Social Media Refresher

26 Mar Social Media Refresher

Posted at 07:00h in Germono Blog by

By Bobbie Anne Williams, Marketing Assistant

Social media is in a constant state of change. Technology is always updating, new features are arriving, and trends are moving faster than ever. It can be hard to keep up with! Don’t worry, I’m here to help with a social media refresher. I’m going to highlight some Facebook and Instagram features that have been updated, changed, or no longer exist to keep you in the loop. Don’t see the feature you were wondering about? Send me an email to BobbieAnne@germono.com and I’ll answer your question.

Remember this commercial about posting to your Facebook Wall? It’s one of my favorites.

Well, if you’re still referring to your Facebook Wall it’s time to jump forward into the next decade and update your verbiage to Facebook Timeline. In January 2012 Facebook retired the Wall and transitioned to the Timeline. This was a period when Facebook decided to move the focus from one on one interaction to more community engagement. Using the most up-to-date verbiage allows your followers to understand your posts while keeping your posts professional.

Facebook User Interface

In 2020 Facebook made its largest user interface change in 5 years! These updates are all important to keep in mind as you build your social media strategy. Here are a few subtle changes that you may not have noticed:

1. A blue ring highlighting a profile picture signifies that the Facebook account has an active story. To view their story, simply tap or click on the profile picture.

2. Facebook followers are no longer displayed underneath a Page name in the feed. It now displays the privacy setting of an individual post. Page posts are always set to public, which is what the globe icon signifies.
3. When Facebook introduced the popular change of having multiple reaction options, they also updated their Like, Comment, and Share icons.
4. While viewing Facebook from a desktop you can easily toggle back and forth from engaging as yourself to a business page you manage.

Facebook Hashtags

For years we avoided recommending the use of hashtags on Facebook because they just weren’t user-friendly and they cluttered the look of a post which made it difficult to read. Recently, we’ve changed our position on the topic because Facebook has made some updates that make hashtags a little more relevant on their platform. We still only recommend a select few (1-3 max), but go ahead and start adding a few to your business posts for an opportunity to reach new followers.
Tip: To avoid cluttering your post, add hashtags to the end of the description.

Save a post

Are you still guiding your followers to take a screenshot of posts you want them to save? There is a much easier (and organized) way to guide your followers to save your post. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have options to save posts you want to revisit later within their apps. For Facebook, simply ask your followers to tap on the corner menu to expand post options, then save!

Facebook and Instagram will allow you to sort your saved posts into collections for better organization. Twitter has a similar feature called lists. Because of these features, you can encourage your followers to save your posts as your call to action!

Instagram Stories

In 2016 Instagram introduced a new feature called Stories, modeled off of the already popular feature by Snapchat. Stories are a quick, easy way to share moments and experiences that are only available for 24 hours. Since then they have introduced mentions, hashtags, boomerangs, GIFs, and an entire library of filters to choose from. As users continually shift towards video viewing, Instagram has followed consumer behavior by implementing more video features to use to create and edit Stories, and now to use in Reels as well. As you can see, Instagram Stories received a few revamps over the past few years. Our advice is to make sure your account is using Stories on a regular basis so you don’t miss any new updates.

 

I hope this was a helpful refresher for you. If you find yourself in need of a more in-depth social media refresher, I offer affordable hourly educational sessions with a 30-minute complimentary consultation included. Email me at BobbieAnne@germono.com to schedule some time together. Happy posting!

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