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Blog
Brand Management, Step Up Your Social

Step Up your social ep. 17 — How Chewy Uses Their Customers’ Darkest Moments To Build Unyielding Brand Loyalty

What do you do at the end of your customer lifecycle? Do you go above and beyond to ensure that the customer who is moving on never forgets just how much they love you?
Chewy is a pet supply company. They know their customers will have to cancel their auto-renewal products… eventually ? ? ?
​
But Chewy doesn’t just offer canceling clients full refunds. They take their “marketing generosity” to the next level.They don’t just want to get out of the way. They want to be a part of the family.In this episode of Step Up Your Social, we take a look at how Chewy creates unyielding brand loyalty from their customers, even as those customers are canceling their orders.

We then give some thought to how *you* can keep your client lifecycle going, even as it seems like it might be wrapping up for the foreseeable future.

Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

If you’re a pet person, you know how much joy your little furry (or scaly or feathery) friend can bring into your life.

Sure there are chores associated with having a pet: They have to be cleaned, walked, taken to the vet… did I mention the endless cleaning?! But through it all, our days are just better with a pet at our side.

Unfortunately, most pets have shorter life cycles than us pet owners.

You might enjoy your fish for a few months, your bird for years, or your dog or cat for decades. But eventually, that hard day will arrive when you have to say goodbye to them… for good.

So now grab a tissue, wipe your eyes and take off your pet owner hat and replace it with your digital marketer hat.

If you’re in the business of selling products to pet owners, this cycle can create a real challenge for you. When someone loses a pet, your customer cycle for them ends. At least for the time being.

There aren’t TOO many industries where customer service reps have to field questions from the grieving as a regular part of their job.

Selling pet products is DEFINITELY one of them.

So you know that awful day is coming for every one of your customers. What do you do?
If you’re Chewy, you use that awful day to builder deeper and more meaningful relationships with your customers.

Head to Twitter and search @chewy and the word died and you will find countless stories all getting at the same thing – my pet died. I had regular packages getting delivered from Chewy. I called to cancel and not only did they refund my money, they told me to keep the food and donate it to some other pet owner who needed it.

AND NOT ONLY THAT! Loads of people shared stories that they got flowers in the mail from Chewy expressing their condolences. I even saw people posting about Chewy sending them oil paintings of their passed pups!

To quote just one of the many tweets you’ll find when you search: “That’s all class.”
Here’s the thing – you can find these posts all over Twitter. But I first learned about this tactic from a random post in a Facebook Group.

And I can pretty well guarantee you that anytime a first-time pet-owning friend asks someone on the receiving end of Chewy’s — let’s call it “marketing generosity” — where they should buy their pet supplies, they aren’t just going to recommend Chewy — they are going to do so empathically, as if it’s a family company.

Could Chewy simply offer full refunds and call it a day?

Sure.

You might even see tweets letting you know that Chewy customer service makes it easy to cancel orders when your pet departs.

But by going from easy to compassionate, Chewy takes their relationships with their customers to another level.

They don’t just want to get out of the way. They want to be a part of the family.

On a P&L, this might seem bad for business. You are building deep bonds with someone who no longer needs your services.

But pet owners are pet owners through and through. It might be weeks or months before they get back on the horse (or kitty or puppy or chameleon). It might even be years. But they will almost certainly get another pet!

And even if they don’t, they will have friends and family members who do.

Chewy sees these regular order cancellations not as an end of their relationships, but as the start of a whole new one, one deeper and with more intimacy between them and their customer.

And it pays off for them big time – don’t believe me? Just head to Twitter or Google or reddit or Facebook and poke around! The stories are endless.

The takeaway here: wow your customers, even if they’re no longer your customers. Host free classes teaching people how to be better at something related to whatever you sell. If you ship products, make the packaging so fun people can’t help but post a picture of it on Instagram. If you’re a nonprofit and someone sends you a gift, do you send a thank you that let’s them know you appreciate them… or do you send them a letter that knocks their socks off?

The person who bought your product or donated money might never do so again. So what?! They are the people most likely to spread the word about how great you are to their networks.

Make it easy for them to do so and more importantly , give them a reason to want to!
At the end of the day, remember that you can’t just sell pet stuff. You have to be a pet person! I hope you have the same passion for whatever you are selling or advocating for online, as your typical pet owner has for their furry, four-legged friend!

January 27, 2021/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2021-01-27 17:44:542022-12-13 10:40:34Step Up your social ep. 17 — How Chewy Uses Their Customers’ Darkest Moments To Build Unyielding Brand Loyalty
Instagram

What Are Instagram guides and how can you use them to do more on instagram?

What are Instagram Guides

​Instagram has a new feature and it’s a fun one!

It’s called Guides and it allows you to batch posts to create compilations. For a platform notorious for keeping things “simple” (WHY can’t I add links to my posts?!), this new feature is a powerful new way to take your content further.

Think Pinterest meets blogging. That’s kind of where Instagram seems to be positioning Guides.

Instagram is a massive platform with a billion Daily Active Users. Understanding all the tools they have to offer is a huge step in standing out from the crowd. 

So let’s take a look at how Instagram Guides work and hopefully you can get some ideas for how to use them to grow your own brand.

How To Create an instagram guide in 3 easy steps

Getting started with Instagram guides

1. Tap the + on your profile

How to get started with Instagram guides

2. Tap Guide​

How to make Instagram guides

3. Choose Guide Type
​Like I said. Easy!
​

There are three types of Instagram guides

The three types are Places, Products, and Posts.

The primary difference is in determining how you search for content to add to your Guide. But all three are ultimately pretty similar and none of them limit your content options. 

Places lets you search locations to add content. 
Products lets you search shops to add content. 
Posts lets you search your own posts, as well as posts you’ve saved from others, to add content.

Editing each Instagram Guide type is a bit different, but they do have most basic features in common. Let’s start with Places.

Instagram Guides Types

What are the different types of Instagram Guides

Different types of Instagram Guides

​Once you’ve started a new Places Guide, you’ll see a search bar as well as some recommended places. Choose or search for a location to see posts geotagged in that location.

Select images to add them to your guide. Don’t worry if they’re not your posts — the image will automatically link to its creators’ account.

As with all location-based searches on Instagram, you can go super specific (Wisconsin State Capitol), more general (Madison, WI) or very general (Wisconsin).

A Capitol search will only find pics tagged at the Capitol.
A Madison search might find pics tagged at the Capitol, but also posts tagged in other places throughout the city.
A Wisconsin search could find Capitol pics, Madison pics or pics from anywhere else throughout the Badger State.

Go as specific, or as general, as makes sense for you.

How to add posts to Instagram Guides

If you choose multiple images, they will be added to your Instagram Guide as a gallery your followers can swipe through. To add a new item to your guide, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and tap + Add Place.
​

You’re well on your way to posting your first ever Instagram Guide — but don’t forget to write a title and description. 

Note: to edit the cover photo, tap Change Cover Photo below your Guide’s title.

​​
​Want to rearrange or delete a post from your Guide? No problem. Tap the three dots next to any image to edit, reorder, or remove that post.

Once you’re done, hit post. Don’t forget to share it to your Instagram Story (tagging folks if you’ve used their content of course!).

​Products is very similar to Places, except instead of locations, you can search through Instagram shops along with your Wishlist.

Posts is a bit more freeform, and as a result it’s the most versatile (and potentially most powerful) Instagram Guide type.

Products posts or places in Instagram Guides

The Posts Guide lets you search and select from your own posts along with, possibly more importantly, your Saved Posts. ​
​

Wait, How Do I save Posts on instagram?

To save any post on Instagram, simply tap the bookmark icon located to the bottom right of the post. Doing so adds it to your Saved Posts.

To organize your Saved Posts (for Guides or in general), head to your profile and tap the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the screen. Tap Saved, and you’ll see your collections, including the default All Posts collection. Tap the plus in the top right to create a new collection. Here, you can choose posts to create a new collection of related posts. Boom — you’re in business!! 

I use Saved Posts as a way to find posts I want to be able to find again later. I have collections for fun gift ideas, interesting ads I see (#DigitalNerd! 🤓), pics of my cat… Saved collections are private, so think of them as a safe space to save things you want to come back to later.

It actually seems that after years of having private Saved Collections, Instagram is using Guides as a way to simply have public Saved collections as well. And I for one am here for it!

With well-organized collections, you’ll start to see how flexible Posts Guides really can be!

How Do I find Instagram Guides Once They’re Published?

How do I find Instagram Guides after they are published?

Once you’ve published your Guide, they’re actually super easy to find. Just head to your homepage and navigate to the map icon directly under your profile. If you haven’t yet created a Guide, you won’t find the option (the same is true for IGTV and Reels).

You can also visit other people’s profiles and click on their Guides the same way (if they’ve created any).

Want to see an example of an Instagram Guide? Here’s one I made that’s just pics of the Wisconsin Capitol. (Noticing a trend? I freaking love that building!)

Don’t forget, this feature is quite new as of this writing. There’s plenty to explore, and you can find your own way to use this tool uniquely.

Now… who wants to make a Guide explaining how to make Guides? Have fun and don’t forget to tag me (@jlemonsk) when you post your first Guide! I definitely want to see it!
​


Further Instagram Geeking Out

Want to know more about how Instagram has evolved over the years? Check out this Evolution Of Instagram I put together.

And then check out this episode of my podcast, Step Up Your Social, where I cover 10 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories.



​Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Social Media Training - Instagram

December 30, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-12-30 06:00:002022-11-09 12:29:34What Are Instagram guides and how can you use them to do more on instagram?
Instagram

10 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories

Instagram Stories currently have 500 million daily active users. Half a billion people — around one-and-a-half-Americas — use Instagram Stories every single day!

