As Dentists, you have a lot competing for your attention. So it’s easy to lose track of the latest trends in social media. But let’s be honest – it’s pretty much impossible to know that you don’t know something that you don’t know. That’s why we’ve collected a list of little-known, hidden, or long-forgotten features on Facebook and Twitter:
1. Facebook: Save Link
This one comes first because you don’t have time not to know about it. The ability to save Facebook articles was well publicised, but a lot of people forget about it because it’s buried in a menu. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing an article on Facebook, trying to find it later, and never seeing it again because of Facebook’s algorithms.
2. Twitter: Save by Favouriting
There are ways to curate tweets into reading lists using custom timelines and other more official means, but one handy way to save things on Twitter for later consumption is just to give them a favourite. It’s just one tap, it builds relationships with other users, and it enhances your own profile. All of the tweets you’ve favourited are collected on your Twitter profile page, just under your cover image, where you can browse through them when you have time.
3. Facebook: Edit Photos on Mobile
This is one of those things that if you never read about, or accidentally did it by mistake, you might never know about it. If you are live-posting for your practice about an event you’re attending, and you want to share some photos. You may not have time to open them up in your favourite editing app, save them, and then share them. Just tap to share a photo on Facebook, select the image you want from your camera roll, and then tap that image within the status draft you’ve created on Facebook. This will bring up a full editing interface where you can add filters, do quick adjustments, tag people, and crop, right there in Facebook.
4. Twitter: Find Out Who Unfollowed You
Creepy? Maybe. Useful? Definitely. If you tweet for your dental practice, you probably already use Twitter Analytics to optimise your strategy based on the engagement of the people who follow you. But what about the people who unfollow you? By finding out who chooses not to hear from you anymore (with a tool like who.unfollowed.me), you can determine if your current strategy is alienating the people you want to reach, and adjust accordingly.
5. Twitter: Mute Feature
If you have someone in your Twitter feed who you want to remain engaged with, but find their content irrelevant or irritating, Twitter mute is for you. Or, in a less extreme example, maybe someone you know is attending an event and is kind enough to issue a volume alert letting followers know that they’ll be posting a lot on a certain topic for the next few days. If that topic doesn’t interest you, you can mute them while the event is going on, and then unmute them when their feed goes back to normal.
6. Facebook: English (Pirate)
Let’s take it back to 2008 when people first began to discover that they could set their language on Facebook to English (Pirate). This probably falls under the category of ‘long forgotten’ because it has no practical application.
If you want to have a laugh today and experience a blast from the past, click the dropdown menu in the top right corner of your Facebook window, click Settings, and edit your language setting to English (Pirate). When you get sick of this (and you will!), just repeat the process to change back to your original language. Important note: when you return to the dropdown menu, Settings will now be called Adjust ye riggin’s.
If you would like further tips about social media for your dental practice, give the Dental Design team a call on 01202 677 277 who will be happy to help you.