This past month has been a very busy month here at STOMP HQ. I have a couple of big presentations to do this month - both in Dublin as it happens. One with the National Union of Journalists and the other with a national charity. I've had to partner up for that one, that's how big it was!
Over the last month I've been scheduling away for most of the next two months as I'm away so much from the office this month as well. I have 4 days away in Rome with Irish Tech News to cover the Maker Faire Rome.
It's also a tough month personally for me and my family as well, as we have now reached the 1 year anniversary since my Dad passed away.
Let's get started shall we?
Just in the last month I have been approached by twice as many people than normal about being scammed out of their Facebook Page / Business Page / Instagram Account. It's a real epidemic right now!
Facebook do NOT DM you! They email you and they say your name. They never ask you to click a link in their emails or DM's. They invite you to open up your account and see their notifications.
If you're unsure about a link, trust your gut, nine times out of ten you're right! Contact a Social Media Expert or Digital Marketer as they will have a lot more experience. Saying that though, we're human too so just follow your gut. It's very likely a scam.
Friends, there's a significant increase in scams doing the rounds on Facebook lately.
Please keep an eye on how much is spent on your business card as well. Monitor it regularly. If for any reason you see it go up higher than expected and don't understand why, contact your card issuer and freeze your card OR remove it from your account if you still have access.
Mari Smith has suggested you watch out for these scams running around right now:
The scams include:
► Fake Pages or personal profiles sending DMs to you claiming to have purchased something from you and complaining about customer service, or wanting a refund or something like that.
► DMs asking to check out one of your products and the message includes a RAR or ZIP file encouraging you to click / download.
► DMs alerting you about a password change to your company email.
► Fake Pages tagging your Page, or sharing your posts, claiming that you've violated Meta's terms and threatening to shut down / deactivate your Page.
► And a whole myriad of other scam / phishing variations.
EVERY single weird looking direct message, post on your wall, tag from a fake page, even a share from a fake page is ALL a big fat scam.
Facebook / Meta definitely does not alert you via tagged posts or shares. And only very, very rarely would you ever receive a DM directly from FB/Meta but not about violations... The scammers use bots to set up fake Pages that *look* like they might be legit. Often if you look closely, you'll see that the Meta logo is upside down!
SIGNS TO SPOT SCAMS:
The post / comments / DM (or email) includes a weird looking URL that has *nothing* to do with Facebook or Meta. (But, be careful, because the scammers are good at creating URLs that *might* look legit).
Typos, grammatical errors.
Use of Meta's logo.
Long Facebook Page names that include some kind of Page violation warning, or similar. Or, the Page name might even be short like 'Community Standards.'
Along with avoiding clicking any links yourself, do *not* copy the DM or post, and share it in any groups or elsewhere with the actual live link. This perpetuates the scam and leaves others at risk if they were to click the phishing links.
STEPS TO TAKE IF YOU SUSPECT A SCAM:
✔︎ Ignore / delete.
✔︎ *Never* click on suspicious links.
✔︎ Report the account/Page.
✔︎ Ban / block the profile or Page.
Facebook is absolutely rampant with these awful scams, with bad actors and bots trying to dupe us into clicking on their crazy schemes, hoping they'll gain access to our ad account, page, followers, credit cards, even.
The scammers seem to get more and more clever, trying out all manner of schemes.
It's so unfortunate that Facebook cannot do more to proactively prevent these horrid scenarios.
Meanwhile, please ensure that your accounts are all safe and locked down by enabling two-factor authentication via an authenticator app. As well as reviewing apps that have access to your account. There's much you can do to proactively create a safety net around your online accounts. Certainly, it's a solid best practice to avoid clicking anything remotely suspicious in DMs or posts (or emails). I'll share my extensive article with 12 Steps To Secure Your Facebook Account in the comments.
https://www.marismith.com/12-steps-secure-facebook-account/
https://www.stomp.ie/post/how-to-regain-access-back-to-your-facebook-page-or-meta-business-manager
You can now create up to 4 additional Facebook personal profiles (with any name you want) tied to your original account.
This could potentially help separate your personal and professional lives/interests. These pages are not meant to replace your Facebook business page, but to use an additional personal profile for business networking, engaging, joining groups, customer support, etc.