And Stories keep growing, both in their popularity and in their functionality.

So in this post, we’re going to cover some fun tricks, tips and hacks your can use to take your Instagram stories to the next level.​

If you’re not already posting Instagram Stories on a regular basis, check out Episode 3 of my podcast Step Up Your Social and get caught up on what they are and why you should be using them.
​

That short podcast episode (all episodes of Step Up Your Social are short — ~10 minutes or less) is the 101. This post is the 202.

So let’s dig in!
​

Instagram Stories: The basics

Instagram Stories launched in August 2016 — by October 2016 they already had 100 million daily active users!

  • Stories are ephemeral (they disappear after 24 hours)
  • Initially you could only use pictures and videos for Stories that were taken in real time — that’s no longer the case
  • By late 2017, Stories started rolling out interactive stickers — they continue to introduce new ones regularly
  • In early 2018, they introduced GIF stickers
  • As mentioned above, at last reporting, they have 500 million daily active users (on a daily basis, more people use Instragram Stories than use any part of Snapchat)​

Instagram Stories usage versus Snapchat

​

Want a deeper dive into all the changes and added tools that have been rolled out by Instagram over the years, both for Stories and in their primary feed? Check out my Evolution of Instagram.

But needless to say, Instagram Stories is a vibrant platform and you should definitely be taking advantage of it. Here are some tips, tricks and hacks to get the most out of your Instagram Stories
​

How to make instagram stories

How to create an Instagram Story

​Several Ways to Create a New Story:
Since Stories have become such a successful part of the platform, Instagram has made it all but impossible to miss them when logged into the app. Users’ Stories are spread out horizontally across the top of the screen, just below the Instagram logo.

Your’s is the first circle on the left. If you don’t have an active story, there will be a blue plus icon over your photo. Tap there to create a new Story. Stories last for 24 hours, so if you have made one in the past day, tapping here will show you your current story.

You can also tap the plus button at the top of your profile or home page and then select Stories from the bottom menu choices.

You can also swipe right anywhere in-app to create a new story. That’s right, this is such a popular tool, Instagram — known for their obsession with simplicity — has given us numerous ways to get to the same place.


How to use Instagram Story Filters

Spice it Up with Filters & Stickers
Adding filters can make an otherwise run-of-the-mill Story feel special. Take for instance this fun shot of my Turkish carpet. With a few quick taps, I  can easily add some fun flair.

Once you’re on the Story creation screen, you can see a menu of filters in small circles at the bottom of the display. Tap on one, or swipe through to see different filters applied to your photo or video.

Instagram cycles through filters often, so it’s worth scanning through to see if there’s anything new. This example was taken in June, so there were a bunch of cool Pride filters. Some filters like this one have different variations, which you can see directly above the filter list.

Next, there’s the sticker library. These are meant to be placed over your content, and they’re incredibly diverse — GIFs, location, @mentions, #hashtags, donation requests, and more.

To resize or move a sticker, just use two fingers to pinch or drag it, respectively. If you change your mind, drag it to the bottom of the screen, where a trash can will appear. Poof, it’s gone!

Want a deeper dive into some of these fun sticker types? We’ll cover a few of the specific sticker types in more detail below.

Sticker Quick Tips
-Pinch and drag to resize and move stickers
-Tap on a sticker to change what it does — feel free to experiment!
-Change color of some stickers with a tap
-Add a “sound on” button sticker to let viewers know to turn up the volume
-Explore the deep GIF library to find something that fits your personality or mood
-All text is customizable — from font, alignment, size, color, and more
-Tap the squiggle to draw: change line styles & color, add arrows, erase, and undo/redo

All of these powerful and fun tool are… literally at your fingertips.


How to check instagram story analytics

Check Your Analytics
Wondering who watched your Story and which Stories inspired actions on your account? Analytics aren’t quite able to read minds, but they are definitely the next best thing. 

During the 24 hours your Story is live, you’ll notice in the bottom-left of the screen “Seen by x,” so you know how many people viewed your story. Tap here to see more detailed analytics of how your Story performed.

On the analytics screen, you can see both who viewed your story and what actions they took (for example, if they skipped your story or watched the next one), Instagram will break that down for you. This can be helpful if you’re posting 20 times a day and want to know what’s connecting with your audience… and what isn’t!

Ok, now that we’re all caught up with the basics, so let’s talk hacks!
​
​


1. Increase Reach With The Location StickeR

How to increase your instagram story reach with location stickers

Adding a location sticker doesn’t just let your viewers know where you are, it can also potentially extend your reach beyond your current followers. How you use the location sticker is up to you.

You can be super specific — I’m at the WI capitol.
You can be a bit vague — I’m in Madison, WI.
Or you can be super vague — I’m in WI.

There are 2 reasons to use location stickers:
1) It helps people know where you are. And
2) and this is the important one,
 it could dramatically increase your Story’s reach. 

There’s no surefire way to get one of your Stories added to a public Story* — which will definitely increase your reach  — but not tagging your location guarantees that you WON’T be added to the public location’s story.

*What do I mean by public Stories? When you search for any place on Instagram, you’ll find a menu of images tagged in that location. You’ll also find public Stories that Instagram is highlighting to give a fuller peak at the spot you are checking out.
​


Instagram story location stickers - how and when to use them

And here’s something cool: Instagram is smart enough to know that the WI Capitol is in Madison and that Madison is in WI. So it’s possible you’ll wind up in the public Stories for all 3 of those places. Which is the main reason why specific location tagging is better than general location tagging. But any location tagging is better than none!

Two quick notes on this — 1) not every story should be tagged by location. If you’re sharing a screenshot of one of your tweets, or posting a Game of Thrones meme that got you laughing, it’s okay to skip the location. And 2) — and this is a big one — you don’t actually have to be at a location to tag yourself there. Now of course I’m not telling you to lie to your audience. In fact I’m straight up telling you to NEVER lie to your audience. But if you took a bunch of pictures at an event last night and you we’re too busy to share them to your Stories in real time, you can post them the next day, and tag the location after the fact. Just search for the location within the search bar, select it, and voila. You’re tagged.

You can then move that sticker around, make it bigger or smaller, or tap it to get different color formatting to better fit the feel of your story.
​


2. Increase Reach With Hashtags

how to use hashtags in instagram stories

 There’s a location sticker. There’s also a hashtag sticker. Use it! Just like you might be added to a public location’s Story when using the location sticker — thus increasing your potential reach — using a hashtag sets you up to potentially be added to a public hashtag’s Story.
​

Now on a general Instagram post, you can use up to 30 hashtags. Stories won’t let you go that far, but it will allow you to use up to 10 hashtags. The more hashtags you use, the better chance you have of getting added to public Stories.

You can only use the hashtag sticker once in a Story. But if it makes sense for you to add more, just pop on over to your text and start typing out relevant hashtags.

IF IF IF you are going to do this — and of course you don’t have to add 10 #s in every post — consider stacking and then hiding them, so that it doesn’t make your Story look… gaudy.
​


instagram story hashtag stacking

Try this:
Create each hashtag as a new piece of text, meaning that instead of just hitting space between tags, you hit done typing out tag one, and then start new text for tag number 2 and so on.

Then, stack them. Literally put them all on top of each other. Which will look awful. But fear not. Once you’ve got your hashtags stacked, head back to your stickers and find yourself a sticker or GIF to stick on top of them. Then no one will see them except Instagram… which in this case is the only one who really matters!


3. Increase Reach With The Mention Sticker

how and when to tag people in instagram stories

There’s a location and a hashtag sticker. There’s also a mention sticker. This sticker lets you tag someone(s) in your Story. This one won’t help you get into any public Stories, but it will give a public shoutout to the account(s) you are tagging, and just as important, it will send a notification to that account that you have tagged them in a Story.

As I always say — don’t talk about anyone on the internet if you wouldn’t want them to know. And talking about someone on social without tagging them is like talking to them on the phone without first dialing their number. Without it, they might accidentally come upon your post, but a tag all but ensures they see it!

Another reason to tag someone is that when you do so, they’ll get the option to share your Story with their followers. So you give them a shoutout, and then they help you reach new audiences. Win-Win!

Along with hoping your community shares your posts, definitely consider sharing relevant and interesting Stories from your audience that tag you. User generated content can be an amazing way to tell your brand’s story.

And, something cool about sharing other people’s stories — it’s more like a quote tweet than a retweet. Meaning you don’t just have to share their Story as is. You essentially are sharing their Story as a sticker, so you can add your own location, mention and hashtag stickers to it as well as GIFs, text and more. Have fun with it!


Instagram story tagging


Instagram story account tagging

The ability to share stories changed the whole concept of Instagram’s power of telling stories in real time. Take advantage of this tool, as it makes sense for you and your brand.
​​

4. Get Engaging With StickerS

What to do with instagram engagement stickers

​If you haven’t explored the loads of fun stickers available to you in Instagram Stories, you are missing out! Along with the ones we’ve already covered, and GIFs (which I love!), there are also some really cool engagement stickers built right into the platform.

You can use stickers to solicit questions from your audience (which you can then answer in follow up Stories), take polls, quiz your audience… there’s even a countdown clock available to you if you have an exciting event taking place and want to build some excitement.

​Explore and get to engaging your audience with stickers.


5. Create Your Own StickerS

Can’t quite find the perfect sticker for your story? Don’t sweat it: you can make your own. It’s surprisingly simple to do so.

create your own instagram story stickers

Find a photo you like. Whether it’s in your browser or saved on your phone, either will work.

In your browser, long tap the image until you see the option to save it. Once the image is saved to your photos, tap the Share button and then tap copy photo.

Now, head back to your story. The copied image should pop up in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Tap on it and bang! You’re good to go.

If you miss the pop up, don’t sweat it. Just open the keyboard, hit paste, and you’re back in business.

That was the tip—here comes the hack! You can save transparent images (.png files) like a Polaroid frame and use these as stickers too. This way, it’s easy to get really creative with a few basic building blocks. Add these in the same way you added those previous stickers, and you’re in business.

This is a super fun and interesting way to create your own content, and most importantly, to be able to do so in your own voice (and with your own colors and branding).
​

6. Add Any Instagram Post To Your Story

how to add an instagram post to your story

Did you know that you can add ANY public Instagram post — your own or anyone else’s — to your Stories? To do so is extremely simple: at the bottom of the post, next to the heart and comment icons, there’s a little paper airplane. Click it and you’ll see the option to “add to story.”

Click that and whatever you were looking at will appear as a sticker in your Story. When I say “whatever you were looking at,” what I mean is that if it was an album, you can only add one image, and if it’s a video, you will only be adding a screenshot of the thumbnail associated with the video.

But once you have the image in your Story, you can move it around, make it bigger or smaller and add all of the stickers, GIFs and text you want. And if you tap on the actual post, it will change the formatting from the clean image with a tag of who posted it, to an image that includes the handle and part of the post’s original text.
​


how to use the tap here button to drive traffic from your instagram stories to your posts

Here’s the coolest hack for this though — go to your GIF library and search “tap here.” You’ll have loads of options — pick one you like. Add your “tap here” sticker to your Story.

When someone taps it, they’ll get a seemingly magic option to visit the original post. Here’s the thing — they would get that option whether or not you point them to tap there. Most folks just don’t realize that it’s an option to click through.

The built-in call-to-action makes it super easy to drive people from your Story to your original post (or anyone else’s). It’s a big part of why more and more accounts are creating Stories from their posts. It’s a second audience you can engage around the same content, and you can potentially drive people back to the original content at the same time.

​I don’t recommend doing this for every one of your posts, but definitely a helpful tool for the posts you are particularly excited about.


7. Get Creative With Color

When I am building a new Story that’s not based on a picture, I’ll sometimes just snap a photo while covering the camera so I can start with a black background. This works fine, but if you want a different color background, there’s actually a really easy way to create one.

how to create instagram story backgrounds of any color


Take any picture and then tap the pen tool. Select the first pen, pick your color of choice on the bottom and then hold your finger down on the screen. The whole background will become that color.

If you want to add a transparent color over top of one of your pictures, you can do that too. Instead of selecting the first pen, select the second one, which looks more like a marker. Choose your color, hold down and you get a transparent overlay over top of your picture.

Want to get really clever with either of these — create your solid or transparent color over top of a picture, and then use the eraser to remove color from the selected areas. That can create a very cool effect!
​

8. Keep The Story Going With IGTV

If you have 10k+ followers, you can link a Story to an external link. This is a very powerful tool, but one that not a lot of users actually have access to.

For those of us with less than 10,000 followers, you do still have one option for linking out from your Story — you can link it to an IGTV video that you have previously posted.

IGTV, short for Instagram TV, allows you to post longer videos then you can post within Instagram proper. On Instagram, you are limited to one minute videos, but with IGTV, you can go up to 10 minutes (some bigger accounts can even go up to an hour).

It can be a great way to repurpose videos that you created elsewhere but couldn’t post to Instagram because they were too long.

How to link an Instagram Story to an IGTV

​Once you have posted something to IGTV, you can link directly to the video through a Story. To do so, simply tap the link icon at the top of your story. You will then be able to select from any of your pre-published videos in IGTV. Then anyone seeing your Story can swipe up and get to your IGTV video.

Like with the “Tap Here” hack, search the GIFs library for a “Swipe Up” call-to-action. so your audience realizes that your Story is intended to take them somewhere else to continue on in the fun!

You can also share an IGTV directly to your Instagram Stories. To do so, simply select it and add it to your story like you would any public post. This will not show the entire IGTV, but will let people stream a few seconds of it and give folks an option to keep watching your full video at IGTV.

how to share an igtv to instagram stories

​

​9. Make Your Own Drop ShadowS

how to make your own drop shadow text in instagram stories

Here’s a fun hack — while Instagram recently upped their font offerings, including a drop shadow option, it’s still a bit limiting as far as customizing your retro drop shadow text look. Want to create a drop shadow effect using the colors and fonts of your choice? Doing so is really easy!
​

Create your text. You can change the size but doing so makes this hack a little tricky. Position it right where you want it, and then create the exact same text again, just with a different color.

Then place one of the texts on top of the other, but just slightly off, enough to create your own… wait for it… drop shadow.

Want to see an example of this in action. Head over to my Instagram account — I’m @jlemonsk — and then check out my Story highlight titled IG updates. Whenever I create a Story about a new Instagram feature, hack, or strategy, I add it to that highlight. Scroll through and you’ll find one that shows this drop shadow hack in action.
​


10. Put a Pin In IT

I saved this one for last because it is just so freaking awesome! Want to add a sticker, text or GIF to a video and have it follow along with the video, rather than just remaining static in one spot? Doing so is actually really easy!
​

Create a video Story (either take a new video in the app, or add in a video that’s already on your phone). Then, select a sticker or GIF you want, or add even text. While the video is playing in the background, long press the sticker or text.

You’ll then get a scrollbar at the bottom of the screen. That scrollbar will let you move through the video at your own speed. Scroll to a spot that lets you clearly see where you want your sticker to stay pinned. Then move/resize the sticker until you have it where you want it. Hit pin and voila. You’ve pinned your sticker, text of GIF.

how to pin stickers to instagram story videos

pin stickers or text to instagram story videos


pin instagram story videos with stickers, gifs or text

This one’s a little complicated, so here’s a quick recap:
-Create a video story
-Select a sticker
-Tap and hold the sticker
-Scroll to a good spot
-Hit pin

Assuming your video isn’t too complicated for Instagram to handle, it should paste your sticker or text onto that spot in the video and then let it follow along throughout the duration of the video.

So in this example, I pinned a Like sticker to a little toy car. Let’s call it a Heart-Ford. (Fun pun to always remember the capital of Connecticut: the Heart Ford Connects a Cut 😂). Instead of the Like sticker just sitting in the corner, it zooms along with the car.

Pretty cool, right?
​

Bonus! Third Party Tools

Everything you’ve seen in this post can be created directly in Instagram. But if you want to take your Story game to the next level — or if you want to innovate some hacks of your own — feel free to try out some of these third-party apps.

These design tools are useful beyond Instagram, with templates and editing capabilities to make almost anything you need for your social media program. 

Adobe Photoshop: The gold standard of image editing, Photoshop now has a great mobile-friendly version of the app
Adobe Spark: A browser-based editor with thousands of fun templates
Canva: Similar to Spark, Canva is a user-friendly, browser-based image editor
InShot: A powerful video editing tool with cool filters

These next 3 apps focus specifically on Stories, and each has a free or paid option, so you can take your content as far as you can imagine.

Over:  Easy to edit templates for beautiful stories
Unfold: Story-editing tool with beautiful, designer-built templates
Instories: A personal favorite, this is imho the most fun story editor with dynamic and fluid titles and video frames that make your Stories look quite professional without much effort at all

Your Turn!
What are some of your favorite strategies, tricks or hacks that you have been using to step up your Instagram story game? I want to hear about them. Hit me up on Instagram (again, I’m @jlemonsk), or on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn where I’m Reverbal Communications.

Or… show off what you’ve learned! Make a cool Instagram Story and use the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.

If you tag me in your Stories, you better believe I’m gonna share it! So hit me up!

Now what are you waiting for? Get out there and step up your Story game!​


Ready to become an Instagram Champion? I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Learn how to use Instagram

November 18, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-11-18 06:00:002022-11-09 12:38:5610 Tricks and Hacks to Step Up Your Instagram Stories
Digital Tools, Politics

Mix Up your content with these 10 Diverse Stock Photo Sites

There are hundreds of millions of pieces of content created for the internet every day Want to break through the noise? The best writing won’t stop someone’s thumbs from scrolling through their feed. You have to first nab them with an eye-catching pic. Then you might have a shot to keep their attention long enough to read about your new offer, hear your fundraising pitch, or learn more about whatever you’re talking about.

​My general go to stock image site for finding high quality, free* photos online is Unsplash. Unsplash refers to itself as “the internet’s source of freely-usable images. Powered by creators everywhere.” It’s a website full of beautiful, interesting and dynamic photos from all over the world. Type in whatever you need in the search bar and get ready to scroll through countless wonderful photos, brilliantly capturing your subject matter.

But representation matters — especially to kids. Early impressions leave an indelible mark that shape what children imagine is possible. Think a picture is worth a thousand words? It’s probably closer to a a few million!

High-quality, representative stock photography is absolutely crucial for any business, whether you’re writing a blog post, creating a graphic or promoting an event.

I use Unsplash all the time. But sometimes I need photos more geared specifically towards diversity, intersectionality or multiculturalism. While scrolling Unsplash will typically get me where I need to be, there are other options out there that focus specifically on representing the under-represented through high-quality stock photography.

Here is a compilation of 10 free (or affordable) stock photo sites that go further than tossing a BIPOC cherry-on-top of a scoop of vanilla. You might even say these collections are pretty much the whole damn sundae. ​

*Quick caveat: I’m not a lawyer and I’m certainly not your lawyer. While many of these sites offer free stock photos for you to use, I’m not telling you what you can and can’t do with them. If you’re worried about what’s okay or not, talk to a lawyer, read the fine print, or… you know… head to Google and read up.


1. #WOCinTech
This Flickr photo stream features hundreds of images of women of color working in tech. Everything is free under a Creative Commons license, so you won’t have to pay a cent.​(That said, as is the case throughout this round-up, the above caveat applies.)

women of color in tech

women of color in the workplace


2. CreateHER Stock
This authentic stock site is a finely-curated “for-us-by-us” set of lifestyle+business content featuring Black women. A subscription runs ~$10/month, but given that the pics are behind a paywall, you’ll have access to exclusive content (unlike some big box stock photos you see on every 3rd ad in your timeline).​

diverse stock photos

stock photos diverse focus


3. Pexels
Pexels is a well-known free stock site, granted, but it’s included here to point out their solid suggestions engine. Try searching for “Black people” in Pexels and not only do you get accurate results, but Pexels will suggest related tags, making it easy to hone in on exactly who you’re looking for.

pexel stock photos

stock images of bipoc


4. nappy.co
Search “coffee” on your standard stock site. While the latte might be brown, the hands holding it rarely are. Nappy refers to itself as providing “Beautiful, high-res photos of black and brown people. For free.” I can’t really sum it up better than that.

pics of black and brown people

photos of black women


5. Picnoi
Picnoi is a hand-picked collection teeming with great shots of hip, young Black & Brown folks. You can also browse their co-op’s collection directly in Unsplash.

picnoi - pics of people of color

pics of young black people


6. Body Liberation Stock
Intersectionality can be particularly difficult to find represented on stock photo sites. Body Liberation Stock is an impressive stash of shots depicting body-positivity in folks from all walks of life.

Body Liberation Stock photos

diverse stock images


7. The Gender Spectrum Collection
From Vice, these photos are intended to articulate the complexity of people not necessarily defined by their gender. You’ll find a solid variety of non-binary and trans people at work, school, and off the clock.

non-binary photos

stock photos of trans people


8. Disabled And Here
This is a wonderful reclamation for disabled BIPOC. In a unique—and incredibly vulnerable feature—this collection features interviews with each model, engendering a true intimacy rarely felt in stock photos.

photos of disabled LGBTQ people of color

LGBTQ, BIPOC photos


9. TONL
Intended for editorial use, TONL feels like an enlightened version of Adobe Stock. If you’re looking for exceptionally high-quality and exclusive imagery, you can pay as you go (~$2/pic). The content curation will save you hours of scrolling those big name free sites.

tonl high quality stock photos

amazing stock photos


10. Salam Stock
A lot of stock sites can really miss the mark when trying to depict modern Muslim life. Salam Stock remedies that with a hefty collection that includes free and paid plans. ​

muslim stock photos

stock photos of muslims

Those are a few diversity-first stock photo sites I’ve found helpful over the years. Do you have any to add to the list? I’d love to hear about them. Share them in the comments or slide on over to my DMs.

I’d love to see how you put these new resources to use. Tag me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook when you post your awesome, new, diverse content.

​Have fun!

August 27, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-08-27 02:07:092022-11-09 12:43:01Mix Up your content with these 10 Diverse Stock Photo Sites
Instagram

Evolution of Instagram: A TimeLine of New Features and major milestones

This post was last updated fall 2020.

You know the old saying that the only constant is change?

Well, that never been more true than when talking about social media.

You go to bed understanding exactly how a platform works — you wake up to find that everything has changed. There are new features, but also missing features, and moved features, and some features that are still there but no longer work. Arggghhh. It’s enough to make you logoff and go refill your coffee. But when it comes to the big platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit… they know you’ll be back. So you just have to sit back down, pound that coffee, and get used to their radical new designs.
​
It’s been just shy of 10 years since Instagram was first launched in the app store. In a lot of ways, Instagram today is still very similar to the platform it was way back then (ten years is a lifetime in tech!). But while Instagram might feel pretty similar day in and day out, they’ve actually been rolling out new products and features pretty consistently year after year.

They have also hit some pretty big milestones along the way.
​
So let’s dig in and breakdown some of those key new features and major milestones in this Evolution of Instagram.
​

​Instagram Launches — October 2010

Instagram launches

The year was 2010. The Social Network was in theaters. Moves Like Jagger was on the radio. Lost was wrapping up its final season, disappointing millions of fans all over the world. And Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were rolling out Burbn, a mobile check-in app that was essentially a clone of Foursquare. Kevin and Mike realized they had a problem. So they did what anyone in their position — who had already raised a half a million dollars in funding — would do and they pivoted.

And thus Instagram was born. For those wondering, the name Instagram came from combining Instant (as in instant camera) and telegram.
​
At the time, you had to access Instagram through a mobile device. Ten years later, that’s still the case. (It’s actually not, but it still feels that way.)
​


Instagram Incorporates Hashtags — January 2011

Instagram Incorporates Hashtags

In 2007, a bunch of Twitter users inadvertently invented the hashtag as a way to more easily connect and converse at a conference.

Twitter leadership thought it was a “thing for nerds,” but alas, the hashtag was born.

Hashtags were eventually incorporated into Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and Google+ and of course, Instagram, where they made their debut in January 2011. (They have also FINALLY made their way to LinkedIn, which in the words of Verge reporter Casey Newton, is just “Facebook in slow motion.”)


Instagram Is Acquired By Facebook — April 2012

Instagram is acquired by Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg paid a billion dollars to buy Instagram, despite the fact that they had no revenue stream and were only 13 employees strong.

At the time, people panned the purchase. But not today! With over a billion active users, and long serving as Facebook’s primary growth platform for young people, that billion dollars now looks like a heck of a steal.


Instagram Rolls Out Explore — June 2012

Instagram rolls out explore

If you like logging onto Instagram, checking in on your friends and the few select brands you follow, and then getting out, you were good to go from day one.

But if you are looking for new accounts to follow or interesting content to peruse, well Instagram wasn’t really built for that. Until June of 2012 that is, when they rolled out Explore.

Explore let’s you rove around Instagram in a new way, not just by username or hashtag, but also by content suggestion, curated specifically for you.


Milestone: Instagram Hits 100 Million Monthly Active Users — February 2013

When did Instagram hit 100 million users?

Instagram picked up 100k users in the first week following their launch. It only took them a few months to get to a million users. It was six more months before they hit five million users and another three months before they hit ten million users.

They launched in October 2010. It took them less than 2.5 years to add that ninth digit to their user-base. By early February 2013, they already had more users than any European country had citizens.

Not bad for a platform that had just 13 employees a short ten months ago!


Instagram Adds 15-Second Video Sharing — June 2013

When did Instagram add video?

If you are an active user of Instagram, you might not even realize that there was once a time you could only upload images to the platform. But for their first few years of existence, there was no video to be seen in Instagram.

That changed in June 2013 when they rolled out the option to upload videos of up to 15 seconds in length. (Note: at the time of this writing, that’s the length limit of videos shared to TikTok — it will be interesting to see if they too “evolve.”)


Instagram Incorporates Ads — October 2013

When did Instagram start showing ads?

Despite paying a billion dollars to acquire Instagram, Facebook held off on monetizing the platform via ads for a full year-and-a-half.

Presumably, there was a lot of work to do on the backend to enable their ads program to synchronize with Facebook’s pre-existing advertising platform.

While the initial ad rollout was limited to sponsored posts, it set the stage for Instagram becoming a product with an estimated standalone value of $100 billion.
​


Instagram Enables Direct Messaging — December 2013

When did Direct Messaging come to Instagram?

Instagram is a primarily public platform, as opposed to Facebook which for individual users tends to default to content being shared only with friends.

So while you could tag your friends in posts and comment on their content, you were doing so for the world to see. But those were pretty much your only options.

That changed in December 2013 when Instagram rolled out Direct Messaging.

Now you could have private conversations with friends, without ever having to leave Instagram.


MILEstone: Instagram Hits 200 Million Monthly Active Users — March 2014

When did Instagram get 200 million users?

While the first 100 million users took 2.5 years to acquire, the next 100 million joined in on the fun in just 13 months.

By March 2014, Instagram had a bigger user-base than the population of Russia, Mexico or really any country in the world save for a few.

Those 15-second videos really made an impression!


Instagram Expands Video from 15 to 60 Seconds — March 2016

When did Instagram video switch from 15 seconds to 50 seconds?

If 15 seconds of video is good, 60 seconds of video must be better, right?!

As of March of 2016, you could start uploading videos to Instagram that were up to 60 seconds in length.

Still not long enough to play the full version of that new song you just wrote, but at least now you can get through the whole refrain!


MILESTONE: Instagram Hits 500 Million Monthly Active Users — June 2016

When did Instagram his 500 million active users?

Instagram just keeps on growing. By June of 2016 they had 500 million monthly active users. Which, just to stay on theme, made their “population” bigger than any country in the world except for China or India.
​

Instagram Introduces Stories! — August 2016

When did Instagram first introduce Stories?

There’s an old adage in the social media world: when a platform becomes popular, Facebook will aim to own it or clone it.

While they managed to buy Instagram and WhatsApp (as well as a slew of other companies that aren’t quite household names), a couple of the big players eluded them.

They desperately wanted Twitter. But Twitter wouldn’t sell. So in short order, Facebook introduced hashtags, verified accounts, trending content (now defunct) and a bunch of other features that were all “inspired” by Twitter. (Ie: they couldn’t own it, so they went to work trying to clone it.)

