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Instagram and the New Multi-Upload Feature

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For the past few years, multimedia social sharing company Instagram has been working hard to introduce tons of new features to bring in customers to their excellent platform. From Instagram Stories, a variation of the Snapchat Story feature, to Boomerang, and minute-long video clips, Instagram has been constantly evolving in an effort to entice new customers and keep their current customers from jumping to a different social media app.

Now, Instagram has introduced a much-requested feature that is once again changing the game for what users can do with the app. With the release of its latest update, Instagram has added the ability for users to upload a combination of up to 10 photos or videos to one post, cutting out the task of uploading individual pictures and videos, which can bog up your followers’ feeds.

With this new feature, Instagram is essentially adding a slideshow album feature. It appears as a single photo or video in a user’s feed, but when you swipe to the left, more photos and videos are revealed. This is a great feature for business owners who want to show off their products and beautiful photography to their followers, without annoying them with too much “spam posting.”

If you don’t yet know how to upload multiple photos to your company’s Instagram page, we can help you out!

Update Your App

Before you can begin adding multiple photos to a single post, you’ll first need to make sure that your Instagram app is currently updated with the latest version of the app. The version that added the Multi-Upload function was version 10.9 on both iOS and Android, so any version after 10.9 will have the new feature.

Upload

After you’ve updated your app, it’s time to start uploading your pictures and video. You can upload multiple items to Instagram in the same way you used to upload your pictures and videos. All you have to do is click the “+” icon in the bottom center of the app screen. This will bring up a page where you would normally select one photo from your phone’s photo gallery to upload, but this time, you have the option to select more than one item.

Select Multiple Photos/Videos

To select multiple photos, you need to click the button on the right side of the screen that looks like two squares stacked on top of each other. Once you click this button, you’ll notice a circle appear in the right corner of each of the photos in your gallery. When you click on these photos, a number appears in the circle indicating how many photos have been selected so far. Select up to 10 photos and videos, and then click Next to continue to the app’s Editing tools.

Make Edits

Instagram gives you the option of editing all of your uploaded photos and videos at once with the normal filters located at the bottom of the editing window. But you can also edit each photo individually by clicking on the specific photo or video you want to edit. After you’ve made all the edits to your pictures, it’s time to give your post a caption, add your hashtags, add a location, etc. Note: you can only add a caption for the album you’re uploading. Unfortunately, you aren’t able to add individual captions for each photo or video you’re uploading, but hopefully, Instagram will add this feature in the future.

Post!

Now you’re ready to post your awesome multimedia slideshow! When followers see your post in their feed, they’ll know it’s a multi-photo post if they see dots underneath the post. Each dot represents how many photos are in each post, and they can swipe left to see each photo/video.

There are lots of great ways to use this new Instagram feature to show off your awesome products. Check back with the FGmarket in the future to see how you can be utilizing this feature for your business!

Check out Instagram’s official blog for more info on this great new feature.

Creating Catchy Social Media Headlines That Will Attract More Customers

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When thinking about the content that engages you and makes you want to click on it, what usually grabs your attention first? Is it the pictures posted with the content? The subject of the content? Your respect for the company that’s posting the content?

If you’re like me, the thing that always stands out first when scrolling through Twitter, Facebook or other social media feeds is the headline of the post.

The headline is the first step to grabbing your customers’ attention and reeling them into your website through a click.

If you want to know how to write a good headline, whether it be for social media posts, or a blog post, you first have to understand the different types of headlines.

5 Types of Headlines

CoSchedule lists five types of headlines that every content creator and social media manager should know and use.

They are:

  • Question
  • Benefit
  • How To
  • List Post
  • Generic

A Question post does just what it says: it asks a question to the consumer that compels them to click on your link. It could be something like “Want an exclusive deal just for you?” or “Do customers care about (blank) anymore.”

Benefit headlines give your customers a reason to click by providing them something they are looking for right there in the headline. “Great deals on seasonal dresses” or “Increase your profit with this simple tool” are great Benefit headlines.

How To headlines teach your customers something that is beneficial to them. It gives them a reason to follow your account, and keep up with what you’re posting every day, or every week.

List Posts are fantastic for drawing in customers to your website. Buzzfeed, one of the most popular websites on the internet, uses List Post headlines generously for almost every headline they write for their website. Everyone loves lists posts because it makes the information provided easier to consume and understand.

Lastly, Generic posts are exactly what they sound like: basic, no-nonsense posts. CoSchedule cites this as a type of post that you want to avoid doing. Generic posts are boring and oftentimes fail to spark any excitement in your customers. Which means they’re less likely to click on your posts and travel to your website.

Now that you know the difference between the five types of social media headlines, it’s time to start figuring out how to craft the perfect headline (or as close to perfect as you can possibly get).

Powerful Words

The key to a good headline is using powerful words that form emotional connections with your customers.

For example, if I were to write the headline “Get ready for spring,” a headline about encouraging wholesale floral supply companies to get ready for the spring floral season, I’m not going to compel many people to click on my post. But, if I were to add powerful words to the headline, and rearrange it to be a List Post, I can come up with this more engaging headline: “5 Ways You Should Be Preparing For The Busy and Beautiful Spring Season.”

Avoid Clickbait

You should also try to never delve into the world of “clickbait” or “gotcha” headlines. These are headlines that are outlandish and over the top, and promise the reader something in the headline that isn’t always true. These headlines are mainly used by dishonest companies who are simply trying to get people to click on their post and visit their website. Clickbait headlines always end up discouraging the reader and severing their trust with your company.

Headlines are the gateway to getting your customers interested in what you’re talking about. Learn the art of crafting fantastic headlines, and you’ll have no problem bringing in curious customers to your website.

Live Streaming and Webinars: The New Way To Connect With Your Customers

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Traditionally, before the advent of live streaming technology and the Internet, if you wanted to speak directly to your customers to teach them something you would have to put on a seminar or workshop event.

But now, thanks to dozens of new live streaming services, businesses have tons of options for giving their customers a personal, in-depth online seminar with just the simple click of a button.

These online seminars and workshops are known as webinars, and they are a fantastic way to not only add value to your business but to also make a little extra profit along the way.

If you’re looking to start broadcasting your own webinars or live events, check out our tips for what you need to know, and which services work best for your needs.

Where To Start

Before you get started with launching and hosting your own webinars, you need to do a little planning. As with any normal seminar, you can’t jump into it without a little research and rehearsal. Practice your webinar talking points a few times before your actual live event, just to make sure that your comfortable with the information you’re presenting.

You also need to make sure you are knowledgeable on the subject that you’re teaching. If you aren’t the most confident person about a certain subject, you can always ask someone else to lead the webinar for you, such as another employee or a guest lecturer. You want to make sure your customers and guests are getting the best information possible.

Once you’ve planned your webinar, and gotten the right person to host it, it’s time to figure out which service to use.

Services To Use

A few years ago, live streaming was limited in its availability and reach. Services like Meerkat and Periscope were some of the first companies to make live streaming available to the everyday consumer, but eventually, they were forgotten about due to the adoption of live streaming by many of the most popular social media services.

Here are just a few of the social media, and web app, services that offer live streaming:

  • Facebook
  • GoToWebinar
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Snapchat

And there are more and more people jumping on the live streaming bandwagon every day, which can make selecting the right platform for your webinars seem like a daunting task.

Every one of these services is great, but there are a few distinguishing features that you need to know about before selecting the right one.

First of all, most of these services are free to use. All you need to do is sign up for a free social media account (which most of us have anyway). Facebook is probably the most reliable service if you’re concerned with saving your webinars for later viewing or archiving, as it records your video and saves it to your profile after the stream ends. Other services, like Instagram and Snapchat, only keep the videos for a finite amount of time. In fact, Instagram only allows viewers to see your live video while it’s happening. After your stream ends, that’s it! The video is no longer available.

If you’re wanting to get more features and more data tracking capabilities with your live stream, your best bet is to use a paid service like GoToWebinar. This tool is built specifically for businesses looking to do regular webinars and live streaming sessions, and it comes packed with lots of unique features. The pricing of the service might be out of the budget for some businesses, but it’s a fantastic tool if you’re really serious about getting into live streaming and webinars.

Live streaming can be a great tool for connecting with your customers, and hosting your own webinars! Explore what’s out there and see what works best for you and your business.

LinkedIn: A Quick Guide To Using It For Your Business

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Are you on LinkedIn? Well, if you’re not, consider this a reason to jump on board right now: LinkedIn boasts a user base of more than 400 million members.

