Christian Karasiewicz, Author at Christiankonline.com

The Twitter media grid – quickly access tweeted photos and videos

Did you know, Twitter has its very own grid for storing your media. It’s called the Twitter media grid.

What is the Twitter media grid?

The Twitter media grid is a page on Twitter where you can quickly access any photos or videos that you’ve tweeted out. This is a very helpful tool and definitely a link that you should bookmark if you’re someone who shares a lot of photos and videos and want to be able to access this information quickly.

Twitter media grid vs Twitter archives

For those of you thinking of downloading your Twitter archive to find your tweets with photos or videos, while this is another way to access past tweets, it’s not as efficient.

While you can download your Twitter archive, the Twitter media grid can help you save time having to comb through past tweets.

If you know that you’re looking for a photo or video that you tweeted out, instead of using your Twitter archive, you can quickly access the Twitter media grid to find what you’re looking for.

And because the Twitter media grid is visual, you can easily scroll through and see the content you’re looking for whereas your Twitter archive would require you to search for the specific terms you’re looking for.

As your tweet volume grows, this may mean you’ll have to go through tens of thousands of tweets. Not exactly an efficient use of time.

How to use the Twitter media grid Continue reading The Twitter media grid – quickly access tweeted photos and videos

How to turn off retweets on Twitter & should you?

Earlier this week, the question was raised on if you should turn off retweets on Twitter and if this was common practice among other Twitter users.

If you’re unfamiliar with this feature and are scratching your head on why someone would want to turn off retweets on Twitter in the first place, you’re not alone.

Most users don’t even know this feature exists, so why would they want to turn off retweets?

The overcrowded Twitter stream

If your Twitter stream has gotten overrun with too many retweets from specific followers, you can simply reduce the number of retweets that you’re seeing in your stream just by turning off retweets.

When you turn retweets off on Twitter, one thing to remember, you’re not turning off all of the retweets that you see in your Twitter stream. What you’re doing is turning off retweets for specific users that you follow.

This means that in your Twitter stream, you’ll still see all of the normal tweets from a specific user, just not the ones that they retweet from others.

Should I turn off retweets on Twitter?

One thing that puzzled me about turning off retweets is that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to begin with. Why would someone want to turn off their retweets?

Most sites on the web are teaching you different ways to get more retweets. There’s even the Twitter list feature, which was recently expanded to allow you to create 1,000 Twitter lists with 5,000 members in each.

You can also create a Twitter retweet link to include in your content to encourage people to retweet and share it more!

So should you turn off retweets on Twitter?

Personally, I don’t see the point of turning off retweets. Sure, my Twitter stream may be full of retweets, but that’s a good thing, because normally, that’s how I discover new people to follow.

To discover or not to discover, that is the question

When you go to turn off retweets on Twitter, remember, there’s no magic switch to automatically turn off retweets for specific users. You actually have to go to each profile and turn off retweets for that user.

To me, that seems like a waste of time. I could avoid all of this by creating a Twitter list for people that retweet too much (make sure you make it private so they don’t see the name of the list) and consume my Twitter stream this way.

One other thing about turning off retweets is that you are turning off the discovery side of Twitter.

Retweets are a great way to learn about new content, but also to find new people on Twitter that your followers follow, but you don’t. This means you’re going to need to spend more time finding new users to follow.

Overall, it seems like you’ll need to also find more time in your day if you choose to go this route and turn off retweets.

I like to give the following example when talking about turning off retweets.

Turning off retweets on Twitter is like turning off likes, comments and shares on Facebook. (tweet this).

How to turn off retweets on Twitter

If you’re still not convinced and want to turn off retweets on Twitter, here’s how.

1. Sign in to Twitter

2. Visit a Twitter users profile who you want to turn off retweets for

3. Click the dropdown menu next to the “follow” button. Select “turn off retweets”

Question: Do you find your Twitter stream overcrowded with too many retweets and would you consider spending the time to go through your hundreds or even thousands of followers to turn off retweets for each? Let me know how you feel about turning off retweets by leaving a comment below.

How to use Facebook hashtags on Facebook Profiles and Pages

While hashtags on Facebook have been available because of users automating Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest updates to their news feed, they did not become official until today. Now Facebook has their own hashtag called Facebook hashtags that you can use when posting status updates.

Grouping content on Facebook with hashtags

The main advantage of Facebook hashtags is that you can make it easier to follow conversations in your news feed. For example, instead of scrolling through your Facebook news feed and seeing lots of updates about the same type of conversation such as the NBA Finals, you can click on a hashtag to filter your conversations so that you only see ones associated with the #NBAFinals.

In addition to helping streamline your news feed, Facebook hashtags will also help with Facebook Graph Search. This means you’ll be able to find updates and discover new people and pages to connect with on Facebook.

