5 cool and simple social media tips to try today

I got to thinking about the incredible number of social media tips out there, which led me to start categorizing them into different buckets: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Because, you know, this is what I do in my spare time.

Then I got to thinking about a fourth bucket: cool tips, ones that aren't necessarily easy or hard; they're just interesting and potentially really useful.

Let's examine that a little more closely. Here are five cool and simple social media tips you can try today.

1. Snapchat: Add more than one filter to a photo or video

You can use up to three filters on photos and up to five on videos. Filters are the changes you can make to photos by swiping left or right. To use more than one, swipe as you normally would to add the first filter. Then, hold a finger on the upper left part of the screen, and swipe again to add the second. Repeat as needed.

2. Instagram ^[1]: Remove photos from your photo map

When you add a location to an Instagram photo, the data are added to your photo map. This is great because it allows you to zoom in on a city and see all your posts from there. This is bad because Instagram records very specific geolocation data about where you shoot the photo, right down to your home address. To remove photos that have been added previously, go to your profile and hit the location icon. Then select Edit at the top right, tap the photos you'd like to remove, then hit Edit. Select the photo or photos to remove or just choose deselect all. Tap Done and you're done. Photos on your map will have a green check mark in the bottom-right corner. Photos to be removed will be shaded gray. Alternatively, you can go to your phone's global settings and turn off location access to the entire app.

3. Pinterest: Gift shopping? Create a secret board.

This one is so simple, yet so effective. Pinterest boards can be public or secret (private). Create a secret board. Name it wish list or birthday dreams or shower needs — anything you want. Then, add other Pinterest users. That's it. Now you have a place to not only communicate the things you want, but beautiful photos of each item with a link to a place to buy it. My wife and I use these for birthdays and during the holidays.

4. Facebook: See what your profile looks like to other people

You know how your profile looks, but how does it look to Joe Q. Public or that high school bully who is finally your friend 25 years later? Go to your profile, and on the right side of the large cover photo, you'll see three dots. Under there, you'll find view as. Select it, and you'll see what your profile looks like to the public at large. At the top, you'll now see a black banner where you can enter the name of a specific person. If you've applied certain limitations to certain people, this is the way to tell whether or not it's working properly.

5. Publish a post on LinkedIn

Go to the linkedin.com homepage ^[2], not your profile page (you can click on home just to be sure), and look for publish a post. It's next to share an update and upload a photo. Sharing an update is like tweeting, while publishing a post allows you to post a full-blown formatted blog post that you can share. All of your connections are notified when you publish on LinkedIn, so it can be a better choice than a personal website.

These tips are cool, and I've only scratched the surface of what's out there. Stay tuned, as they say. I'll have more in a future So Social.

What questions do you have about social media? Tweet them to @scottkleinberg. He might select yours for use in a future column.