But Facebook’s appetite to consume Twitter was nothing compared to the newer kid on the block, Snapchat.

Snapchat, launched in 2011, was immediately popular with the youth, a demographic that Zuck knew he needed to keep satisfied and clicking if he wanted to remain at the head of the social media table.

In 2013, just two-years after launch, he offered $3 billion to buy them out. They refused. Facebook reportedly tried again shortly before Snap went public. He was again rebuffed.

That second attempt happened in 2016. Coincidently, that’s the same year that all the primary platforms in the Facebook universe (that’s Facebook itself, Messenger, WhatsApp and of course Instagram) rolled out Stories.

Stories are ephemeral content (they disappear after 24 hours) that are intended to be less perfectly quaffed, more fun and allow a user to post as often as they want throughout the day without worrying about bothering the almighty algorithm.

While Snapchat is still doing its thing, there’s no doubt that the rollout of Stories slowed their growth considerably.
​


Milestone: Instagram Stories Hits 100 Million Daily Active Users — October 2016

When did Instagram Stories hit 100 million daily active users?

Instagram Stories were popular almost immediately. They rolled out in August 2016 and by October of that year they already had 100 million daily active users. That’s 100 million people  who were using Stories. Every. Single. Day!
​

Instagram Stories Launches Boomerang — November 2016

When did Boomerang come to Instagram?

At first, Instagram Stories only allowed users to share pictures or short videos taken in real time. Then they expand that to allow you to share pictures and videos you had shot within the last 24 hours. That limitation quickly went away as well, as Instagram enabled the ability for users to share anything on their phone roll (well any photo or any video up to 15 seconds in length).

But Stories also quickly started rolling out fun filters and camera tricks (very similar to Snapchat, who had been providing such offerings for quite some time).

One early and popular such feature was Boomerang — which enables a user to take a short video which is then popped it back and forth, like a boomerang.

While they aren’t as popular today as they were when they first rolled out, you would have a hard time spending 10 or 15 minutes scrolling through IG Stories without coming across at least a couple such clips.


Instagram Enables Albums — February 2017

When did Albums come to Instagram?

From 2010 until early 2017, you could only share one piece of content to your Instagram timeline at a time.

That changed in February 2017 when Instagram rolled out Albums. Albums made it possible to share up to ten pieces of content at once. (You can mix and match photos and videos in a single album.)

This made it easier to share bigger stories to the timeline without having to pump out a bunch of separate and disjointed posts.

Learn more about Albums, and how to use them, with this explainer piece I made when they first launched using… what else? An Instagram Album!
​


Milestone: Instagram Stories Hits 200 Million Daily Active Users — April 2017

When did Instagram Stories hit 200 million daily active users?

Less than a year after being introduced, Instagram Stories had already hit 200 million daily active users.
​

Milestone: Instagram Hits 800 Million Monthly Active Users — September 2017

When did Instagram Stories hit 800 million active users?

And just a few months after that, Instagram as a platform hit 800 million active users.
​

Instagram Gets Engaging With Their First Interactive Sticker — October 2017

When did Instagram first roll out interactive stickers - poll stickers?

Instagram has rolled out loads of fun features to Stories over the years, but it was in October 2017 that they rolled out their first interactive stickers with the introduction of the poll sticker.

You could use it to have people weigh in on a simple multiple choice question of your liking (simple because you were — and are — limited to only two answer choices). Once a user votes, they can see the breakdown of how everyone else has voted.

Like with all Stories, those containing polls still disappear after 24 hours. But it was the first of many stickers that Instagram Stories would offer intended to help bring your audience into the conversation.
​


Instagram Lets Us Keep Our Stories With Highlights — December 2017

When did Instagram first tell us keep Stories with Highlights?

It didn’t take long for Instagram to realize that people were putting a lot of time and effort into their Stories, and that while some should just go ahead and disappear after 24 hours, it would be nice if users could keep some of them around.

And with that was born Highlights. (I’ve always thought this feature would have been called Albums, if Instagram hadn’t already used that name on a product less deserving of it).

Highlights are very important — first of all, they let you keep select Stories public indefinitely.

But even more importantly, they let you flesh out your account’s profile page, which has always been quite limited.

For your Instagram profile, you get a pic, a short bio, a location and a link to a website (the only active link you can use on the entire platform!). Now suddenly, if you choose to use them, the next thing someone sees while looking at your profile, after your photo and brief bio, is your Highlights. So if used well, they can really do a lot to help you tell your story in a more in-depth and relevant way for your audience.

Let’s say you own a restaurant. You might have one Highlight for salads, another for entrees, a third for desserts and a fourth showcasing the awesome artisanal cocktails you create in house.

Or let’s say you run a boutique. You could have a Highlight for hats, another for skirts, one for accessories, and one for handbags.

Highlights are a great way to show your audience what you do in a way that simply isn’t possible through the limitations offered in the Instagram profile section.
​


Instagram Stories Get Active With GIFs — January 2018

When did GIF stickers first come to Instagram Stories?

I’m not gonna lie — I’m one of those people that’s reluctant to update the iOS on my phone for fear of messing with something that’s not broken.

I was probably a year behind the current iOS when Instagram Stories introduced GIF stickers (GIFs are short videos that play on repeat) and I was so anxious to get access to them, I updated my phone.

My phone was fine, but alas, it was months before the amazing GIF library found its way into my account. Why? That’s just the way it goes sometimes. Instagram and Facebook don’t typically rollout new features to everyone all at once.

But suffice to say, I eventually got them and two plus years on, the novelty has still not worn off. Not even a little bit! 😉 ​
​


Instagram Stories Introduces Type Mode — February 2018

When did Instagram Stories first introduce Type mode?

Instagram Stories was initially limited to sharing real-time photos or videos. But right from the beginning you could type or draw on top of them.

Well in February 2018, Instagram Stories rolled out Type Mode, enabling the option to share JUST text, without any associated media.

While it might not be the most engaging kind of content to share, there are certain times when all you need is text, and it’s nice to have the option.
​


Music Comes to Instragram Stories — June 2018

When did music come to Instagram Stories?

This one is controversial y’all.

In June 2018, Instagram Stories partnered with Spotify to enable the sharing of short clips of songs directly into a Story.
​
That part is is simple enough. But do a Twitter search for “why can’t I share music on Instagram?,” scroll through the endless steam of angry, frustrated or just plain sad users, and you’ll see where the controversy lies.

Because here’s the thing: only personal accounts can share music, not business accounts (more on that in a bit). But really, even that isn’t exactly true! Sometimes business accounts can share music, usually however they can’t. Or that’s my experience anyway.

Why? Because Instagram is a website and there are glitches. Sometimes things work, sometimes they don’t. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ​
​


Instagram Stories Hits 400 Million Daily Active Users — June 2018

 When did Instagram Stories hit 400 million daily active users?

By June of 2018, Instagram Stories — less than two years after their rollout — had more daily users than there are people in the United States (or again, any other country on the planet save for India or China).

Not bad for a product that was initially designed simply to slow down a competitor!
​


Instagram Doubles Down on Video With IGTV — June 2018

When did IGTV start?

​Facebook has been extremely invested in video for quite some time. So it is no surprise that Instagram would find ways to allow users to share videos longer than one minute.

In June 2018 they rolled out IGTV, short for Instagram Television (yup) enabling users to share videos ranging from 61 seconds up to ten minutes. Some accounts could go as long as an hour, but in my experience, most are limited to ten minutes.

The IGTV rollout was extremely flawed from the outset and widespread use has been so limited that they actually rolled it off into a standalone app where it could sit quietly and not bother anyone.

You can still watch users IGTVs (two points to anyone who knows who to do so!), but mostly it serves as a tool to let people trying to upload longer videos to be able do so. Of course if you do so, people can watch the first minute of your video in their feed, but then they have to switch over to the IGTV version to continue.

The biggest mistake Instagram made with IGTV bar-none (in my opinion of course) was limiting IGTV search to only apply to the handle of the user who uploaded the piece, and not to the accompanying descriptive text.

I’m clearly a huge social media nerd — when a platform rolls out a new product or feature, I’m going to try it. When IGTV launched, I quickly headed to the search bar and searched for bluegrass (I’m a bluegrass musician and fan). What did I find: content from a bank in Kentucky… and not much else. Because the search term only applied to the name of the sharing accounts, despite the fact that just like with any other post, you could describe the video you were sharing with accompanying text. Hell, you could even use hashtags, but since they were unsearchable, they were completely worthless.

For example, lets say Del McCoury or Punch Brothers upload a video to IGTV, and introduce it as their “new bluegrass track,” I still couldn’t find it by searching bluegrass, because their name doesn’t have bluegrass in it. They could even tag it as #bluegrass and still nothing! Pretty silly, don’t you think?!
​


Milestone: Instagram Hits 1 Billion Monthly Active Users — June 2018

When did Instagram Stories hit 1 billion active users?

Despite IGTV not giving them the bump they surely hoped for, less than eight years after launching, Instagram did what few have done before — they hit the billion active user mark.

Quite a feat for a company whose initial launch was just a knockoff of Foursquare!
​


Milestone: Instagram Stories Hits 500 Million Daily Active Users — January 2019

When did Instagram Stories hit 500 million daily active users?

And not too long after that, Instagram Stories hit the 500 million daily active user mark. Expect this number to continue rising in the coming years.
​
While Instagram didn’t invent the concept of ephemeral content, they have certainly perfected it. This is one feature that I don’t think will be going away anytime soon.
​

Instagram Adds Reels in response to growth from rival tiktok

Instagram adds Reels

Stories was Facebook’s response to Snapchat. So when TikTok raged onto the scene in the summer of 2020, it was clear that Facebook would have to respond. They initially created a standalone app called Lasso, mimicking many of features of TikTok. But that app was shut down before anyone had really even heard of it. (Honestly, had you heard of it?)

