Not every brand is on social media to sell. Some brands are focused on building community, finding donors or promoting activity. As a social media manager for many brands that don't have a number one goal of selling - it is sometime hard to make tools work for a different purpose. Facebook has been investing in ways that they can help those doing social good on their channels build stronger communities. At a recent summit, they announced some features they are working on that

As someone interested in social media, you already know that there are so many different ways to get information now days. One of my favorites is listening to podcasts. They are easy to listen to while driving or working or cleaning… pretty much anywhere or anytime. You can find them on any topic, including social media. Here are 5 of my favorite podcast episodes that talk about social media. Radiolab “Post No Evil” - This episode talks about Facebook and the development of t

Earlier this year, Facebook rolled out some new features and processes for political advertisers on their platform. You can bet it is in response to the flack they got after the 2016 election. What are they, and how might they impact political campaigns this year? Here are some of the details. First, there is an authorization process. Page admins and account admins will need to submit an ID and residential mailing address for verification. Each address will be confirmed via a

Have you ever shared a link from your website and changed the image so that it cropped better? Or because the image it pulled automatically wasn’t the one you wanted featured? Maybe you’ve changed the preview text on your link to something that is more attention grabbing than the first paragraph. Or maybe it grabs the wrong text. All of these are reasons that I edit the links from my website on Facebook - but that ability will soon be limited. On May 8th, Facebook will change

I’m sure you’ve all been on a Twitter profile or a Facebook page where the images in the header or the profile picture are too grainy, or don’t fit properly so you can’t tell what something says or what it is supposed to be. When you're creating a social media presence for your organization you need to look at these spaces as key real estate and make sure that the images you choose are appropriate, sized correctly and conveying the right message. The sizes for images on most

If you are trying to grow your email list - you know you need to have as many locations for people to sign up as possible, without being intrusive or pushy. I think the new "Call-to-Action" feature on Facebook pages is a perfect way to expand your reach. I know that for certain brands or organizations, I might be more interested in getting on their email list than liking their Facebook page. But up until now, if I was on a Facebook page I would have to leave Facebook and go t

Often we look past the obvious and search for the most popular. Well, I’ve got a little secret. Sometimes the obvious is better than the most popular. Do you check your Twitter analytics? And I don’t mean, do you pay for an expensive Twitter analytic tool. Go to https://analytics.twitter.com right now and start tracking. The information they give you, for free, is worth taking a look at. You can export the data. You can see how much traction each post gets. You can see your a

A top excuse I hear for why organizations are not active on social media is because “social media is only for teenagers” or “my target demographic isn’t on social media.” But did you know that half of internet users over 65 use Facebook? That’s 31% of all seniors. Some other stats from the PEW research worth considering - 74% of college educated internet users are on Facebook and 72% of individuals making $75,000 / year or more are on Facebook. Of all Facebook users, 70% say

Happy election day! People have been talking politics since the days of the ancient Greeks. In today's world, an opinion can get amplified quickly using a wide variety of social media outlets. Campaigns aren't just won door-to-door or on T.V. ads. Social media is playing a larger and larger role every election cycle. A recent analysis of today's midterm election done by the Facebook Data Science Team, showed that 150,000 posts regarding governor races and races for the House