This is a short episode, adapted from an article I wrote 5 years, about the importance of engaging with positive comments on social media. It's as true today as it was the day I wrote it. So I wanted to share it with you, my podcast listeners.

​If someone goes out of their way to say something nice about you on social, and you can't be bothered to smash that like button, you should re-evaluate why you are on social in the first place!

Listen to the full episode here or wherever you stream podcasts. And scroll down for a full episode transcript.

​​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.​

I wrote a version of this post 5 years ago. It’s just as true today as it was then . So I wanted to share it with you, my podcast listeners.

On Friday night — five years ago — I went to see a Grammy winning bluegrass legend wow his crowd with songs spanning his 40+ year career.

Because I’m both a bluegrass nerd and a social media nerd, I streamed one of his songs via Facebook Live.

It was late on a weekend night and it didn’t get a lot of views in real time. But over the next 36 hours or so, it was watched a few dozen times. (And now I can go back and rewatch the band anytime I want on my personal Facebook page!) But truth be told, by Sunday night, I wasn’t thinking about the video anymore than I was about the drive to and from the show.

But then Monday morning, something interesting happened — my video was “liked” by the bluegrass legend it featured. 

Now let’s be clear: I don’t think that this artist liked the post himself (although he might have). More likely it was a member of his marketing or management team.

But the notification that he had liked my video popped up, and I have to be honest — I got excited. Like, more excited than I probably should have.

I work in social media for a living. I know how this works. I know he probably has some marketing agency liking positive mentions of him online. But you know what: it still got its intended effect out of me!

Having him like my video felt like getting a high five or a quick hello from a bluegrass legend.

Does that digital high five mean that we are suddenly best friends? Of course not. 
Does it mean I can suddenly shred  on the mandolin like he can? I wish!

Am I still excited enough that it happened that I immediately wanted to tell all my friends about it? Yup.

Liking that post cost him and his team literally nothing. Yet it added to my excitement about the show and about the artist overall.

Social media serves many roles, not least of which is customer service and community relations.

Think about yourself as a movie star. When you walk down the street, people are going to recognize you. You can't stop and have lunch with every fan. You can’t even stop and take a picture with them all or you’d never get anywhere. But you can nod and smile to everyone who waves at you.

That’s what a "like" is on social media — it’s a head nod from a celebrity. It doesn’t suddenly make you best friends or ensure that they will buy your product/go see your next movie/buy your upcoming album. But it shows the fans that you are real, and that you respect them as people, not just as consumers. And it only takes as much time to create that connection as you need to give a single click of your mouse or tap on your phone.

If someone posts about you or your business online, respond. Or at the very least, smash that like button.

If they write you a review, thank them (or address any concerns as needed). But at the very least, like their post and let them know you see them and you appreciate them.

If you see a celebrity on the street, and you wave at them, you are going to tell your friends one of two stories:

“Oh my goodness, I just say this famous person on State Street. It was so cool!”

*** OR ***

“I just saw this famous person on State Street. He was kind of a jerk.”

​You’re the celebrity. Which would you prefer?

In case you missed it, this week Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (IA-01) got absolutely ratioed on Twitter for taking credit for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill… which of course she voted against. 

The worst part is that Hinson didn’t just quietly oppose the bill — which will bring hundreds of millions in federal funding to a project in her district — she absolutely railed against it, calling it a “socialist spending spree,” and “Washington gamesmanship.”

Why did she vote against a bill she apparently supports? Maybe she was too afraid of Donald Trump to vote for something she knew would help her constituents. Or maybe she doesn't understand how voting works and thought she was actually supporting this important legislation. Or, maybe, she just thinks that voters are stupid and she could have it both ways — attacking Democrats for doing the hard work of legislating while also getting to take credit for the results.

While elected officials might have maybe gotten away with this type of behavior in a world pre-internet, there was no escaping the [much-deserved] Twitter roast that followed. 

To recap: Hinson didn’t just vote against this legislation, she worked hard to stop it from passing. Once passed, she headed to Twitter to take credit for it. Twitter responded!

Here are some fire responses to this absurd two-faced approach to legislation:

With over 3,000 quote Tweets and counting (not to mention almost 19k responses!), there were plenty to choose from. 

Any of your favorites not make the list? Hit me up on Twitter and let me know. And as always, make sure to follow the golden rule of the internet - don’t be a hypocrite.

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.

I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands... anyone who wants to get more out of their social media program. I teach classes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

It’s always best practice to read through an article before sharing it via social media.

Sometimes a headline tells you most of what you need to know, and it’s okay to only skim the article, without reading every word. For example, if your local paper reports that a new baby panda was born at your zoo, you can pretty well trust you got the gist of the takeaway before even clicking on the link. It’s still a good idea to read through it, of course, just to be sure there are no critical takeaways/surprising angles towards the bottom of the page. But you are probably safe making assumptions about what you’ll find in the article.

While reading through articles before you share them with your networks them is important, if the article in question is about you, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!

Yesterday, the Salt Lake Tribute named Senator Orrin Hatch “Utahn of the Year.” (Yep, apparently someone from Utah is a Utahn — good to know!)

On its face, this is a pretty big honor. A significant paper from the state’s capital city named Hatch their person of the year. I can see why he would be excited to get that out far and wide to his networks.

Unfortunately for him, the article didn’t exactly line up with the headline.

The very first line of the article should have been a clue to even the most casual of readers: “These things are often misunderstood.”

It then lays out what he has done to deserve such a title.
    •    Hatch’s part in the dramatic dismantling of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
    •    His role as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in passing a major overhaul of the nation’s tax code.
    •    His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.

While the first two bullet points were clearly intended to be direct hits against Hatch, it is possible that he could wear both criticisms as points of pride. If he thinks it’s good to scale back national monuments and to raise working people’s taxes so that massive corporations can get a tax break, then he might have read the opening lines and been proud of his accomplishments.
But of course the opening line of the article made clear that the Salt Lake Tribune editorial staff is far from impressed with their senior senator.

And even if the intention of the first two bullet points confused him, that last one was pretty damn clear: “His utter lack of integrity that rises from his unquenchable thirst for power.”

Oof.

The article goes on to call him a liar who has long overstayed his welcome in Utah. It also says that if he doesn’t retire now, the voters should toss him from office in 2018.

Double Oof.

​I read the article yesterday and thought — "Damn! This is brutal." 

But of course that’s not the story here. The story here is that while I read the article and found it brutal, Senator Hatch (and/or one of his aides) saw the article as well, but never read past the title before proudly shared the scathing op-ed with his Twitter network this morning.

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. ​

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.

People often ask me why I love Twitter as much as I do (in case you are wondering, I love it. A LOT). I have so many reasons, but at this moment, I just want to share one.

There was just a coup in Turkey. That is a pretty big deal, to say the least. I have been scrolling through reports via Twitter for a good 35 minutes reading up on the latest developments. At the time of this writing, there isn’t much known, but there is SOME known.

Out of curiosity, I headed over to my Facebook feed, just to see how relevant this massive international story was for my friends and family. I had to scroll through 41 posts to find anything mentioning the word Turkey. Forty-one.

While Twitter might not have had all the facts, Facebook didn’t seem to even know that something was happening.

While Facebook’s algorithm helps ensure that you see things that you are most likely to be interested in, it’s also slow and can be clunky as hell.

Many people get their news exclusively from Facebook. A Pew Research study earlier this year found that 62% of people get their news from social media, with the vast majority relying on Facebook.

Almost an hour after a coup broke out in a very complicated part of the world, those checking the “news” via Facebook know nothing about the story.

At some point, Facebook’s algorithm will catch up with the events and people will have more info about Erdogan and Ankara and the PKK then they know what to do with. But by that time, the coup will probably be over.

Twitter is reporting in real time while Facebook is working hard to try and figure out which stories might matter.

I use both platforms on a constant basis and can’t imagine losing either. But when people ask me why I love Twitter, days like this are just one of a million reasons.

Twitter, and the internet in general, can be an overwhelming place if you don’t speak “the language.” While this list is neither meant to be exhaustive nor ever up-to-date up with an ever progressing set of terminology, these are some acronyms that you should know.

Come across any others you aren’t sure about? Google can usually provide the answer pretty quickly. But don’t hesitate to reach out. I’ll be happy to get back to you. NP (No Problem).

Without further ado, here are some Twitter (and general social media) acronyms that you should know:

• AMA — Ask Me Anything

Someone might say: “I work with celebrities. AMA.” The idea is that they know something—or do/have done something—interesting and they are ready to answer questions. It’s an acronym more typically used on reddit, but it pops up now and then on Twitter.

• DM — Direct Message

More private than a tweet. Although, not completely private! Remember Anthony Weiner and his privates? That went live because he thought he was DMing someone, but accidentally tweeted it. Just as important, even if he had done it correctly, someone else would still have had the pic and could have shared it. Good rule of the thumb: if you don’t want it to be public, don’t write it down (and for the love of god don’t take a picture of it!!!).

Not sure if you are open to receive DMs from anyone? Here’s a blog post I wrote on the subject.

• FF — Follow Friday

If you follow someone you really like, you can give them nice shoutout through the #FF. Example: #FF @ReverbalC for awesome social media advice. 😉

• FTW — For The Win

• FWIW — For What It's Worth

• HT or H/T — Hat Tip (or Heard Through)

Let’s say you post something on Facebook and a friend sees it and like it. He posts it on Twitter and wants to give you credit. So he would say HT (or H/T) @YourHandle.