That’s a huge chunk of the social media presence online. By comparison, Facebook, the most popular social media platform, has more than a billion users, and you’d be hard pressed to find a business out there who doesn’t currently have a Facebook Page.

You can think of LinkedIn as the more professionally-minded Facebook. It operates in much the same way as Facebook, with status updates, connections, profile pages, and messaging. But LinkedIn is primarily a recruiting and networking tool. It’s your Swiss army knife for professional networking online.

So, what do you need to do to make the most of your LinkedIn profile? We’re here to help.

Make Connections

LinkedIn is all about making connections, literally and figuratively. You want to make figurative connections with people when you network, of course, but LinkedIn gives you an actual way to do that, too. When you Connect with someone on LinkedIn, you are adding them to your online network. It’s sort of like adding someone as a friend on Facebook. You can see their profile, status updates, job updates and more, and they can also view that info on your profile. Making connections helps you to find people who might be able to assist you in the future. After all, a contact is only a click away on LinkedIn.

Post Updates

Much like other social media platforms, LinkedIn encourages sharing what’s happening in your life with your followers. This can be in the form of status updates, job updates, fun and informative articles, pictures, and more. If you have a company LinkedIn page, you can post updates of the latest news that’s happening within your own company, such as new projects, new employees, and maybe even a cause or event you’re sponsoring. Social media is all about being social, and you can’t be social if you keep everything to yourself.

Inform Followers Of Job Postings

One of the main reasons companies get a LinkedIn page is to supplement their job listings. You can post job listings and applications on LinkedIn, making the hiring search that much easier. You can also message potential candidates for a job directly if you’d like to offer them a job that way. But be sure to always keep your job openings updated so people know when and how to apply for a job!

Fill Out Your Profile Completely

The profile page was created to be filled out completely. Not some of the way, and not half of the way, but 100 percent. Not only is filling out your profile the best way to give visitors to your page all the info they need to know about you, it’s also important in getting your page found. When you fill out your profile with info such as your website URL, company bio, skills, interests, and more, you’re helping your pages SEO (or search engine optimization). I filled out profile is more likely to rank your page higher in search engine results, leading to more people finding out about your company.

Gather Endorsements

This is more for a personal profile rather than a company LinkedIn profile, but endorsements are another great way to utilized your account. You can be endorsed by your followers for an enormous variety of skills, such as customer service, professionalism, social media, writing, accounting, etc. Basically, any skill that you believe you have, you can have your friends, coworkers, and colleagues endorse you for it. These endorsements show visitors to your profile what you excel at doing, and how professional you are, which could lead to even more business opportunities.

Cross Promote Your Other Accounts

Social media thrives off of cross promotion, or sharing content from one social media account on another one. A good example of this is whenever you have an event that’s coming up. Instead of just promoting the event on Facebook and hoping that people see it, you can also post the details of the event on a LinkedIn status update. This will reach more people than just posting on one website alone, and will also reach a different kind of crowd. Be sure to let your followers know about all of your social media accounts, and encourage them to follow you on everything you have.

This post originally appeared on www.atwillmedia.com. Need a new website? Check out Atwill Media!

Creating Engaging Snapchat Stories

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In just a few short years, Snapchat has grown from a small communication app that teens and millennials use, to a full-fledged social media powerhouse, one that brands all around the world are utilizing in their social marketing strategies.

Why is that? Well, it’s partially due to the fact that most people these days have a very short attention span, and it’s increasingly getting shorter. Snapchat taps into that niche of people who don’t have the time to spend more than 10-15 seconds on any one thing. We’re living in an increasingly distracted world. Snapchat is the marketer’s solution to that distraction.

First, if you’re not a Snapchat aficionado, you might be wondering: what the heck is this thing?

Admittedly, Snapchat isn’t the easiest app to understand if you’re a first time user. Yes, the app sort of walks you through the basics of Snapchat, but to really understand all the tips and tricks of it, you need to dig pretty deep.

So, to make your job using Snapchat a little easier, we’ve created a fun and easy list of all the tricks you need to know to make your Snapchat account better and more engaging!

 Snaps Vs. Stories

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the difference between Snaps and Stories. When you send a Snap on Snapchat, you are sending it to a select person or group of people. This might work for a personal account, but business accounts need to be a little different.

This is where Stories come in. The Stories section of Snapchat lets you upload individual Snaps into a linear progression. Unlike normal Snaps, Stories last 24 hours and can be rewatched as many times as the user wants in that 24 hour period. They’re perfect for businesses, because it brings people to you, instead of sending out mass Snaps to everyone you follow.

Make It Fun

Okay, so now that the difference between Snaps and Stories has been established, we’ll get into the gnitty gritty details of how to make your Stories engaging.

If you’re going to use Snapchast as a marketing tool, the first thing you need to do is understand why people use the app.

Snapchat is made for quick and temporary info. Unlike other social media networks where statuses can be seen later, you have to make your Snaps have an impact almost immediately. Whereas sometimes statuses need to be interacted with and shared a few times to start seeing the effects, your Snaps need to work right away.

So, you have to make your Snaps fun. Don’t send out boring pictures, and don’t record video that will make people skip your story completely.

Some fun things you can do with your story are things like giving your followers a look at some behind the scenes action at work, covering an event you might be at, asking them questions about the company and what they’d like from you, and even do promotions! (more on promotions later). Social media is all about connecting with your customers, and Snapchat is no different.

Use Filters and Drawing Tools

Snapchat is full of fun features that allow you to personalize any Snap with your own unique flare. One of the ways Snapchat does this is through filters. If you swipe left or right after taking a Snap, you’ll cycle through a number of different filters. Some of these filters edit your photo with a nice overlay, some of them include info at the time of the Snap, such as temperature and time, and others give you unique filters based on where you are currently. These are known as geofilters.

You can also use the filters on your face and transform yourself into a number of fun creations, such as a dog, a beautiful model, and so much more! New filters are added all the time, making filters an ever evolving tool.

Another fun way to spice up your Snap is to draw on top of your Snaps using the Drawing Tool. Snapped a pic of something and need to point out a certain aspect of the photo? Draw an arrow pointing to the focal point? Want to draw a fun flower growing in the middle of your shop? Use the drawing tool! You can even encourage your followers to send pics of their artistic skills to you!

Geofilters

Geofilters are a very cool feature of Snapchat that transform any photo into a personalized work of art. These are special features that work with your location/GPS on your phone. When you’re in an area that has a geofilters setup, you’ll get new filters that are specific to your location, such as a geofilters for town, park, or event. These geofilters are created and submitted by users, and are selected by Snapchat as official filters for certain areas.

A really cool thing about geofilters is that anyone can create and submit their own geofilters. Got an event that you want to promote? Create a geofilters before the event and submit it to Snapchat for a certain time and date range. That way, people who are at your shop or event can use the geofilters to customize their experience with your business!

Use It For Promotions

Promotions are one of the best way to utilize Snapchat for business. Many businesses have been using Snapchat to promote their new products, or specials that they are currently running.

For example, got a new product that you want to show off? Why not give your followers an exclusive “first look” at it?

You can even use Snapchat to send out an exclusive coupon that only people who follow you will know about! It’s a great way to make customers feel like they’re getting a special deal that no one else knows about. Exclusivity is a great marketing skill with proven results.

Snapchat can be one of the most engaging, personal forms of social media out there, but it all depends on how you use it. Take advantage of all the benefits of Snapchat today, and see how it can help grow your business!

How To Take Advantage Of Pinterest For Business

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Pinterest isn’t just for making wedding planning boards, french bulldog pics, and too-good-to-be-true cooking recipes. Pinterest can be a fantastic marketing and promotional tool if you know how to use it correctly.

In the early days, yes, Pinterest was mainly used as a visual note-taking and reminder app, where you could save cool things for later viewing. But, over time, Pinterest has morphed into an entirely new beast, one that’s even better suited to promoting your business and e-commerce than you might think.

If you need some help figuring out how to utilize all the neat features available on Pinterest, we’ve got some tips to help you out.

Fill Out Your Info

In recent years, Pinterest has introduced a Pinterest for Business account option. The business account differs than the regular account in a number of ways, most notably it includes the addition of an analytics function, which we’ll talk more about later.

When you sign up for a business account, you need to make sure all of the relevant information is filled out on your profile page. Pinterest will ask you for certain information, such as your Business Type, Location, Website URL, Business Name, an About You section and more that will help Pinners find your profile more easily.