When that didn’t work, they decided to stuff the complexity of an entire other social channel directly into Instagram. After all, it worked with Stories – why not try again?!

Thus Reels was born.

Reels hasn’t seen the same kind of fast usership growth as Stories, mostly because it’s more complicated to use than Stories and doesn’t do as good a job at actually solving a problem for users.

Stories enabled users to worry less about creating a perfect take before sharing a picture or video. Reels… kinda does the opposite. Videos have to be a very specific amount of time (15 or 30 seconds) and have to tell an entire story in a way that Stories didn’t require. Stories can run together to show the happening of an evening or a campaign. Reels standalone and have to start and conclude, while ensuring something interesting happens in a very short and concrete amount of time.

There’s clearly an appetite for creating and consuming such content (see: the explosive growth of TikTok!) but it doesn’t naturally compute than everyone on Instagram is going to take the time or effort to join in on the content creation.

That said in November of 2020, Instagram rolled out a massive redesign of the app, placing Reels front and center (it literally took the place of the button that, since day one, was used to create a post!). So clearly Instagram is invested in its success.

Side note: this redesign also added a shopping tab, as Instagram continues to invest in the ecommerce side of social.

Whether or not Reels can ever claim the kind of standalone success as Stories is to be determined, but it’s clear that Instagram will continue to invest heavily in this internal spinoff. And as long as the political future of TikTok continues to remain murky, that decision from Zuck and co. makes sense.


What’s Next?

Evolution of Instagram. Instagram timeline. How has Instagram changed over the years?

The above list of product rollouts and milestones is far from exhaustive. Very far in fact!

Despite Instagram retaining its simplicity year after year, it is actually constantly changing.

If I wanted to make this post twice as long, I easily could have done so! But for your sake and mine, I’m not going to do that.

That said, here are a few highlights we didn’t cover, but that are worth noting.

February 2016: Since Instagram has always been a mobile-first platform, it has bothered people to no end that you couldn’t login to more than one account at a time. Back at the beginning, if you wanted to share content from more than one account, you had to logout of one and login to the other to do so. In 2016, they added the option to be logged into five accounts at once (but no more). This was a much appreciated feature for anyone who works in social media!

March 2016: Instagram switches its feed from chronological, where you see whatever was posted most recently by anyone you follow, to algorithmic, where Instagram determines what content you see and in what order, based on what they think you will like.

May 2016: Instagram introduced a business account, which looks and feels identical to a regular account but comes with a few extra tools, the most important being analytics!

July 2016: They began to enable the ability to better moderate comments on your threads.

January 2018: Instagram added an “Archive,” storing all of your Stories even after they have disappeared. They are only visible to you, unless you have them shared in a Highlight. But with the Archive, you can go back and add old Stories to Archives, even if they’ve already disappeared from your profile.

September 2018: Instagram’s founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, resigned from the company. Notice how closely this follows the rollout of IGTV. Wonder if they’re related? #JustSaying

October 2019: Instagram removed the “Following” activity tab, which let you see the activity of the people you were following, breaking the hearts of exes and creeps everywhere!

This post could go on and on. But we’ll stop here.

What have been your favorite features Instagram has rolled out over the years? Are there any you wish they would retire from the platform?

Have their been any changes that you think should have been on this list but weren’t? Share them in the comments or hit me up on social.

In case it’s not obvious, I never get tired of talking about this stuff!

I hope this post was as helpful for you to read as it was for me to write.

If you enjoyed it, connect with me on Instagram (@jlemonsk). I regularly share platform updates, tricks, tips, hacks and the like. As well as the occasional pictures of my kids and my cat. (You know, all the good stuff!).

See you there.
​



Ready to Become an instagram champion?

I provide private lessons to businesses, campaigns, nonprofits, solopreneurs, bands… anyone who wants to get more out of this powerful platform.

Learn how to use Instagram

April 18, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-04-18 19:40:202022-11-09 12:57:59Evolution of Instagram: A TimeLine of New Features and major milestones
Facebook, Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social Ep. 16 — Reply All Just (Accidentally) Reminded Us About The Power of Facebook Search

One of my favorite podcasts, Reply All, just did a whole episode trying to track down something that wasn’t showing up on Google. If they had remembered that Facebook, while first and foremost is a social media channel, is also a search engine, they could have saved themselves a whole lot of time and energy.

The Facebook search bar is more powerful than you probably realize. In this episode of Step Up Your Social we’ll walk through some of the power lurking right at your fingertips.

Have any search bar tricks you like that we didn’t cover? Or find any surprises utilizing any of the above? We want to hear them!
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Drop us a line or hit us up on social using #StepUpYourSocial.

Want to listen to the recreated version of the song? Or the original one? You can hear both in Reply All episode #158 The Case of the Missing Hit.

Or scroll down and listen to them both below.
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​​​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.

Full Episode Transcript

Do you listen to Reply All? It’s an awesome podcast about living in the age of the internet. Or something like that. If you don’t listen already, you should. It’s one of my favorites for sure.

Last week, they dropped an episode called “The Case Of The Missing Hit.” In it, PJ, one of their two hosts, goes on a truly epic search — and I mean epic in its literal meaning — to find a song that was big enough to be played on the radio internationally in the 90s, but somehow had [virtually] no presence on Google.

The story starts simply enough: A man named Tyler reached out to PJ for help. He could hear this song in his head, but he   couldn’t find it on Google, even though he remembered many of the lyrics. It’s a weird concept in today’s age, where we can find virtually anything online. And yet the song was nowhere to be found… with one weird exception. Years ago, a guy who lives in Trinidad and Tobago had asked about it in an online message board, referencing several of the same lyrics that Tyler remembered. But of course, he too, was trying to track down the song.

This proved that Tyler hadn’t made it up, but it also didn’t help PJ solve the case of the missing hit.

To solve the case, PJ did what any normal person with a budget and an obsession does: he helped Tyler recreate the song in its entirety from memory. Tyler took a song he hadn’t heard in more than 20 years and he coaxed it out of a group of session musicians. PJ then took that recording and talked to… well everyone!

He spoke with numerous music critics from Rolling Stone, producers, radio show hosts from the era, even the lead singer of the Bare Naked Ladies, as the song in question had a very BNL type feel too it.

Google failed them, so PJ took his query to the world. And in the end, all this time, energy and effort amounted to… nothing. Everyone he spoke with had a great idea about how to try to solve the problem. Every great idea took PJ down another rabbit hole. And every rabbit hole ended as unceremoniously as it had started with, “sorry, I just don’t know.”

Then something the Trinidad and Tobago guy had said in his original post sparked something in PJ and he plugged a few lines of the song into Facebook’s search bar. Immediately, not only did he find the song… he found the songwriter who had written it in the first place.

So much time and energy and effort could have been avoided if PJ (or Tyler for that matter) had remembered that while Facebook is first and foremost a social media platform, like virtually every other social media platform you know and love, it’s also part-search engine.

So let’s talk about a few other things the Facebook search bar — that simple little bar right at the top of your account — can do, that you might not have realized:

First things first, type something — anything — into the bar on desktop, and you’ll be brought to a search page. From there, you have a slew of filtering options both on the top of the screen and on the lefthand side.

On the top of the screen, you can choose to only see posts, people, photos, videos, market place, pages, groups, apps, events and links. So the next time you’re trying to find a Facebook Page and you can’t quite remember what it’s called, instead of scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, try filtering instead.

On the lefthand side of the screen, you have a whole other bunch of options. You can opt to see posts from anyone, or only yourself, your friends, your groups or pages, or only content shared publicly. You can even choose a source, to see if a friend, group or page has talked about an issue you care about.

Want to see all posts? Of course you can do that. But you can also limit your search to only posts you’ve already seen. Which could come in super handy if you’re looking for something you saw, but can’t remember where.

You can limit your search to only show content tagged in certain locations or posted in a certain year — or even in a certain month of a certain year!

So yeah, right off the bat, you can see that while Facebook might not be Google, there’s more to its search then simply keywords and scrolling.

Now let’s get into some of the less obvious things you can do with Facebook search:

Once upon a time there was an easy way to see which of your friends lived in which city. Then Facebook got rid of that helpful  feature. But good news, they replaced it (they just forgot to tell anyone). Looking for friends in a particular city or state? Just type in “my friends in [wherever]” and Facebook will show you a list.

Looking for a bar, a pizza place, or a spot to get your oil changed? Type in “pizza places near me” and Facebook will show you a list, with a map. Just like Yelp, but without ever leaving Facebook.

Want to know if your friends liked the pizza place you are considering? On the top menu bar, head over to places. On the lefthand side, select “visited by friends.” You can also filter by “open now” and  price!

Want to know which events your friends are going to (or should we say so-called friends, since they’re apparently going out without you!)? Type in a keyword. On the top menu, go to events. On the lefthand side menu, go to “popular with friends.” You can also search for events based on location and date, to find things to do today, tomorrow, this week, this weekend or next week.

While their Boolean search isn’t as powerful as Google, you can employ it to some degree. If you don’t know Boolean by name you might know it in practice. Boolean search is a method of search that lets you filter or exclude terms by using all caps AND, NOT and ORs. So type   “social media” AND “Madison, WI” into Facebook (or Google) and you’ll only get content back that mentions both. Switch AND with OR and you’ll find content mentioning either. Go with NOT and you’ll find content mentioning the first term but not the second one. This can be pretty helpful when trying to narrow your search.

Now it is worth mentioning that while Facebook search is powerful, it’s far less powerful than it used to be. Google “Facebook search bar tricks” and you’ll find tons of articles telling you about a bunch of features you can use. But alas, Facebook killed a lot of them off when they did away with their Graph Search. This feature let you see which of your friends liked which pages, and which posts had been liked by a specific person. Guess it was all just a bit too invasive for a company so worried about your privacy. #LOL

But there’s still plenty you can do with the Facebook search bar.

Have any search bar tricks you like that we didn’t cover? Or find any surprises utilizing any of the above? We want to hear them!

Drop us a line at stepupyoursocial.com or hit us up on social using #StepUpYourSocial.

In the meantime, don’t get stuck like Tyler and PJ. Start appreciating the power of Facebook search today!

PS: want to hear the song PJ and Tyler recreated, as well as the original? I’ll have links to them both at stepupyoursocial.com.
​

 So Much Better by Evan olson (Original Version)

​Better Than (Reply All Version)

March 11, 2020/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2020-03-11 15:26:552022-11-09 13:00:55Step Up Your Social Ep. 16 — Reply All Just (Accidentally) Reminded Us About The Power of Facebook Search
Brand Management

Nothing Online is Ever Actually Private: A Cautionary Tale

Twitter Lists Public Vs Private

I LOVE Twitter lists. They are an amazing listening tool, helping to bring order and clarify to the chaos that is the Twittersphere.

You can use them to easily simplify who you are following at any given moment on Twitter. While I follow many accounts, there are times where I ONLY want to know what a few of them are saying. So I have a Twitter list just for them.

I love them so much, the second episode of my podcast, #StepUpYourSocial, was about how, when and why to use them. (You can listen to that episode at stepupyoursocial.com or wherever you stream podcasts).

Whenever I run trainings on Twitter, I always highly recommend that people utilize this amazing tool.

I even include it on my list of free tools you should be using but probably aren’t and recommend that even if your brand isn’t on Twitter, you have an account you can use to build lists and monitor your competitors, customers, influencers, etc. just as a way to keep tabs on your field.

So yeah, I’m a fan.

There are two types of lists: public and private.

Public lists can be followed by anybody and they are visible through your profile. And whenever you add someone to such a list, they get a notification. They are public.

Private lists on the other hand exist only for you. No one will ever know that such a list exists. No one can follow it or even find it unless they are logged in as you. And of course no one knows when you add them to it. They are private.

 But here’s the thing — nothing online is ever actually private.

When I build private lists for political campaigns, I also give them overly-guarded innocuous names like “interesting” or “other campaigns.” I would never call them “competition,” “the enemy,” or, as we’ll soon see, “haters.”

Likewise, when I work with businesses or nonprofits on developing their own listening tools or prepping them for crisis management, I always push them to do the same. Don’t call the trolls “trolls.” Call them “interesting accounts,” or “people to follow.”

Why? you might ask. These are private lists. No one will ever know that they exist.

Well, that’s true. Right up until it’s not.

I was (and am) always afraid of hacking. I have run very large Twitter accounts and you never know what’s going to happen. If heaven forbid someone hacked into one of those accounts, it would be awful. Because they could post whatever they wanted.

But there would be nothing incriminating or embarrassing in those accounts for them to find. Because our campaign doesn’t have “enemies” or “haters.” It has “accounts to follow” or “notables.” It would have to be a pretty quiet news day for that story to get written.

Well as it turns out, my caution was extremely valid. Because Vice just reported on a bug that led to people being notified when they were added to… private lists. 😳 😳 😳

The bug was first noticed when a Vice reporter was added to a PRIVATE list called… you guessed it… “haters.”

Who’s fault was this? Twitter’s of course!

Who’s problem is it though (should it happen to you)? Yeah, YOU know.

I always advise that you never put anything in writing you aren’t prepared to see in the paper. But that advice definitely goes beyond writing.

Being in a sketchy Facebook Group — even if it’s a secret Group — can still come out. Having a secondary account you use online to talk about how hot or awesome you are… is stupid. And risky!

And labeling Twitter lists, even private ones, with any name that would embarrass you were it to come out — is just a bad idea.

Be smart out there y’all! The internet is our permanent record.

December 27, 2019/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2019-12-27 11:26:012022-11-09 13:11:08Nothing Online is Ever Actually Private: A Cautionary Tale
Digital Tools, Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social Ep. 15 — Free Digital Tools You Should BE Using But Probably Aren’t

THE EPISODE:

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT, ALONG WITH LINKS TO ALL MENTIONED FREE DIGITAL TOOLS:

Facebook loves video and really wants you to share videos to the platform. When you do so, they reward you with views. But here’s a scary statistic: around 85% of Facebook video is watched… without sound. So what are you to do? Hone in on your acting skills? Stockpile posters and write out the accompanying text? I won’t tell you NOT to do either of those. But there’s a far simpler option available to you built right into Facebook.

Once you’ve added your video to Facebook, but before you’ve posted it, you’ll see a menu on the right side of your post. (This only works on your computer, not on mobile.) You’ll see an option to replace your thumbnail. You can either select another moment from the video or upload something you created. In other word, good news: you’ll never again have to start off you video with an awkward open-mouth shot. Then below that, you’ll have the option to add subtitles and captions. Select that, pick your language, and Facebook will auto-create subtitles for your video. Assuming your video isn’t too long, it should only take a few moments for them to do so. Once they’ve been created, you can go through and edit them to make sure they are perfect. Then you can add them to your video and voila, instead of speaking to the 15% of your audience who DO listen with the sound on, now you can now speak to all 100% of them.

It’s worth mentioning this also works with live videos. But only after the fact. Once your video has been posted to your page, click the top right icon to edit it and you’ll get the same option to customize your thumbnail and to create subtitles.

So that’s one free digital tool you should DEFINITELY be using, but probably aren’t.

In this episode, I’m going to run through a bunch more. Let’s dig in.

Let me clarify that, per the title of the episode, every tool I am mentioning today is free. But it’s worth noting that many of them have premium versions you can pay for. But not one of these awesome digital tools requires a credit card to start using.

So let’s get into some more free tools you should be using.

In previous episodes of Step Up Your Social, we’ve covered Google Alerts, Facebook Pages to Watch (both in episode 10) and Twitter lists (in episode 2). Those are three killer, free listening tools. Let’s add one more to the list.

Feedly. Feedly is an RSS tool. (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication.) Instead of having to jump all over the internet, looking at countless news sources and blogs, you can create a free Feedly account and then subscribe to as many publications as you want. You can bundle your publishers by category and then, whenever you are looking to catch up with the news — or importantly, wherever you know you need to share something on social but are not sure what — you can head to Feedly and see all the content that every publication or blog you follow has posted. You can even break down content by category, so you can just see what’s going on in the world of Facebook, or email marketing, or minor league baseball or whatever. Instead of searching the internet for relevant news, use Feedly to create a pipeline to bring all that relevant news directly to you.

Next up, let’s look at two powerful apps owned by Instagram.

There are no shortage of free photo and video apps or tools in the app store. But these two are owned by Instagram, so you know they must be good.

The first is called Layout, and it lets you take multiple pictures and lay them out as you want. You can easily drag and drop to switch pics or to change the size of one image or another. It’s very easy to use.

The second is called Hyperlapse. I really love this one. It’s just a simple camera app, but it lets you create videos that can be sped up as desired. You have to take the video in the app for it to work, but once you’re done filming, you can speed up the video from 2x up to 12x speed. So let’s say you stick your phone in a tripod and film you and your team setting up for an event. You can take that footage, speed it up by a factor of 12 and suddenly your 15 minute set-up can be viewed in under a minute. Very powerful storytelling tool for the right situation! Quick caveat: for obvious reasons, it will record video without sound. If you want, you can add sound in after the fact. But the app will not capture any audio accompanying your video.

I don’t refer to many digital tools as magic, but this next one really kinda is. It’s called Remove.bg (as in remove background). And that’s exactly what it does. Caveat: it only works for people, not things.

You can use this tool on your computer or phone by visiting Remove.bg. Upload a photo and then tell it to remove background. It will take about 4 seconds and then, just like that, you’ll have the person (or people) in your photo captured against a transparent background. In my experience, they aren’t 100% accurate. They’re only about… 97% or so. Not bad for a free tool and four seconds! You can then erase anything they missed or add back anything you want to keep.

Then you can export that file and upload it somewhere else to edit it, or just add a background to it right through their site. You can upload your own background files, or select from their photo library.

Anyone with any Photoshop experience can do this same thing. But not as quickly as remove.bg. And probably not for free!

Speaking of graphic design, there are a million free tools out there that will help you design better graphics, add logos to your pictures and do plenty of other basic graphic design work without having to invest years into learning Photoshop. But Canva was the originator of the field and they are still the go to for all my “graphic designs for dummies” needs.

They’re free to use, but they do offer a premium version that adds perks like letting you store your brand’s colors and create more advanced file storage systems. You should also know that despite having an endless amount of pictures, icons and pre-made templates to pull from, a bunch are free but many are not. So be aware that you aren’t building something you love using a paid pic or icon, unless you are prepared to pull out your credit card. That said, most assets can be bought for just $1, so you don’t have to worry about breaking your budget.

Another great thing about Canva is that it’s all web based. So you can login on your computer, start a design. Then head to your Canva app and keep working on the go.

It’s also worth noting that Canva.org offers free premium options for nonprofits.

And since we’re talking about stock photos, my go to stock photo source these days is Unsplash. You can search the site by keyword, find beautiful, high quality photos that you can then use for free. They request, but don’t require, giving credit to the photographer.