• IM(H)O — In My (Humble) Opinion

Facts vs. Opinions. An important distinction!

• ICYMI — In Case You Missed It

This one is important. Some news breaks and you post it online. A few days later, you want to make sure that as many people as possible saw it. Reposting it straight would be a bit of a Twitter faux pas. But if you add ICYMI, you are letting people know that you are re-flagging the story as noteworthy.

• IDK — I Don’t Know

• IRL — In Real Life

• MT — Modified Tweet

This one is less relevant today now that Twitter has changed how we quote tweets. But sometimes you will still see it. Essentially, if you want to quote someone else’s tweet, but need to edit it for length or to fix a typo (NOT to change their meaning), you would add MT. You are letting people know that it was someone else's tweet — mostly.

• NSFW — Not Suitable For Work

Be on the look out for this one before clicking on any links. 😏

• PT — Previous Tweet

If someone says #PT in a tweet, they are letting you know that the current tweet refers to the previous one.

• ROFL — Rolling On the Floor Laughing

A step up (down?) from LOL (Laughing Out Loud).

• RT — Retweet

• SMH — Shaking My Head

Disappointment of the briefest variety.

• TBT — Throwback Thursday

Share a pic of yourself (or someone/something else) from back in the day on any Thursday and tag it #TBT. It's a very popular form of Twitter nostalgia. There's also #FBF (Flash Back Friday). Same idea, different day.

• TL;DR — Too Long, Didn’t Read

Sometimes I’ll read an article and think it’s great. But I know that most people don’t have time. So I can quote tweet it with a TL;DR and a brief summation. For those who want to read the whole thing, great! For those who don’t have time, they can quickly get the gist and move on.

• TFTF — Thanks For The Follow

What I might say (or at least think ) after you follow me on Twitter or Facebook!

Any that I missed? Mention them in the comments, drop me a line or tag me online (Twitter or Facebook). In the meantime, HTH (Hope This Helps)!

Twitter has over 300 million monthly active users who combined send over 500 million tweets PER DAY!

Two thirds of users say they use the platform as a source for news. Every day, countless users are interacting with brands, learning about new products, making decisions regarding charitable giving, voting, what music to listen to, what restaurant to eat at, what museum to visit and so much more.

So here’s a question: Are you and your brand making the most of this awesome platform?

Have a vague understanding that Twitter is important, but you are not sure where to start? Let’s do a Twitter 101.

Use Twitter everyday, but you’re still not sure that you and your brand aren’t getting the most out of the platform? Let’s do an advanced training.

Regardless of where you are, if you are ready to take your Twitter journey to the next level, contact me today. I’ll help you Become a Super Twitterer!

We’ll cover topics like:

• Hashtags
  • What they are
  • How to find them
  • Deciding which ones are right for you
• Tagging
  • What it is
  • Why it’s important
  • How to do it (in a tweet or in a picture)
• Setting up and utilizing lists (both public and private!)
• Pinning tweets
• Setting up and using TweetDeck, a free advanced monitoring program that—when used correctly—can offer you a 30,000 foot view of the entire internet!
• Using Twitter's Direct Messages
• Tweeting GIFs and polls
• Using advanced Twitter search, a free tool that few people use, but that offers ample options for searching Twitter
• Finding upcoming events through Twitter
  
  

We’ll also dive into your Twitter analytics, which show you:

• How your tweets are doing
• Your top follower
• You followers gender, location, interests and how they relate to overall Twitter users
• Your growth overtime
• And much more!

 Trainings for you and your team can be conducted on-site or remotely.

I’ve worked with local, statewide and national political campaigns, nonprofits, small businesses, bands, artists, authors and journalists and more who wanted to better tell their digital story. Ready to tell yours?

I also train people to become Facebook Ninjas, Instagram Champions and more.  
Learn more about how we might work together.
​

I don't know you. But I want to!
If you use Twitter as a way to communicate with clients, potential clients, supporters or fans, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to contact you on through the platform. Anyone can always tweet at you, but sometimes people want to share something privately (good, bad or otherwise). That is where Direct Messages (DMs) come into play.

Your account can be set up so that you can only receive DMs from people who you follow AND who follow you. But that means that if you are an organization or a business, and someone wants to reach out to you privately--if you don’t follow them on Twitter, they won't be able to do so.

Good news: It's an easy fix!

First, let's check your current status. To do this, simply go to your Twitter Settings:

Then go to the "Security and privacy" tab:

Once there, scroll all the way to the bottom and ensure that you have toggled on “Receive Direct Messages from Anyone.”

That’s it. Now any current or potential customer, fan, volunteer, or supporter can start a private conversation. Have questions? Drop me a private DM on Twitter (even if I don't already follow you!).