SOCIAL MEDIA Archives - Marketing & Social Media Consultant

Own and Protect Your Content!

November 7, 2021

Other than the devastating news out of Oklahoma, the digital world is buzzing this week over the news that Yahoo has purchased blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. Or as some are now referring to it: Yumblr. It is too early in this process to know what plans Yahoo has for Tumblr, but one thing is for sure: Tumblr will change. Tumblr subscribers will either embrace the changes or they will leave. In droves.

Protect Your Content
Image Courtesy of Slate

In March 2012, the headline was Twitter Buys Posterous. Many people speculated that Posterous would stay around; that Twitter only wanted the owners/management team but would leave the product alone. Alas, that was not the case. Posterous shut down May 31, 2013.

Tumblr and Posterous offered users a simple to use and user friendly blogging format. Something that the novice or casual blogger could use, customize the look and feel and create what they wanted without all of the “heavy-lifting” involved with a self-hosted website or blog. Sounds easy, right? Well, as with all things in life that sound too good to be true, sometimes free and easy is not the best solution.

What is one thing that the former Posterous and the “future unknown” Tumblr have in common? The users DO NOT own their content!! If you didn’t download a backup of your data from Posterous, it is gone. Forever. Will that happen with Tumblr? Who knows. Yahoo may keep it up and running and not change the platform at all. They may start charging for it or they could fill it up with ad space to offset the Billion Dollar purchase price.

The bottom line is this; you must own your content and protect it. Work with professionals to develop and host your website and blog. These are your thoughts, ideas and professional work. Own it. Protect it. Value it just like you do financials for your company. If you need suggestions on who to work with to build your site, contact me.

Now, if you are saying in your mind; “but John, what if I publish something and someone steals it?” Well, my first suggestion is you go after them! But before you even think about that, I STRONGLY encourage you, suggest, will drive to your house and twist your arm to read Erika Napoletano’s suggestions. I consume most everything Erika writes and last week was no exception. It came to Erika’s attention that someone was, in her words, “ripping her off!” She published two phenomenal blogs on her experience: If You’re Going to Rip Me Off, At Least Be Creative About It and On Stealing Shit. Check her blogs out, determine a plan to deal with it if …

STOP the Social Media Insanity!

November 7, 2021

Do you remember the Stop the Insanity weight loss program from Susan Powter? In the 90’s, you couldn’t turn on television without hearing her infomercial with that famous catch phrase, “Stop the Insanity!”

Do you ever feel the need to scream, STOP the Social Media Insanity? Websites, Blogs, RSS feeds, Emails, Email newsletters, Facbook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, FourSquare, Yelp, and on, and on, and on! Do you get overwhelmed as you try to keep up with reading information, posting or joining various social platforms for yourself or your business? If so, I have a few suggestions that may help you stop your own insanity.

Tips for dealing with social media insanity:

Take a deep breath and decide which platform(s) are right for you!

No one can be everywhere or be on every single social platform. There are too many platforms and cloning isn’t perfected, so if you try to do them all, you will burnout. Quickly. Approach social media just as you do any decision for you or your business; how does this serve me or my clients/customers. If your niche market or demographic hangs out on Facebook, then spend time building your following or Facebook Business Page. If your prospects spend time on Twitter, then build your Twitter brand. If email newsletters work for your business, produce the best newsletter possible! If you want better search results and enjoy the platform, spend time building your circles on Google+. Remember, no social platform, no matter how good it is, should take the place of your own website. Spend the time to get your site right and use these social outposts to drive traffic to your site.

Develop a schedule and stick to it!

One of the best pieces of advice I have for individuals and businesses is this: develop a schedule. Use a legal pad, an online calendar or create an editorial/social media calendar and stick to it! This will save you hours of frustration and make it much easier to develop or produce content. It’s more calming to know you what you need to write about or post for the next week or month than getting up everyday and trying to decide. Voice of experience talking here, so listen! My dear friend Julia Rosien published an exceptional post about this on her Social North site: Editorial Calendar – Social Media Strategy Must Do.

Evaluate, update and move on!

Maybe you have had a presence on Facebook since it was The Facebook. Does that outpost still align with your personal or professional goals? If not, then move on. I think far too often we get used to being on these platforms but forget to regularly evaluate whether …

Facebook Privacy Basics

November 7, 2021

In an effort to make their terms and policies easier to understand and to control, Facebook is rolling out Privacy Basics on January 1, 2015.The post, in it’s entirety is featured below.

Updating Our Terms and Policies: Helping You Understand How Facebook Works and How to Control Your Information

Over the past year, we’ve introduced new features and controls to help you get more out of Facebook, and listened to people who have asked us to better explain how we get and use information.
Now, with Privacy Basics, you’ll get tips and a how-to guide for taking charge of your experience on Facebook. We’re also updating our terms, data policy and cookies policy to reflect new features we’ve been working on and to make them easy to understand.

These updates take effect on January 1, 2015. As always, we welcome your feedback about our policies.

Privacy Basics

Privacy Basics offers interactive guides to answer the most commonly asked questions about how you can control your information on Facebook. For example, you can learn about untagging, unfriending, blocking and how to choose an audience for each of your posts. This information is available in 36 languages.

Along with our privacy checkup, reminder for people posting publicly and simplified audience selectors, Privacy Basics is the latest step we’ve taken to help you make sure you’re sharing with the people you want.

Helping you get more out of Facebook

Every day, people use our apps and services to connect with the people, places and things they care about. The updates to our policies reflect the new products we’ve been working on to improve your Facebook experience. They also explain how our services work in a way that’s easier to understand. Here are some highlights:

Discover what’s going on around you: We’re updating our policies to explain how we get location information depending on the features you decide to use. Millions of people check into their favorite places and use optional features like Nearby Friends (currently only available in some regions). We’re working on ways to show you the most relevant information based on where you are and what your friends are up to. For example, in the future, if you decide to share where you are, you might see menus from restaurants nearby or updates from friends in the area.

Make purchases more convenient: In some regions, we’re testing a Buy button that helps people discover and purchase products without leaving Facebook. We’re also working on new ways to make transactions even more convenient.

Find information about privacy on Facebook at the moment you need it: To make them more accessible, we moved tips and suggestions to Privacy Basics. Our data policy …

Tag: SOCIAL MEDIA

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories