuesday’s results show clear as day just how undemocratic.

Build Your Photo/Media Library Seamlessly with Shared iCloud Drives

9/21/2018

If you work with people, you should have a photo/media library. Period.

Taking pictures of your customers/fans/community will help you tell your story in real time. It will also help ensure you have great content to use for years to come.

There’s no shortage of stock photography on the internet, but none of it has your team members in it, or your customers wearing/using/engaging with your products, or events taking place in neighborhoods where you live.

You don’t need to be an amazing photographer to build a photo library, you just need to pull out your smartphone and start taking pictures. If you have multiple team members, you should all take photos regularly to ensure as many different shots as possible of any given event, sale, party, etc.

But that’s where things gets complicated. If several members of your team are taking photos, then those photos are spread out across several different phones and devices.

There are many services out there that aim to solve this problem. Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon Photos… all of them can do it. But they are all clunky and slow, and therefore unlikely to be used regularly and reliably. And if you aren’t sharing all your photos, the system isn’t working.

Here’s the good news: If every member of your team uses at least one Apple product, Shared iCloud Drives are the simplest solution you can imagine to solve this annoying problem.

Adding photos to a Shared Drive takes three clicks of the screen. Literally. And then everyone with access will have all shared photos and videos right on their phones and other Apple devices.

To add a photo(s)/video(s) to a Shared Drive, simply open up the media on your phone you want to share.

Then click in the share box in the bottom left of the screen.

iCloud Shared Drives

At this point you can email or text the photo, or you can share it to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. But don’t do any of that. Select the rainbow icon labeled iCloud Photo Sharing.

iPhone Photography

The name of my Shared Album is Reverbal Communications. Click next to Shared Album and you can add your media to any existing Shared Drive you're a part of, or you can create a new one.

Optionally: you can add text or message to accompany your photo. I highly recommend you do this, both for your own sake, and for the sake of your team members. Say where you were, what you were doing, who is in the photo(s)/video(s) and any other information your team should know.

You can add a message or a note for an individual piece of media, or a group of pictures/videos. Whatever you choose to share will be commented on individually or as a unit.

Photo library

Then just hit post and everyone in the Shared Drive will get a notification that there is new media in the Shared Drive.

When you open up the Shared Drive, you can toggle between Photos and People.

Telling your story online

To invite new people to the Drive, go to People and then click “Invite People.”

Adding people to your iCloud Shared Drive

They can only accept your invitation if they have an iCloud enabled device (a Mac computer, phone or tablet). You can invite them through their email or phone number, so long as that contact info is associated with an iCloud account.

Shared Drives are a great tool for placing all media at the fingertips of everyone on your team. You can have as many as you want too, so maybe have one accessible to interns or revolving staffers, and another for senior staffers/stakeholders. Or you have different Shared Drives for different parts of your team. Whatever works for you and your organization.

Have questions? Hit me up. I’m here to help you and you team get started building your Digital Media Library.

Check out some other iPhone tips and tricks.

Have any favorite secret iOS tips, tricks, tools or hacks that you love? Share them in the comments!

The Power of Facebook Notes

7/3/2018

Getting Started With Facebook Notes

Ever wanted to spice up your Facebook post, but didn't know how?

With a Facebook Note, you can add a cover photo, as well as pictures and GIFs throughout your posts.

You can also format your text with bold and italics, bullet and numbered lists, hyperlinks and much more.

So instead of just another boring picture, your post can look like this:

Learn more and get started in the fun today.

Social Media Loves Babies and Puppies… But Hates Hypocrisy

5/27/2018

If you have tuned out this news completely for Memorial Day weekend, congratulations!

If not, the biggest story in your varied timelines is probably about how the US is systematically removing children from their parents, many of whom came here seeking asylum (and all of whom came seeking a better life).

The parents are being given no information as to where their children are being taken or when — if ever — they will get to see them again. To make matters worse, we are now learning that the US has lost children (thousands of them 😞😱😡) that are supposed to be in the system, and that many of these children are getting sold to human traffickers.

This morning, Ivanka Trump tweeted a picture. The caption: “My ❤️! #SundayMorning”

Ivanka Trump Bad Social Media

While ordinarily, a picture like this would have gotten the Likes and the RTs rolling in, it could not have been more tone deaf to the world around it.

Ivanka is not just President Trump’s daughter, she is also a senior member of his administration.

A tweet does not live in a vacuum. A digital intern would have looked at this tweet and recommended to Ivanka she not post it, when the story of the weekend is lost children.

But post it she did. And so the Quote Tweets rolled in:

Dr. Vox Twitter

David Roberts — Writer for Vox

Patton Oswalt Twitter

Patton Oswalt — Comedian, Actor, Michelle McNamara's Husband

West Wing Reports Twitter

West Wing Reports

Jess Dweck, Twitter

Jess Dweck — TV Writer

As a general rule, pictures and videos of babies and puppies can be engagement gold. But while good content is important, it can't work without an awareness of context.

In other words: you can ignore the people; but rest assured, they are not going to ignore you.

How to Hit 'Return' On Twitter or Instagram

4/25/2018

I use Twitter and Instagram a lot. Like a lot!

Both of these platforms require precision with limited text. Sometimes it's easier for people to follow what you are trying to say by turning your short text into more than one paragraph.

For a long time, I didn't know how to do that natively (in the app). So when needed, I'd draft my tweet or Instagram post in notepad and then copy and paste it into the platform.

And that worked just fine.

But it's annoying.

Then one day, I noticed something that had been right there at my fingertips all this time. It's so obvious, I felt silly for not noticing it. I didn't want to tell people about it, because I assumed everyone else already knew. But I recently shared it on social and so many people let me know how excited they were. This little trick (if you can even call it that) solved a problem they had struggled with for years. Clearly it wasn't just me missing this little Twitter and Instagram hack.

So many people told me they found it helpful, I just had to throw it up on the blog.

So without any further ado, if you want to hit "Return" (or "Enter") when composing a tweet or an Instagram post, just hit the "123" button. (The same one you hit to get to your number keypad or your punctuation.) And the "Return" key will be right there waiting for you. That's it.

Return on Twitter or Instagram

Enter on Twitter or Instagram

Pretty simple, right! 👍😀🎉

If you haven't already, connect with me on Twitter and Instagram.

And if you have any hacks you think everyone would like to know, send them my way. I'd love to give you a h/t.