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.

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.

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.

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!

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:

I always say that the only constant in social media is change. I don’t write to tell you every time any little thing changes on a social channel — if I did you’d hear from me literally dozens of times per week. But not every update is worthy of a blog post or an email. 

Recently though, a few exciting updates have rolled out that are worth sharing.

Instagram Hashtags
You can now “follow” a hashtag on Instagram, just like you would follow an account.

Once you follow a hashtag, Instagram will include top posts using it directly into your feed.​

To follow a hashtag, simply search for it on Instagram.

​Then click “follow.”

Twitter Threads
I'm very excited about this update, although it’s a bit hard to follow Twitter’s logic. They recently doubled the character length for tweets from 140-280, thus making threads, and therefore this update, much less relevant. But they're not irrelevant, so it’s still an exciting update.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of threads, check out this blog post where I explain what they are and how they work (along with a bunch of other fun Twitter tricks and tips).

Before, when you created a tweet thread, you had to keep responding to previous tweets. Which is fine, but can be clunky. If you don't reply to the most recent tweet in your thread, they get out of order and your thread becomes hard to follow. It can take a few moments for your tweet to post, meaning you have to sit tight with your thoughts, waiting for it to catch up.

Now if you want to create a tweet thread, simply start typing your tweet. Below, next to the “tweet” button, you will see a plus. Click it and Twitter will open up another tweet for you. Keep going until you are finished and then you can send them all as a single unit.

BIG IMPROVEMENT, ​even if it's a little less relevant that it might have been a few months ago.

Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories aren’t new, but they have pretty much been getting ignored. Stories were Facebook’s response to Snapchat. They are small pieces of content — pictures, short videos or text — that disappear after 24 hours.

They have all the fun Snapchat-style filters built in, along with a lot of other fun tools. Spend a few minutes in there and you will find tons of fun toys. And they are updated regularly.

While Stories aren't new, what is new is that they are now available to Brand Pages. (Until recently, only personal pages could create Stories.)

To access Facebook Stories for a Brand Page, you can use the new Facebook Creator app. Or, open the Facebook app on your phone or tablet (currently, Stories only work via mobile), and go to your Brand Page. Underneath where you it lets you “write something,” click “create story.”

Once you have finished creating your tiny, disappearing masterpiece, add it to your Story. ​

While the follow up tweet didn’t get nearly as many retweets or likes as the original tweet, it did appease the internet, which is always hungry for a social media scandal.

You need look no further than the responses to see that the follow up fully appeased the Twitterverse. This time.

But user beware: if you or your team require coffee to start the day, then by all means, have it on hand! If you are McDonald’s that really shouldn’t be a problem. 🙄 🙄 🙄

A while back, Jack and his Twitter crew talked about massively expanding Twitter’s iconic 140 character limit to 10,000! Predictably, the Twitterverse went crazy. So Jack relented. Sort of.

While an individual tweet is still limited to 140 characters, Twitter has redefined what counts as a character. So while everything might still look/feel the same, you actually have quite a bit more room to get your thoughts out in a tweet these days than in the Twitter of old.

Many of these changes happened below the radar of the non-avid Twitter user. So I thought it would be a good time for a round-up.

Twitter is changing all the time. If I missed any new functionalities, let me know. I’d love to add them to my list.

This will work on your computer, your tablet or your smartphone. ​

Twitter will automatically populate a wide-array of GIF emotions to search through.

Once you have the perfect GIF, select it and it will be added as media to your tweet.

And per the theme of this post — it will not count against your character count!​

Please note though, you cannot add a GIF to a tweet containing any other media, or as part of a Quote Tweet (more on Quote Tweets below).

Another fun option, built write into your tweet, is the ability to conduct a poll. ​

Once you have selected the option, you can input a series of “answers” to whatever question you choose to pose in your tweet.​

The default (and minimum option) is two “choices,” but click "+ Add a choice" and you can tack on a third or even a fourth.

Obviously, since it’s on this list, a poll doesn’t count against your Tweet’s character count.

If someone takes your poll, they will see the breakdown of votes by percentage. Voting is anonymous. You won’t know who took your poll, nor will anyone else. But it is a fun way to engage your audience and let them tell you directly what they think about any given question.​

Quick note: each “choice” is limited to 25 characters. Prepare accordingly. Also, like GIFs, you can’t insert a poll into a Quote Tweet or a tweet with media.

Just like GIFs and polls don’t count against your character limit, pictures and videos are likewise exempted from your count. You can add up to four pictures to any tweet that isn’t a Quote Tweet.​

Use your pictures to help tell you story.

But don’t just tweet pictures. Be sure to always tell your audience why you are tweeting them. It should be easy when you still have ALL of your precious 140 of your characters to play with!

Most regular Twitter users know that they can add pictures to a tweet (although I’m not sure how many realize their picture(s) aren't counting against their character count).

This is a tool however that I’ve found few people are aware of. And if they are, I find many don't truly appreciate its power.

When you add a picture (or 2, 3 or 4), you can “tag” people who are in the picture. I put tag in quotes because they don’t actually have to be in the photo for you to tag them. ​

To do so is simple: after you add your picture, click “Who’s in this photo?”

You can then search for any Twitter user by name or handle and tag them in your photo. It’s important to note that you can’t differentiate which picture a particular user is in — you can just tag them in your pictures, generally. But the coolest part about this: you can add up to ten users to any tweet! That should help you save you a whole lot of space since now you don’t have to write out all those handles within your tweet in order to tag them. ​

Quick note: some users have privacy settings that won’t allow them to be tagged in pictures. You can still tag them in your tweet, you just can’t tag them in your picture.

I mentioned this concept earlier, with the promise to cover it shortly. This is a fun one.

Once upon a time, if you wanted to retweet something, you had to do it sort of manually. You would take the tweet's content, add an RT before it and then send it to your users. This was problematic for numerous reasons, the biggest being tweet length. If a tweet was already 140 characters you couldn’t add an RT. And even if there were three characters to spare, you might not be able to add in the original sender’s handle. That led to awkward MTs, or modified tweets (if you don’t know this acronym, here's a bunch more you also might not yet know), where you retweeted an edited version of what someone else had already said. You could modify for length, content or accuracy, but whatever your reason, it certainly complicated the heart of the RT.

So Twitter adapted. They changed the way RTs work. You still occasionally see old school RTs, but it’s rare.

Then Twitter added the Quote Tweet.

When you go to retweet on your tablet or your smartphone, you’ll see be asked if you want to Retweet or Quote Tweet. Or your computer, you’ll have the option to Retweet, or to “Add a comment…”

Similar to Quote Tweets, Twitter changed the way that replies work. It used to be that when you hit reply, Twitter automatically added the handle of the person who sent the original tweet, as well as any other handle tagged within.

But Twitter realized that people were struggling with what came to be known as “tipping canoes:” Twitter conversations that were so full of handles that there was no place left to actually add your thoughts.

So now when you hit reply, the original sender and all tagged handles will still automatically be tagged in your response, but they will be tagged outside of your actual tweet. Meaning you can respond to one handle, or a big group, without worrying about tipping that Twitter canoe.

So let’s say that instead of Quote Tweeting a response to @BarackObama, I replied to him.

I still have all 140 characters for my response.

Likewise, if I reply to @JimmyKimmel while he is thanking @SenatorCollins for doing the right thing on healthcare, they will both be tagged without taking away from my character count.

Okay, that is six ways that Twitter now offers for us to get more of each and every tweet.

But the Twitterverse still wasn’t satisfied and they are notorious for finding clever workarounds to problems that bother them.

Sometimes what you have to say won’t fit into 140 characters, no matter how many other tools you have at your disposal. At that point, you can thread together your tweets to tell a longer story.​

Anytime you reply to a tweet, from anyone including yourself, Twitter will connect those two tweets with a blue line.

