Social media platforms are always evolving. Here are two major changes that have occurred over the past few weeks that can help us as writers and publishers.
How many times have you posted to Facebook and later found a typo? Comments and likes have started to pile up, but you need to delete the post and start from scratch. You hate to delete it because you’ll lose the conversations. Fret no more.
You can now edit posts on Facebook after you’ve hit
the “publish” button. Click the drop down box in the upper right hand corner of the post to present the options. From there, just click “Edit …” and you are on your way. Easy Peasy. The function is currently available for web and Android—iOS is on its way. Now you can post at the speed of light knowing that the edit button is just clicks away.
Another big change that you might have missed involves YouTube. There has been talk on Indies Unlimited lately about sound tracks with eBooks. Royalty issues are a big issue when involving pictures or music.
Our options have been to use original music, and last I checked, except for maybe JD Mader, we’re writers not musicians, or the canned music provided by the book trailer sites. 
Now we have another option. YouTube has launched a YouTube Library that consists of royalty-free instrumental tracks. Yep, you can use them free, forever, and it doesn’t have to be for a YouTube video. You can use them for any creative purpose. You can browse the material by mood, genre, instrument and duration.
My final tip is not necessarily a good one. Since its inception, Twitter has enforced a rule that you could only direct message people who you follow. That has now changed. If you’ve noticed an increase in Twitter spam in your direct message bin, it’s probably because of this new functionality. The good news—it’s optional. You can go into your settings to change your discoverability settings.
So there you have it, few changes with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter that you can use to make your Indie life easier!
Thanks, Jim. 🙂
🙂
Great stuff Jim. I can’t tell you how many times I deleted on FB after posting and seeing an oops. Another site for music is Royalty Free Kings. I love their selections. They also have a buy policy, but p-nuts. The ferret strikes again.
Thanks for the info on Royalty Free Kings, Aron. I really appreciate the comments.
Awesome information – thank you!
My pleasure, thanks for stopping in!
Jim, the Facebook change you mentioned – will that be available on pages, or just on personal profiles? I don’t see it on my pages yet. (And I could really use it)
Great question Stephen. It is not available for pages yet, most likely it will be in the future … however … there is a trick to edit a post on pages. It only works with photo posts that you put directly on your page.
If you click the date/time of post “about an hour ago” just under the page name, it will bring up a new screen with the post in it. You’ll see the text of your post and under it will be several options including “edit”. From there you can edit the post and save it.
The only drawback is that it won’t work with posts from third party programs. So if you share from IU or other sites to your FB page, it won’t work.
*sigh* I was afraid of that. Thanks, Jim.
Thanks, Jim. This tip is invaluable.
Here’s my rule: You direct message me trying to sell something, and I don’t know you, you get unfollowed and hated for the rest of eternity and I will do my best to cast your black soul into the hell it deserves.
Not that I hold a grudge or anything…
I’m with you on that. I do the same, including the grudge.
very useful info, thanks so much; glad youtube’s providing royalty free sound tracks to use, and, that that direct msging thing on twitter’s optional; thank again jim!
Thanks, Felipe. I appreciate your comments.
Jim, very good news about the royalty-free music! Thanks for posting!
Wow. This is very helpful. I’ve never tried to do a book trailer because I wasn’t sure where I’d get music I could use. Now, I’ll look into it, as music was the big hurdle for me.
Yesss! Just in time to work on another book trailer! Thanks for the head’s up, Jim 🙂
I’ve had excellent luck with royalty-free music on http://www.incompetech.com and also the music that animoto.com provides when making a video. Another venue is always good, thanks, Jim!
Thanks, K.S. I just added this site to my bookmarks.
My pleasure! He’s got great stuff on there (an amazing variety) and all he asks for is credit. 🙂
Great information!
Thanks Jim, I’m tootling off to have a look at the Youtube library as music is the core of multimedia, imho. 🙂
Great info, thanks.
I new about FB and Twitter but not YouTube–so, thanks Jim.
Great stuff, Jim, thanks! I’ve bought royalty-free (and usually inexpensive) music from several different sites — audiojungle.com and shockwave-sound.com come to mind, right off the bat — but free is definitely my favorite price!
I knew about the first one, but not the last two. Thanks!