Pin Relevant Content

No one likes to see content that doesn’t interest them when they’re scrolling through their home feed. It’s annoying, especially since more and more people these days require businesses to cater to their needs, rather than stretching a wide net and seeing what gets caught in it.

You need to know your audience and know what they want to see on Pinterest. Most of the time, that means creating Pins with appealing visuals and good info. If you’re a restaurant, Pin photos of your dishes, or maybe a fun recipe for people to try at home. You never know what’s going to prompt people to look into your business and become a paying customer.

Make It Look Good

Pinterest is mainly used by people on the app version rather than the desktop version. That means most people will only see a few Pins on their phone screen at a time, which makes vertical Pins the best ones to use. Make your pictures long, vertical pictures so the customer has to stay on the Pin longer when they’re scrolling through. This makes it more likely that they’ll pay attention to what you’re Pinning. Just be sure to keep your Pins within Pinterest’s guidelines, an aspect ration of 2:3 to 1:2.8 and width of at least 600px.

Create Specific Boards

When Pinning on Pinterest, you don’t just Pin your items to one board, right? You have a variety of boards that are focused on specific interests. It makes organizing your pins so much easier, and you can find the things you need much faster!

Similarly, your customers want to be able to find your products organized into specific boards. It helps them to sift through your Pins at a quicker rate, and will give them the peace of mind they need to make a purchasing decision.

Measure Analytics

Now, to the data. Pinterest has now made access to your account’s analytics easier than ever. That means you can now see how many people your Pins are reaching, your average daily Pinterest profile impressions, which Pins are performing the best, how many people clicked your Pins, and so much more!

This data is highly important for measuring whether your Pinterest account is working, or failing to grab peoples’ attentions. It’s always easier to see what you’re doing right and wrong once you have the data in front of you.

You Can Sell On Pinterest

Pinterest recently released another new feature called Buyable Pins. These are Pins that you set up which allows Pinners to buy your products directly from Pinterest.

Pinners will see a “Buy It” button on a Buyable Pin. When they click this button, order details and payment info are sent to the merchant for processing, and the buyer is able to buy their favorite products directly on Pinterest!

Right now, only a select few Pinterest Business accounts have the ability to sell products through Buyable Pins, but if you’d like more info on how to get this setup, visit Pinterest’s FAQ page on Selling on Pinterest. 

Don’t underestimate Pinterest; it’s a powerful social media tool that can lead to more views on your website, more customers, and more sales!

Don’t Like Snapchat? Try Instagram!

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Are you one of the many people who hasn’t jumped on the Snapchat bandwagon, and doesn’t really want to bother learning a brand new form of social media? Are you content with just using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for your daily updates for your business?

You’re in luck! Instagram wants to make your job easier, with its new Snapchat-like feature, called Instagram Stories.

If you’re new to the 24-hour picture messaging craze started by Snapchat, then this new feature will be completely new to you. But if you’re familiar with how Snapchat works, you’ll notice that Instagram Stories looks very similar to Snapchat Stories (heck, even the name is the same!)

Instagram explains it like this:

With Instagram Stories, you don’t have to worry about overposting. Instead, you can share as much as you want throughout the day — with as much creativity as you want. You can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools. The photos and videos will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.

So, instead of posting pictures that stay attached to your profile for as long as you keep them posted, Instagram Stories allows you to post quick photos or videos that are attached to your profile and disappear after a 24 hour period.

You might be asking, “what’s the advantage of that?” Well, it’s the same advantage that businesses who have been using Snapchat have been enjoying for some time. It allows you to interact with your customers more intimately, by providing them with exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, discounts and deals, and maybe a simple message that you’d rather share for only a specific amount of time!

To use the new Instagram Stories feature, you only need to take a few extra steps in your normal posting routine. To post a photo to Instagram Stories, simply click the Plus sign icon near the top left part of your social feed. You can snap your pic by pressing the white circle at the bottom, or hold it to shoot a short video clip.

Once you’ve taken your picture or video, you can draw on it or add text on top of it (sorry, no fun filters just yet!) Press the white checkmark and your pic or video will be added to your story! Stories from people you follow will appear at the top of your feed, and your own story will show up on your profile page. If there’s a colored circle surrounding someone’s profile picture, you know they have a story to share!

When looking through someone else’s Story, you can click on the screen to move through their story, or swipe left to go on to the next account’s Story. Want to view a picture for longer? Hold your finger down on the screen and you can view the pic for as long as you need. You can also comment on someone’s Story by tapping the Direct Message button and sending them a private message. Public likes and comments aren’t available on Stories, unlike regular posts, but you can see how many people have viewed your Story so you know that it’s working!

The possibilities for using Instagram Stories for your business are boundless! For more info, check out Instagram’s official blog post!

Strengthen Your Network In 4 Easy Steps

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Strengthen Your Network

Do you ever feel like you don’t know enough people? That’s a weird question (especially me) because I tend to think that the fewer people I know and have to interact with, the better. Not because I’m antisocial or rude, but because I find that having a small group of friends and acquaintances makes it easier to balance my social life, rather than juggle interactions between a large group of people.

But that’s not always the best practice in the business world. You kind of need to be social, meet new people and grow your network. It’s called networking, and even though I hate that word with the fury of a thousand suns (along with many, many other marketing terms) it’s a necessary part of having a successful business.

So how do you strengthen your network, making new connections along the way that will get your more business, more profit, and more opportunities in the future? It all starts with the amount of effort you want to put into it.

Start Local

If you want to build your network, start at the very basic level: the people around you. If you don’t have a good connection with the businesses around you, it’s going to be a long and difficult climb to branch out into other areas of the world in building your network. There are almost 30 million small businesses around America, accounting for 54% of all U.S. sales. That’s a huge market that’s waiting to be tapped into! Join your local community outreach programs, get involved in the Chamber of Commerce and local government meetings, and grow your network locally!

Branch Out

Once you’ve got your local level covered, start branching out and searching for networking opportunities outside of your area. It’s easy to build relationships on the local level because those businesses are ones that you see every day. Heck, you might even be distant cousins with another shop owner in your town! The best way to branch out is to use the Internet, because, duh, the Internet is a part of everything we do now. Get active in some online communities, such as chat rooms, Facebook groups, and things like that for entrepreneurs and new business owners. When you start to build your network outside of your local community, you’ll notice more and more opportunities open up for you. You’ll build up partnerships, get more sales, and maybe even learn a few things from someone else along the way.

Have A Strong Social Media Presence

Along with the Internet, social media is a big part of connecting with people in a way that was never possible before the invention of Facebook, or its precursor, MySpace. Social media is a great way to connect with other business owners who are probably in the same boat as you are a.k.a. those who are looking to build up their network as well. Have a connection on Facebook who’s an expert in SEO strategy and content marketing? Send them a Facebook message and see if they can help out! It never hurts to reach out to your new business friends on Facebook and see what their input is.

Attend Conferences/Conventions When Possible

But you can’t do everything online only, right? (well, you can, but that’s not a very happy life to live). The best way to meet new people and strengthen your network is to attend conferences where you’ll be seeing new people everywhere you turn. At many of these marketing and small business conventions, businesses will set up booths to show off what they have to offer. This is a prime time to get contact information and make strong connections. Sometimes, they’ll even have networking parties where you attend a gathering with many other business owners in a casual environment. Attending one of these parties helps make connections by easing the tension. I always feel like forced interactions are always awkward, and never truly succeed in making good impressions and lasting relationships.

Networking can be hard, but with all the new ways to connect out there these days, it doesn’t have to be impossible. Make good connections, earn more business, and help your business succeed with your sweet new networking skills!

Twitter Lists: What They Are And How To Use Them

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Twitter Lists

If you have a Twitter account, then you know how impossible it is to see every tweet from every person you follow, even more so if you’re a larger business who “follows back” thousands of customers.

Although Twitter recently rolled out a new stream algorithm intended to make those tweets you might have missed show up first when you open the app, it’s still not a perfect solution. Thankfully, there’s a better way.

Twitter Lists were created to curate groups of Twitter accounts together, so instead of having to scroll through a massive stream to view all the tweets from the accounts you follow, they can be grouped into nice little bite-sized streams for easy viewing.

To get started with creating Lists, you first need to decide which type of device you want to create them on. There are different ways to create a list, depending on if you have an IOS device, an Android device, or if you’re using a web browser.

iOS

On iOS, first, open up the Twitter app, and then click on the Me tab. Then, click the gear icon. Select View Lists, next, and then tap the Plus icon to create a new list. You can give your list a name and short description, and then decide whether you want your list to be public or private. I’d recommend using the Private setting if you’re using it to keep up with what your competitors are posting because the person you add to a Public list will get a notification whenever they are added to a list. After you’ve finished this, click Save.

