Facebook Tip - How To Get Thumbnail Images To Show On Links

Facebook tip: Have you had this problem?  You want to post a link to Facebook, you paste it into the status update box and the title comes up but there’s no image to accompany it. You try it over and over again with no luck. There’s a picture on the website but none appears on the page.

Luckily there’s an easy solution.  I discovered it last week thanks to Fiona from Hunters Lodge Living at our bloggers meetup. Using the Facebook De-bugging tool you can force Facebook to recongise the images. Here’s how it works:

 

If you are a Twitter newbie or are nervous of getting started sign up for my A Beginners Guide To Twitter online course starting on 10th of June. More info here.

How To Create Facebook Interest Lists

Last week I wrote a blog post about the importance of conversations on Facebook.  In that post I mentioned Facebook interest lists as a good way to keep on top of posts from important people and even your competitors. They work a bit like Twitter lists.  Here’s how you can create them.

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This post is slightly different to my usual weekly video tutorials. I wanted to share some of the Vine videos created by a group I was working with.

I think I’ve been obsessed with Vine since it first hit my iPhone. The six second video app is so user friendly that it’s bound to take off. I’ve been telling the groups of people I have been working with since that it is going to be the next big thing. I think the key to it’s potential success is the interface. You simply hold your finger on your iPhone screen for the duration of a shot. If you want to shoot multiple shots you take your finger off to pause the recording.

I have only made a handful of Vines so far, I think the biggest barrier for me has been my own expectations. Do people expect me to be good at it? Like any new application my first few efforts were dire but I think I’m slowly getting better. Last week I worked with a group of graduates and jobseekers on a Digital Marketing course for SureSkills. I was delighted at how quickly they picked up the tool so I thought I’d share there first Vines with you.

Here’s my attempt at showing them at work:

And a very clever idea from @LaMachine’s team

Two groups emptied a bottle of water as part of their Vine. Here’s one of them from @cdsb20′s group

 

 

From @MichelleCMolloy’s group an Elephant growing up which kinda works

 

 

Followed by one that not only works but is quite scary!

 

 

It was great to work with such a creative group but what I learnt the most from them is not to be afraid, to just shoot and have fun with the app.

The good news is that Vine will be coming to Android soon so many more people will be able to play, I’m going to enjoy continuing to watch it bloom.

If you’d like to follow this creative group of new Viners on Twitter here’s a list to follow.

How To Merge Facebook Pages

If you have recently migrated your Facebook page and now have two business pages, or if you have created more than one page for your business in the past the good news is you can merge Facebook pages together.

You can merge up to five Facebook pages into one identity but they must all have exactly the same name, or very similar names. Once you have applied to merge  pages  you may need to wait a few days for it to happen. Facebook will keep you informed and let you know if your request has been approved.  Here’s how to send your request:

 

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How To Delete A Twitter Virus

I’m sure everyone has gotten one of those spammy messages from a friend on Twitter.  They usually say something like ‘OMG I can’t believe what they’re saying about you’ followed by a link.  If you didn’t realise in time that it was spam and clicked the link your account will start sending out spam too. How do you get rid of a Twitter virus?

Lots of people have clicked these kinda links in the past, even famous tweeters so don’t panic here’s a quick video to show you how stop the messages going out and get rid of the app that is causing them.

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How To Find Out If You Are Getting Negative Feedback On Your Facebook Page Posts

Edgerank is the Facebook algorithm that decides who is going to see content that you post on Facebook.  We all know that our posts have been reaching less people in the last few months and part of this can be attributed to a change in edgerank. Probably the biggest change has been that ‘negative feedback’  page posts have received in the past now influences who sees posts in the future.

Negative feedback can be someone hiding a post, hiding all posts from your page, un-liking your page or marking content as spam.  It’s not unusual for a page to get some negative feedback but if you find you are getting a lot it’s worth re-assessing your posting policy.  But how do you know if you get negative feedback?  Here’s how to find out.

 

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Quick Tip - Improve The Sound On Your Videos

Do you have a problem with the sound on your videos? Maybe you are so far away from the camera that it’s too quiet or there is a lot of background noise? Maybe like me you record on different devices for one video and the sound quality varies.  You could buy yourself a fancy microphone or you could try this simple solution using your smartphone. Here’s how:

 

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Quick Tip - Shooting Better Video - How To Avoid Silhouettes

Last week I reviewed the excellent book ‘How To Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck’ by Steve Stockman and it inspired this simple tip for shooting better video.  When we start out making online video we make lots of mistakes and this is one I see coming up over and over again.  If we are interviewing someone in an office it’s tempting to shoot them against a window but this is no easy task. Here’s what happens and why you should avoid it.

I’ll be sharing more tips on shooting better video over the coming months.

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Content Calendar Tip

The new year always gives us the opportunity to start fresh, one great way to get started on the right foot with your social media in 2013 is to create or review a content calendar for your social media.

There are lots of benefits to having a content calendar

  • It saves time
  • It keeps you focused
  • It helps eliminate bloggers block

This quick tip will help inspire you to get started with your content calendar: