25 Social Media Tips You’ve Probably Never Heard

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by simplyzesty.com

We’re all pretty savvy when it comes to social media, we all know the basics and a lot of us have a deep knowledge of these sites. However, there can always be a few things that can slip through under the radar that we mightn’t have picked up on first-time round or have simply forgotten about. Here are 25 different features that you mightn’t have known about.

1. Making YouTube Videos Unlisted

Unlisted videos are different from private videos. While private videos are only viewable by yourself and 50 other people that you invite, unlisted videos are available to those who have the video’s URL address. To create an unlisted video, simply log into your YouTube account, go into Video Manager, select a video and on the right-hand side of the basics section, you will see the option to make the video public, private or unlisted. Select unlisted and then save the changes.

2. Block All Ads On Facebook

When you’re on the desktop version of Facebook, it can be extremely annoying seeing your page bombarded with ads. Thankfully there are a number of ways to get around this, one of which is AdBlock Plus, which will block ads on Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites.

3. Hide Unwanted Posts (Facebook, Google+)

If there are any particular posts from a person or application that is annoying you, you can get rid of it from your feed or hide all posts from that particular person or app. Scroll the mouse over the post you want to hide, and click on the arrow that appears on the top right-hand corner of the post. One of the options available there is to hide the post, with the option to hide all posts from that particular person. A similar option is available for Google+ users where you can “mute” certain posts.

4. Create Secret Pinterest Boards

A recent feature added by the guys at Pinterest, the new secret board feature allows you to create new boards that you mightn’t want other people to see, whether it’s for your own personal reasons or if you’re keeping something a secret that will be revealed later. If you haven’t the option already, just go into your profile and scroll to the bottom of your page. You will see the secret boards option below. Remember that you can only create three secret boards at a time so if you will need to delete or reveal one if you go over the quota.

5. Disable Apps On Facebook & Twitter

During our entire time on Facebook, you have given permission for many apps to access your profile. Chances are you have more apps authorised than you realise so it’s a good idea to get rid of a few if you’re not using them any longer. To see what apps have access to your profile, go into privacy settings (found beside the home button on the top right-hand corner, go into “Ads, Apps and Websites” and select “Edit Settings” for apps. You will be given the option to deactivate or delete apps from your account entirely.

Twitter has a similar function, go into settings and you will see that apps is one of the options available to you.

6. Find Pages To Like On Facebook

One of the main functions of Facebook is liking pages and getting updates from your interests. If you’re looking for updates from more pages, just go to this page and you will be presented with a number of page suggestions for you to follow.

7. View The Charts On YouTube

If you’re looking for the most popular videos on YouTube, you don’t have to go to Reddit to find out what’s popular. YouTube itself keeps track of what videos are popular and does so through its own charts page. If you’re looking for the most popular videos on YouTube, on the web and the most popular channels, you can find them here.

8. Get a Vanity URL for LinkedIn

Facebook and Twitter give you vanity URLs for your profiles, but you might be glad to know that LinkedIn also provides you with the same option. Go into profile, chose to edit settings and underneath your profile pictures, you will see the option to edit your URL. Select it and change the address.

9. Keyboard Shortcuts for Twitter

If you use the main Twitter site, you mightn’t be aware that there are a number of hotkeys shortcuts available for you to take advantage of. If you go to settings, you will see an option for keyboard shortcuts. Select it and you will be presented with hotkeys for all actions on the site.

10. Embedding Tweets

If you have a blog or site, you don’t have to take a screenshot of a tweet for it to appear on your site. Instead, you can embed it which will also allow users to interact with it. Choose the tweet you’re interested and click expand at the bottom. When you click on details, which appears underneath the tweet itself, you will be brought to a new page which will give you the option to embed the tweet.

11. Modify How You Appear On Public Search (Facebook)

If you’re cautious about strangers or the general public seeing your old posts, there’s a quick way to ensure that all your old posts are made private. Going into privacy settings, you will see the option “Limit the audience for past posts” near the bottom of the page. Clicking this and selecting it will turn all your old posts’ privacy options from being viewed by the public & friends of friends to just your friends. Handy if you don’t have the time to go through all your posts manually.