I will add that I’m not a lawyer and there are some fine print things that might affect you and your brand. If you have a lawyer, ask them to vet the language per your needs. If you don’t, head to Google and get lots of different takes on what you can and what you can’t do with “free” stock images.

I’m going to close my list with two quick writing assistance tools. The first is Grammarly, a free extension you can add to your browser (and your phone as well, though I’ve stuck with just using it on my computer). It’s essentially spellcheck for everything you do online. It won’t make you a better writer per se, but it will help ensure you don’t embarrass yourself with typos, missing commas or by using the wrong your.

The second one is called Hemingway App. This one may actually make you a better writer.

Copy and paste your text into Hemingway App and it will flag sentences that are hard to read, words that you can simplify, overuse of the passive voice and anything else keeping you from writing more like Ernest Hemingway.

So that’s my list. I’d love to hear any tools that you use that I didn’t include. Share them in the comments, hit me up on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn at Reverbal Communications or tweet at me using the hashtag #StepUpYourSocial.

As always, if this was helpful to you, I’d really appreciate a review wherever you stream podcasts. It will only take you a moment and will go a long way towards helping us reach a larger audience.

August 27, 2019/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2019-08-27 09:41:482022-11-09 13:14:36Step Up Your Social Ep. 15 — Free Digital Tools You Should BE Using But Probably Aren’t
Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social Ep. 14 — 7 Times The Airlines Blew It On Social Media (And What We Can Learn From Their Mistakes)

THE EPISODE:

THE TRANSCRIPT, ALONG WITH LINKS AND SCREENSHOTS:

Last week, a “YouTube Star” named Drew Gooden tweeted “Excuse me @Delta but this is outrageous. I just got sucked through the toilet hole in one of your aircrafts and am now hurtling through the sky, can I get my money back? This never happens on Southwest.”

Picture

Obviously this is a ridiculous tweet, intended for comedic purposes. But the person handling customer service for Delta that day, who was clearly in dire need of a few pots of coffee, apparently didn’t read beyond the first line before responding “Hello Drew, I am sorry to learn of this, can you provide more detail to what occurred. HBB.” ​

Picture

Drew promptly responded “got sucked through toilet hole.”

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​Let’s take a step back and think about how this happened.

Now what the airlines lack in legroom, they more than make up for in social media budgets. Who amongst hasn’t used social media to reach out to an airline to complain about something, only to be met with a pseudo-personalized response — replete with an employee’s first name or initials — only to be informed they can’t actually help us with our problem but that they hope we have a nice flight (even though we’re writing to ask why our flight has been delayed 18 hours, with no end in sight!).

But still, they are paying people to monitor their channels, and provide quick responses to any and every query sent their way, including paying HBB to respond to Drew when he complains about being sucked out of one of their toilet holes.

What’s the lesson from this ridiculous exchange: social listening is good. But only, if you are actually hearing what your audience is saying.

Now this podcast exists to share quick, actionable tips to help you step up your social. In this episode, we’re going to look at 6 more times the airlines blew it on social media, and talk about what we can learn from their collective mistakes. Let’s let their fails become our best practices.

So without further ado:

Social Fail Number 2: The lesson here is the same as in the previous example, but it’s too good not to also share.

When American Airlines merged with US Airways, they created the world’s largest airline. Twitter user Mark Murphy tweeted his congrats. And this new mega-airline was quick to reply, thanking him for his support.

The problem: Mark’s congratulatory tweet actually read: “Congrats to @americanair and @usairways on creating the largest, shittiest airline in the world.”

So yeah, the airline was listening, but they weren’t actually hearing.

Social Fail Number 3: During the 2014 World Cup, the US was playing Ghana. When the US men’s team scored their second (game-winning) goal, Delta was excited to share the news with its fans. Smart. Delta serves an international audience of people who like to travel. Why wouldn’t they want to show their audience that they are in on the fun?

To represent the US, they used an image of the Statue of Liberty. To represent Ghana, they used an image of a giraffe. The problem? There are no giraffes in Ghana.

What can we learn from this mistake? Don’t make assumptions. Five minutes on Wikipedia could have prevented years of embarrassment for a brand that was trying to show they were with it, and instead showed how little they understood the world they were trying to connect.​

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Social Fail Number 4: This one isn’t actually from an airline. It’s from an airport. But it still made our list.
​
In 2013, Luton Airport in London posted a photo of a recent incident from Chicago in which a plane had skidded of a runway, promising that “Because we are such a super airport… this is what we prevent you from when it snows… Weeeee :)”

Picture

Let’s start with the fact that this is just bad writing. But convulsion aside, the real problem with this post is that they were using a plane crash as a punchline, despite the fact that a six year old boy had died in the incident.

Even if your brand’s voice is bold and irreverent, know when it’s appropriate to make jokes about incidents involving dead kids? Umm, let’s go with never. Sound good?

For Social Fail Number 5: let’s start with the lesson and then move backwards. Contests and hashtags can be great ways to drum up User Generated Content and to encourage your audience to sing your praises to their communities. But they aren’t magic, and if you are struggling with a PR crisis, they can often create more harm than good.

This is a lesson that Qantas Airways learned the hard way.

Qantas wanted to drum up some online excitement for their brand, so they decided to give away a first class gift package by having people tell them about their “dream luxury inflight experience” using the hashtag #QantasLuxury.
The responses came streaming in. But they weren’t what Qantas had in mind.

Here are just a few examples:

  • Getting from A to B without the plane being grounded or an engine catching fire
  •  #QantasLuxury is a massive executive bonus while your workers starve and your former customers choke
  • Flights that leave on schedule because Management doesn’t arbitrarily shut down the airline #QantasLuxury
  • #qantasluxury having a skybed so “superior in its class” you have to be under 5 foot to be able to use it with your legs straight.
  • #qantasluxury – is not being told you can apply for refund online & finding out they only refund via a phone # that no one answers for 4hrs

So yeah, you get the idea.

This is not the story that Qantas wanted their audience to share with their networks. But even an intern should have foreseen that you can’t use a hashtag to solve a PR problem. A hashtag is offering the floor to your community. And if you think their stories MIGHT be more problematic than positive, maybe find another outreach approach.

Social Fail Number 6 was a famous one — United Airlines overbooked a flight and instead of raising the incentives until someone volunteered to leave the plane, they opted instead to violently drag a man — a doctor in fact — off of their plane. Someone shot a video of the brutal altercation and of course it went viral.
So I guess the lesson here is don’t be a jerk to your customers. But actually, I’m including this one on the list for a different reason.

As bad as the video was — and it was BAD — their real social media fail came from their response.

Bad things happen. An overzealous security guard or a stressed out flight attendant made a mistake and let their emotions get the better of them. Give it time and enough volume, it’s going to happen.

But when you inevitably make your apology, you better make it good. Needless to say, United blew that as well, or this issue wouldn’t have made today’s list.

A United exec put out a statement that essentially blamed the passenger, even though it was United who oversold the flight in the first place.

Additional apologies followed but it’s safe to say that this issue will stick with their brand for some time to come.

The lesson: if you are going to issue an apology, make it right the first time!

Which brings us to Social Fail Number 7, the final mistake on our list. This one is a doozy, and it’s — to put it mildly — NSFW (Not Suitable For Work).

In April, 2014, a Twitter user, Elle, tweeted her frustration with US Airways regarding an issue with her flight.

Five hours later, US Airways responded to let her know they were sorry.
Elle didn’t accept their apology. “Yeah, you seem so very sorry. So sorry, in fact, that you couldn’t be bothered to address my other tweets.”

US Airways responded with the following: “We welcome feedback, Elle. If your travel is complete, you can detail it here for review and follow-up.”

Accompanying this tweet was almost definitely the most explicit, shocking and inappropriate image every tweeted out by a Fortune 500 company, if not by any company ever!

It’s so NSFW I won’t even describe it here, other than to say it involved a toy airplane.

The tweet was deleted within an hour, but it is still very much lives on via screenshots all over the internet (even though I kinda wish it didn’t).

So here’s the lesson: don’t put anything on the internet, whether in a DM, a secret Facebook group or certainly not in response to a customer, if you aren’t prepared to see it quoted or screenshot across the internet.

Also, trust the people you have helping you manage your social accounts. Like, really.

Special thanks to Tre Temperilli for providing research assistance for this episode.

If you are enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving it a review wherever you stream podcasts. It will only take you a moment and can go a long way towards helping grow our audience.
​
Thank you and be smart out there.


​​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.
July 17, 2019/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2019-07-17 09:46:002022-11-09 13:26:41Step Up Your Social Ep. 14 — 7 Times The Airlines Blew It On Social Media (And What We Can Learn From Their Mistakes)
Blogging, Step Up Your Social

Step Up Your Social Ep. 13 — 3 Reasons You Should Be Blogging

There are three primary reasons you should be blogging to grow your brand:
1) It’s great for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
2) It positions you as an expert in your field
3) It creates endless bridges between your social media and your websiteIn this episode of #StepUpYourSocial, we dig into all three of these reasons, as well as how to approach creating content, the difference between timely and evergreen content… and a whole lot more!Tune in today right here or wherever you listen to podcasts.

​Find other episodes of Step Up Your Social here.
June 20, 2019/0 Comments/by Josh Klemons
/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png 0 0 Josh Klemons /wp-content/uploads/2022/11/reverbal-logo-1.png Josh Klemons2019-06-20 09:53:202022-11-09 13:20:14Step Up Your Social Ep. 13 — 3 Reasons You Should Be Blogging
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