I decided to write this post especially for those of you who enter competitions. It is however also relevant to those of you who simply find an interesting post and want to share or tag someone to bring it to their attention.  During the giveaways/competitions that I have run on my page to date, I noticed that not everyone reads the instructions/requirements properly, or they do but don’t understand it entirely, so I thought that a Social Media Guide for Sharing was apt and in this post, I am going to focus on FACEBOOK.

Sometimes, if there is more than 1 requirement to enter a competition – some people only do one of them. As this is a requirement, it will be null and void if not all steps are followed.

E.g. If the requirements are to LIKE and SHARE the post (public) – and if you only LIKE the post or the share can’t be seen because it’s not set to public, then you will not qualify for an entry and/or correct entries will be given preference.

I appreciate your engagement on my blog and I therefore don’t want you to miss an opportunity to win a giveaway or for someone not to be notified of an interesting post because you incorrectly shared or missed the basics…so let’s have a look at it more closely:

Before we get into that, I also want to say that I am very mindful of the diverse readers on my blog, some are more social media savvy that others. The intention of this post, is therefore for me to help those of you who are not – and please don’t feel bad about this; it comes from a place of love and care and trust me when I say that if you’re one of them, you’re not alone, not at all!

Social Media Guide for Sharing – Facebook

 1. LIKE the post to enter this competition:

All you have to do, is simply select the LIKE option, it will turn blue once you click it:

2.  LIKE and SHARE this post, using the hashtags:

#PeanutGallery247Turns1 AND #SierraTequila

a.  Follow step one above to LIKE the post

b.  Once you select the SHARE option, more options will pop up

c.  Select WHERE you want to share the post, for this example, we will choose your personal Timeline (you can share on the other platforms as well – if the other group/page settings allow you to do so)

d.  Before you select POST, type the hashtags or copy and paste (to avoid errors) the hashtags where it says, “Say something about this post” Many people forget to do this and select POST immediately!

Whilst this is not compulsory, instead of merely just using the hashtags, I recommend including a sentence or two – why should people click on the link, why are you sharing it? How will it benefit them? If you continuously share with without purpose, it can also come across as spam – it often does. 

e.  Change your settings to Public, if it is currently set to Friends

     If your shares are not set to public, it will not appear when a search is done         to select a winner.

f.  You are now ready to select POST.

3. TAGGING in a SHARED POST

It is so easy for your shares/posts to get lost on someone’s timeline. It may therefore benefit to tag them, to ensure they see your post, as they will receive notification of being tagged (if allowed)

So let’s have a look at how to do this correctly:

There is a difference between hashtags and tagging. Hashtags simply have this sign # before a word or phrase (no spaces or punctuation in between)

If you use the # sign before their name, they will not get a notification so they may not even see your post as it potentially may get lost in their newsfeed.

To TAG a friend, a page, a celebrity, etc.  in a Shared Post because you believe it will appeal to them (refer to Step 2d above), and simply:

a.  Use the @ sign before their name. e.g. @namesurname – no spaces in between

b.  A list of names of people with similar names will appear – select the person you want       to tag.

Their name will then appear bold

c. Before you select post, ensure that your settings are set to Public and then you are ready to select POST.

The entity you tagged will receive notification that you have tagged them in a post (if they have allowed this in their settings)

4.  Share the post directly from the Blog

         If you are required to share a post directly from the blog, simply scroll to the end of           the blog post, where you will find various social media icons for sharing. This will             vary from blog to blog, depending on the blog design.  Select whichever platform                you want to share on and follow the rest of the steps in this post to share/tag etc.

5.  Tagging in Comments

If you are requested or would like to tag a friend/entity in the comments of a post, simply:

a.  Start typing their name, using the @ sign first.

If you use the # sign before their name, they will not get a notification, so this means they will not receive notification of your comment which you intended to share with them.

b.  A pop-up box with options will appear, select the entity you want to tag

c.  Click enter or the blue arrow if you simply want to tag them without any comments. If you want to add a comment, do so and then click enter or the blue arrow to post the comment

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6.  How to edit previous posts

So you’ve shared posts without using the hashtags, or had the incorrect privacy setting, like the image below?

(Note that the little lock below my name indicates that my privacy settings was set so that ONLY I could see it – for the purpose of this screenshot)

No problem! You can fix this by editing the post on your Timeline, simply:

a.  Go to your timeline or wherever you shared the post and select the 3 dots on the top         right of the post

b.  From the drop-dow menu that appears, select “edit post”

c. Follow the steps at the beginning of this post to share/tag or use hashtags as required

7.  How to edit comments

So, you’ve made a comment, but there was a typo, or you wanted to add something to your comment…you will be able to edit or delete the comment:

a.  Select the 3 dots on the top right of the comment

b.  You will get the option to edit or delete

c.  For the purpose of this example, select “edit”

d.  The comment now becomes editable – edit as you like and hit enter

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Well, there you have it – your step by step guide to sharing on Facebook.  I hope that you found this Social Media Guide for Sharing on Facebook useful and if you did, please do let me know in the comments below and share with those you think that would benefit from it.

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Disclaimer: I am no expert on Social Media, the above steps were put together by myself based on my personal understanding. Depending on the response of this post, I will choose whether I do follow-up posts for other Social Media Platforms, specifically Instagram and Twitter.