How to use Facebook hashtags

If you’re familiar with Twitter hashtags, Facebook hashtags are not very different. Basically, it’s a way to organize content posted to Facebook.

To use hashtags on your Facebook Profile or Facebook Page, simply type the hashtag symbol (#) in front of a word.

For example, if you’re interested in the NBA Finals, you would type #NBAFinals.

Other types of hashtags include popular television shows, such as #GameofThrones, #DowntonAbbey, #Oscars, #Emmys, #WorldSeries, etc.

Features of Facebook hashtags

Here are a few helpful tips on using Facebook hashtags:

You can include Facebook hashtags in status updates and comments
Clicking on hashtags posted on Facebook will sort your Facebook news feed updates for that specific topic
Hashtags includes in updates from sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest will function when clicked
You can search hashtags by entering them into Facebook Graph Search
Only public conversations are searched
Facebook hashtags within Facebook advertising is not supported (yet)
You cannot pay to promote a hashtag on Facebook – use Facebook promoted posts instead
Facebook hashtags do not work on mobile at this time

How can I get Facebook hashtags?

Just like all new Facebook features, not everyone has this feature just yet. To get Facebook hashtags, you don’t have to fill out any forms. Facebook will be rolling them out to everyone over the next few weeks.

When you do finally get them, you’ll start to see hashtags appear in your news feed. These will be clickable.

How can I use Facebook hashtags to my advantage?

If you’re someone who has your tweets automatically published to your Facebook Profile or Facebook Page, you don’t have to feel silly using hashtags now. Your friends can also join the conversation without feeling awkward.

In addition, there are other ways you can benefit from using Facebook hashtags in your status updates.

Insert your Facebook post into a conversation
If you have your tweets automatically posted to Facebook, the hashtags will now be clickable (a time-saver!)
If you’re a business, expand your conversations to reach new customers for specific events. Ex: #fathersday, #superbowl, etc.

Question: Now that Facebook hashtags are available, how do you plan to use them, or will you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

How to get more likes on Facebook [infographic]

When you talk about how to get more likes on Facebook, people often think you’re strictly talking about getting people to like your Facebook Page. There’s actually another type of like that’s more important to Facebook users. This is getting people to like your content that you post on Facebook.

Why should I try to get more likes on Facebook?

As I mentioned, it is more important to get people to like your content than to like your Facebook Page.

This is because when people like your Facebook Page, this only gets them to the door. It doesn’t get them to enter and to begin participating (engaging) with you.

When you get someone to begin liking your content on Facebook, this means that you have taken an even bigger step and you have their attention (if only briefly).

The good thing is that when you get more likes on Facebook content, not only have you helped out that user by providing something they found valuable (they liked your content, right?), but they’ve also told their friends, and also told you what kind of content that you posted that they find valuable

This can do a number of things.

For instance, when someone likes a piece of content, you just took the first step to building a more meaningful and long-term relationship with that user.

Additionally, they have told you what kinds of content they find interesting. This provides extremely valuable data on what types of posts you should be making on Facebook. You also now have the opportunity to grow that relationship with those users because you know what they want. All that’s left to do is post it!

So what types of Facebook posts should you consider making? Here are a few that are guaranteed to help you get more likes on Facebook:

Posting photos receives 53% more likes
Posting photos receives 104% more comments
Posting photos receives 84% more click-throughs
Posting 1-2 times per day gets higher engagement than posting 3+ times per day

So what other ways can you get more likes on Facebook? This infographic covers the ones I mentioned along with a number of others that can help you get more likes on Facebook content and improve your relationships with your audience.

How can I get more likes on Facebook?

Continue reading How to get more likes on Facebook [infographic]

Google Takeout – How to Save and Backup Google data

When you first hear the term Google Takeout, it sounds as if Google is getting ready to open its own chain of Google restaurants. While they supposedly have a great Google cafeteria, the only thing Google Takeout is serving is your data.

What is Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is a tool from Google to help you “download a copy of your data stored within Google products.”

This means that if you use YouTube, you’ll be able to download an entire archive of your videos. At last count, we had 270+ videos on our YouTube channel. That’s a lot of work we definitely want to keep a backup of should YouTube ever go down.

What kind of data can I download from Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is a pretty remarkable product. Here is a list of the Google products you can download data for using Takeout.

How to use Google Takeout?

Google Takeout is pretty straight-forward to use. Simply follow these steps.

1. Login to Google Takeout

2. Select the data you want to download

You can choose to download all of your data at once or be selective about the data you download. If you have previously used Takeout to download your data from Google, there is a downloads tab that you can choose to look at past downloads.

3. Select “create archive”

When you select “create archive,” Google will begin to download your data.

Note: In my experience, it only takes a few minutes to download your Google data from Takeout.

4. Click “download” and save your file to your desktop (it downloads a zip file)

Once Google has finished with your data, select “download” to save a copy to your computer. If you like, you can unzip the file and check out your data that Google downloaded.

One thing I like most about this is how organized your data is.

Note: if you have previously used Google Takeout to download your data, it will appear below your current archive.

Is Google Takeout helpful?

Overall, I find Google Takeout to be an extremely fast and efficient product from Google. I like how I can download an archive of my data and know that I can have this in case something ever goes wrong or I simply just want to be able to reference my past content.

One thing I wish it had were a way to schedule a backup. Right now, you’re left to use Takeout to download your Google data on your own time.

Question: Give Google Takeout a try and let me know what you think about it. Did you have any issues using Takeout to download your Google data? How fast was it for you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

How Google works? [Infographic]

If you’ve ever been curious about how Google works, then we have the answer (well, part of it).

In fact, it’s actually very fascinating if you really think about it. Most people assume that Google just consults a database when you enter a Google search. We wish it were that simple to determine what content to show to users after they perform a Google search.

Instead, they sort it, rank it, run it through more filters, compare it against different policies that are in place, run it through some more filters and finally end up bringing that content back when you perform a keyword search on Google. Sounds like a lot of steps doesn’t it? I’m sure there are a lot more in fact.

If you want an abbreviated version on how Google works, here’s the short version.

How Google works (short version)

Create really good content
Build your website so that Google can understand how it is structured / mapped out
Tell people about your content

How Google works (long version) – the infographic Continue reading How Google works? [Infographic]

Facebook Group vs Facebook Page, Which Is Best?

So you’re thinking about creating a Facebook Group or a Facebook Page for your business or organization. Before you pick one over the other, be sure you look over our social media smackdown: Facebook Group vs Facebook Page.

We know how difficult it can be to decide on an area of Facebook to use to grow your business or organization. That’s why we break everything down for you and show you what the main differences are between a Facebook Group vs Facebook Page.

This way you can make a more informed decision on which one to use instead of trying one out, finding it doesn’t do what you want to do, and then having to start over.

To help you out, we’ve also created an infographic for you that covers the differences between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page. This way when you’re ready to decide on which one to use, you’ll have all of the information you need to make decision on which one is right for you.

So which one should you choose, a Facebook Group vs Facebook Page? Let’s find out!

Facebook Group vs Facebook Page, which is better?

Continue reading Facebook Group vs Facebook Page, Which Is Best?

Facebook Verified Pages and Profiles – What To Know

Today, Facebook announced that they’re finally launching Facebook verified pages and profiles.

Sure, Facebook’s behind the curve because Twitter verified accounts and Google+ verified accounts have been around for a while, but why should that stop them. They’re already the dominant player in social media and have been for years without this feature.

What are Facebook verified pages and profiles? Continue reading Facebook Verified Pages and Profiles – What To Know

Changing Facebook photo privacy settings [video]

Each time you upload new photos to a photo album, it is important that you have the right Facebook photo privacy settings set to help keep unwanted people from viewing your photos.

For most users though, this is a setting we often forget. This is because we assume that everything posted to Facebook is only available to our friends or because we find Facebook privacy settings difficult to find and change.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case. That’s why you need to be sure to set your Facebook photo privacy settings for each photo album.

Why set Facebook photo privacy settings?

When you don’t set the privacy settings on Facebook photo albums, you leave yourself vulnerable. In most cases, your photos are public, meaning anyone who isn’t your friend can view them.

Because of this, I recommend checking your privacy settings for every photo album that you have on your Facebook profile to ensure that you’re not letting unwanted people view your photos.

So how do you set your Facebook photo privacy settings to keep people you don’t know or people you don’t want to view your photos out? We’ve compiled short video tutorial to help you do this.

How to set Facebook photo privacy settings on albums Continue reading Changing Facebook photo privacy settings

12 Things to Do After Blogging [Infographic]

You’ve finished your blog post. Now what? Traffic will surely start rolling in, right? After blogging and hitting publish, you’re not done though. In fact, there’s a lot more that you need to be doing if you’re serious about getting your blog posts seen by more readers.

If you want your blog posts to succeed after you hit publish, make sure you’re doing these 12 things after blogging. Not only will they help you spread the word about your blog posts, but they’ll also help you track your blog posts so that you can see what is and isn’t working and refine your blogging efforts for your next post.

So what are these 12 things you need to be doing after blogging to help ensure that your blog post is successful and that it gets seen?

12 things to do after blogging

Continue reading 12 Things to Do After Blogging [Infographic]