12. Limit Updates Certain Friends Can See (Facebook)

If you want to take the privacy section a step further, you can place certain people on a restricted list and stop them from seeing your profile. In privacy settings, go into the option “manage blocking” and use the restricted list setting. If you haven’t used it already, go into friends and select the people you want on the list.

13. Appear On Search Engines (Facebook)

If you want your profile to be more visible on search engines, go into account settings, choose the subscribers section and tick the box saying “subscriber search.” What this does is allows people to find you more easily on search engines so they can subscribe to your posts.

14. Create Filtered Images Without Posting Them (Instagram)

If you like creating Instagram images but don’t’ want to post every image online, there’s a sneak way you can get around this. If you go into your smartphone settings and turn on Airplane Mode, you can create new filtered images without having to publish them online. the reason for this is because Airplane mode turns off both WiFi and 3G so there’s no internet connection.

15. How To Create Multiple Actions (IFTTT)

If This Then That (IFTTT) is an incredibly handy way for cross-posting content onto different sites, like saving your Instagram photos onto Tumblr whenever you post. There are a number of recipes you can experiment with so if you’re the type of person who cross-posts regularly, you should give IFTTT a try.

16. YouTube Creator Playbook

If you create videos regularly, you may be glad to know that YouTube has a number of guides and manuals to help you post the best possible videos. One of which is the creator’s playbook, which gives you pointers for content creation and marketing can be found here. You can either download it or view the slideshow here.

17. Delete Comments & Captions (Instagram)

If there are any comments or captions that you want to delete, either your own comments or others that have commented on your photos, select the image you want, go into comments and swipe the comment you want deleted. You will then be presented with the option to delete or reply on the left-hand side of the comment.

18. Choose ad preferences (Google/YouTube)

It’s no secret that Google and the big social media players target ads based on your preferences, but did you know that for Google & YouTube, you can choose what ads appear for you. By going onto the ad preferences page, you can choose what type of ads appear for you. Google already has a number selected based on your cookies, but you can get rid of the ones you don’t want by clicking remove.

19. Always/Never play HQ videos (YouTube)

If you have a slow connection, you can adjust your settings on the playback page so that you never load up HD videos. Alternatively, if you have a fast connection, you can choose to play videos at HD and on fullscreen.

20. Turn off Facebook chat for certain people

If you’re one of those people who is always invisible on Facebook chat because of a select few, you can adjust it so that you only appear online for certain people. Simply go into advanced settings on chat and you can choose to exclude certain people or only appear for certain friends.

21. See how strangers see your profile (Facebook)

If you’re adjusting your privacy settings, you can get a preview of how your profile looks to a stranger, you can look at a preview of it through your privacy settings. If you go into Ads, Apps, and Websites, scroll down to public search and then click “See Preview” you can see just how much information about you is revealed.

22. LinkedIn Signal

While you get most of your LinkedIn information from the news feed, there’s also another place to get such information. LinkedIn Signal lets you look at the activity of a person, company or keyword inside your connections. It’s handy if you want to see what conversations are happening around you or your company, but you can only search the activity of your connections
See activity around a person, company or phrase.

13. Filter Noise From A Particular Circle (Google+)

If you have a number of circles on Google+ and you want to give more prominence to one over another, there is a way of adjusting this. If you click on any circle on your home page, you will see a slider on the right-hand side. This adjusts the noise of a particular circle and determines whether you see more of its activity on your newsfeed or not.

24. Delete Location Information (Twitter)

While you can give your location when you tweet something, you mightn’t have a change of heart and want to remove such a setting from all your tweets. To do this, go to your account settings and you have the option to add a location to your tweets or to delete all location information. The process will take up to 30 minutes, but any location information will be removed.

25. Download Photo Albums (Facebook)

There are numerous albums on Facebook, and there’s normally a few photos that you would like to download for yourself, but what if you find yourself wanting to download an entire album. There’s a way to get around that and it’s called GetPhotoLive. Simply download it as a browser extension, and for most albums, you should be given the option of downloading a Facebook album. For good practise, you should ask the owner of the album first if you can download their album, especially if their privacy settings prevent you from doing so in the first place.