Android

The Android app works in much the same way that the iOS app does, except for a few small changes. Open your Twitter app, and then click the overflow icon (the 3 vertical dots). Then select View Lists. Next, tap the Plus icon to create a new list. Follow the same steps as the iOS version, and then click Save.

Web

In order to create a list from your web browser, you’ll first need to login to your Twitter account. Then, click on your profile icon. A drop down menu will appear, and you’ll need to click Lists. Next, click Create New List. Give your list a name and descriptions, and set the privacy settings to either Public or Private. Click Save List and you’re done!

Adding/Removing Accounts From Lists

After you’ve created your list, the obvious next step is to add people to that list. To add someone to your list, you’ll need to go to their profile page and click on the gear icon next to their Follow button. This works on all three versions mentioned above: iOS, Android, and Web Browser. After you click on the gear icon, you’ll need to click Add or Remove Lists, and then select the list you’d like to place the account in. If you placed someone in a list that you’d like to remove them from, uncheck the box beside the list you’d like to remove them from.

Viewing Lists

Once you’ve gotten your lists set and organized, the next step is to view those lists. To view a list you’ve created on a mobile app, you’ll first need to go to your profile page (the Me option) and click the gear icon. You’ll see View Lists, and once you click on that, you’ll see all of the Lists you’ve created. Click on the one you’d like to view, and your Tweet stream will turn into a perfectly curated list of the accounts you want to see. Pretty simple!

Twitter Lists are a great way to organize all of the accounts you follow into easy-to-view streams that guarantee you’ll never miss important tweets by customers, competitors, influencers, and more!

For more on Twitter Lists, check out Twitter’s official Support page! 

3 Ways Sending Out Swag To Customers Can Grow Your Business

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Have you ever done something nice for a person, just for the heck of it? Maybe it’s buying their lunch one day, or opening the door for them. It could also be something as simple as complimenting them and telling them how much they are appreciated. Now, have you ever thought about trying that same strategy on a customer?

Recently, FGmarket received an unexpected gift from a company named Shortstack. The specialize in building engaging social media contests and marketing campaigns. I mentioned their name, and linked to their website, in a previous blog post about social media campaigns. They responded by sending our company some free swag in the mail!

Shortstack T-Shirt
Personalized Message
Shortstack Sticker

Why does this concern you, and why are we bragging about all our cool new gear? It’s simple: customers love to feel appreciated, and they love the unexpected things you can do for them.

Customers Love To Feel Appreciated

You don’t have to replicate what Shortstack did in order to show customers you care. Not everyone can afford to send out free gifts in the mail, but there are a lot of other things you can do instead. For example, why not send out an email coupon for a certain percentage off of one of your products?

Or what about sending a cheap sticker in the mail, with your logo on it? Most people love stickers, and they can put it on their vehicle, laptop, or some other public area to advertise your company to hundreds of other people they might meet every day! It’s an inexpensive and effective way to show you care.

Customers Who Feel Appreciated Are More Likely To Stick With You

Before Shortstack sent their swag to us, I had very little idea about who they were. Now, I’m looking into their software to see if it’s something I could use in the future!

When you do something nice and unexpected for a customer, they’re more likely to stick with you rather than your competitors. And if they’re unaware of who you were before, you might pique their curiosity, which could generate new sales leads! It’s a win-win situation for both parties involved.

You Can Increase Your Social Media Fan Base This Way

When you do a giveaway, whether it be through the traditional mail system or through email, always make sure you include your most important information with your message, including links to your social media pages. If it’s an email, include direct links to your profile pages. If it’s through snail mail, include the URL of your pages, or tell people what username to search for online.

Customers are likely to look you up online once they receive your giveaway. Directing them to your social media pages increase your likes and followers, which in turn generates new sales for your company. Keep in mind that not everyone who likes your Facebook page, or follows you on Twitter, is a current customer; they might be a curious buyer who’s waiting to see how you interact with customers online before they commit to you. More and more customers these days are concerned with consumer-to-business interactions.

Don’t be afraid to show your customers you care! Even the smallest gift is a great way to show your appreciation for their business.