So if you have a longer story to tell, break it up into tweetable chunks and then share it, one piece at a time. But be careful — they have to be in the right order, or they will be impossible to follow.

To do this is simple: send your first tweet. Then reply to it. Then reply to that one. Then that one. And so on.

FYI — Threading tweets like this is sometimes referred to as a Tweet Storm.

There are many different ways people choose to differentiate a tweet from a threaded tweet. After all, your followers won’t know there’s more to come if you don’t tell them.

The most common approaches are as follows:

• Ellipses (either at the end of each tweet OR at the end of each tweet AND the beginning of each one that follows)
• 1/, 2/, 3/… x/x
• 1/x, 2/x, 3/x… x/x
• 1/, 2/, 3/… <end>
• Sometimes people just write:
  • That’s it
  • I’m done
  • All finished
  • Or the close-off of their choice.​

If you are going to thread tweets, find a way to clarify it for your audience. It’ll help them follow along.

So that’s six new(ish) ways to get more of your tweets and a bonus user hack you should know about.

Do you have any additional tips or tricks you've found to get more out of Twitter? Respond in the comments and/or share them with me on Twitter. I want to hear from you!

Want to learn more about any of the above concepts, or anything else about this often-perplexing platform? Book a class today to become a Super Twitterer.

Don’t ask people to buy a ticket. Get them to ask you how they can buy a ticket!

Tip 7 — The Power of Facebook Groups
Facebook sees Groups as a big part of their future and is investing heavily in them. Take advantage of this powerful online tool. 

Find groups of likeminded people and join them (you can explore Facebook’s countless Groups at Facebook.com/Groups). If you can’t find a group of like-minded people, start your own!

The biggest strength of a Facebook Group is the same as the biggest strength of a Facebook Event: the notification!

Every time someone in the Group posts, members get a notification.

It’s a far better tool for talking to like-minded people than posting to your timeline and hoping it will get seen by the right people.

Groups can be public, closed or private:

• Public Groups still requires that users join, but anyone can see the content that has been shared within
• Closed Groups require access to join and to see what has been posted—but anyone can search and find the Group on Facebook
• Secret Groups are completely shielded from public view—non-members can’t even see that they exist

Choose your settings accordingly.

Tip 8 — The Power of Facebook live
When it comes to Facebook reach and engagement, text is good. Pictures are better. Video is better still. And Facebook Live trumps them all.

When you use Facebook Live, whatever your phone’s camera (or now your webcam!) is seeing is broadcasted over your timeline in real time. It’s a great way to share your events with a larger audience, to tell your story, to excite people about your events (you can go Live directly into a Facebook Event or Group) and so much more! If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. It’s a fun tool and will all but guarantee increased reach and engagement over your current content.

Tip 9 — Know your tools 
If you are going to be spending time online, don’t spend that time spinning your gears. You need to understand the platforms you are using to ensure you are getting the most out of them.

Knowing your tools includes important things like how to tag people on different platforms, how to schedule content, why people put a period (.) before a tag (@) on Twitter, as well as understanding the free analytics tools you have access to and so much more.

Follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook for lots of awesome tips. Read through my blog for plenty of helpful explainers. Book one of my social media training classes for you and/or your cohort. Or simply head to Google whenever you are confused and read a blog post or watch a video explaining how or why something works. If you are asking the question, someone has probably answered it online. So stop spinning your wheels and start reading/watching/digging in.

Tip 10 — Engage, educate, inspire

• Engage -- Don’t go on social media to talk at people. Go there to talk with people.
  
  Ask people in your community how they feel about issues that are important to you. And then listen to their answers. Have conversations with people with whom you agree AND with whom you disagree.
  
  There's an important rule in online culture: Don't feed the trolls. But not everyone with whom you disagree is a troll. It's important to distinguish between those who act like jerks just for the sake of it, and those with whom you disagree, but are genuine in their beliefs and their convictions.
  
  
• Educate — You don’t need to be a college professor to have something worth sharing. Use your personal experiences to help paint a fuller picture of a story everyone is discussing.
  
  If you read an article online and you think it’s interesting, your community will probably be interested as well. Share it. (But don’t JUST share it — tell us why you are sharing it. Are you happy about it or frustrated? If you don’t want to write something out, you can choose a pull quote and copy and paste it into the text. Find a way to give your community the context they need to know why you are sharing whatever it is that you are sharing.)
  
  
• Inspire — Show people that there’s a better way. Engage people you don’t agree with, without calling them a jerk (even if they are being one). Stand up for what you believe in, but be articulate and clear about why. Always be respectful, honest and aware.

​There are so many good people online, but sometimes the trolls and the bots are louder and more persistent. It’s our responsibility to come together and ensure that we don’t cede these valuable online spaces to the worst amongst us. Social media can be an amazing tool or a toxic wasteland. Let’s ensure the good are heard, engaged with and supported, and let’s not waste our time fighting with those who want nothing more than to draw blood. They aren’t worth the effort.

You can make a difference in your community by setting an example, by educating your networks and by digging in rather than checking out. 

The internet isn’t the solution for all of life’s problems. But it is a great tool for organizing, learning and connecting. Know your tools, build your community, share your story online and work towards creating the world you know is possible.

These are my ten tips. But this list is far from exhaustive. What would you add?

Yesterday, Donald Trump Jr. tweeted this:

The backlash was quick and it was fierce. A particularly good response (one of thousands) came from Jon Favreau, who used to work for President Obama.

And on the other end of the spectrum, here’s one from @darth:

It’s worth noting that as offensive as Trump Jr.’s tweet was, it wasn’t even an original idea.

When Ben Carson was running for president, he often used a similar analogy to justify his opposition to accepting Syrian refugees, except he substituted Skittles with rabid dogs.

Mike Huckabee, during his run for president, used peanuts. Others have replaced Skittles with M&Ms or grapes.

Former Congressman Joe Walsh—who you might remember as the guy who threatened President Obama in the aftermath of this summer’s shooting in Dallas—was offended by the tweet, but only because he didn’t get an h/t.

Suffice to say, it’s not a new argument.

Now imagine you are Skittles (the brand), and suddenly—inexplicably—you find yourself trending on social media. What’s your response?

Really think about what you would do. A massive, household name is being equated with poison and refugees and xenophobia. Do you attempt to “capitalize” on the situation, ensuring the world that every Skittle in the bowl is good and poison-free? Do you try to be funny, serious, irreverent, angry… On a situation like this one, you could ask a hundred branding experts, and they would all probably have a different idea.

And yet, Skittles managed a perfect response. Here it is in its entirety:

Skittles are candy. Refugees are people. We don’t feel like it’s an appropriate analogy. We will respectfully refrain from further commentary as anything we say could be misinterpreted as marketing.

In 30 words, they clarified that they are offended by the comparison, that they don’t agree with it, and that they would now be shutting the hell up.

In fact, despite the fact that they are a brand with a vibrant social media presence, their Facebook and Twitter accounts have gone completely radio-silent since this controversy erupted yesterday.

Here is the lesson for brands: don’t see every mention of your brand as an opportunity to raise sales or increase market share. You can’t capitalize on tragedy; trying typically raises your profile in ways you don’t want and associates you with a story which you probably don’t want to be a part of.

It’s so easy to see how this could have gone wrong for Skittles. Instead, they came out the heroes in the story. Or, at the very least, not one of the villains.

Epilogue
The bowl of Skittles in the picture that Trump Jr. tweeted was used without attribution. And much richer than that: the photographer was once a refugee himself!
 
Want to read more great responses to this awful tweet. Here are 21 you are sure to appreciate. Did you see any others in the Twitterverse that aren’t on this list? Tweet them at us or share them in the comments.