Taken from Mari Smith:
"So you can post content about a very specific HOBBY or PASSION PROJECT and garner like minded followers vs. bugging all your friends and family with topics they may not be interested in.
To join GROUPS under a different name and engage without necessarily revealing your real name/identity. (This could have pros and cons. Mostly for group owners/admins, if someone misbehaves under a pseudonym. But that would just be a matter of moderating).
So you can curate a very specific FEED(s) by following pages and people, even if you don't actually post anything yourself or add any friends.
What else would you add as use cases?
Bottom line, Facebook says that multiple profiles allow for clearer organization of FRIENDS, GROUPS, and INTERESTS that will "help you feel freer to engage with the audience you believe is most relevant."
YES, of course, you can currently control which audience you publish content to in your one main personal account by selecting from the PRIVACY tool. E.g., public, friends, specific friends, friend lists, etc.
BUT, what's different with having additional profile(s) is you're also separating out your feed, because now you can follow pages/people and add friends to customize a whole new feed... if you want. (Um, just like the old Interest List feeds that FB got rid of ages ago, right?!)
IMPORTANT NOTES
Your new profiles are NOT new Facebook accounts. (It is *still* against Facebook's rules to have more than one personal account). Only profiles created through your main account are considered additional profiles.
Facebook's rules still state that a personal profile is for non-commercial use and represents an individual person.
For now, you can't switch your new 'sub profiles' to Professional Mode. Only Classic Mode. It sounds like Facebook is planning to add Pro Mode + Marketplace, Dating, payments and expand Messenger support in the future.
You should be able to add your sub profiles to your own groups and make them Admins, if you want. Same with your Page (make Admin).
As for using Messenger with your new sub profiles, I'm seeing mixed reports. Facebook states in their official announcement, "To start, messaging will be available within the Facebook app and on the web for additional personal profiles." But other news reports and users are saying they don't see messaging yet.
ALL information across your main account and any sub profiles is fair game for Meta to 'personalize your experience,' including ads and its AI-powered recommendation engine.
If you are SUPER stealth, people may not be able to tell your sub profile(s) are connected to your main account. But, there are *numerous* ways that could make it easy for people to figure out.
For any blocked / banned personal profiles, Facebook states, "Blocking on one profile does not carry over to other profiles you may have." Ugh. That could be a royal nuisance.
~ ~ ~
Facebook first began testing a way for its users to have up to five separate profiles tied to a single account in July 2022. (One main account + 4 sub profiles). Fast forward to today, and this option is now being rolled out worldwide starting 9.21.23 over the coming months. If you don't have the option yet, it'll only be a matter of time.
This is basically the Meta/Facebook teams coming up with everything and anything under the sun to keep its users engaged on the platform. More time on site -> more eyeballs staring at the feeds -> more ad inventory for advertisers to buy.
Yep - I robbed the whole lot - but as you can see she explains it very well and I have credited her fully for the post!
This is an ENORMOUS blog post from Napolean Cat. Honestly, its huge and massively useful but there's way too much to cover in an synopsis, so I shall leave you here with bated breath, wondering what you might miss unless you click in this link and see what it's all about.
Truth be told, if you want to make Instagram your tool of choice for the next quarter and on into 2024, you're going to need this blog post, trust me!
I thought I would share this very useful video from Louise Brogan on how to create better protection for your profile / company pages.
1 - CUSTOM ACTION BUTTON UPDATE
LinkedIn is updating this feature for its Premium Business subscribers that allows them to add a custom Call-to-Action (CTA) button to their profiles, directing visitors to a specified URL. The feature already provides preset CTA options such as "Visit my store" or "Request a consultation," but is now adding ‘Book an Appointment’.
2 - BRANDED CONTENT SEARCH:
LinkedIn has added a searchable database for branded content partnerships, allowing users to explore affiliate marketing campaigns by keywords and dates. This feature enhances transparency in influencer marketing and comes as the platform sees a 41% year-over-year increase in original content sharing. (Read more: https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedin-adds-new-branded-content-library-listing-influencer-campaigns/693352/)
3 - GENERATIVE AI X LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is enhancing its Sales Navigator platform with two new Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) features: AI-assisted search and Account IQ. The AI-assisted search allows sellers to use conversational language for more efficient lead identification, while Account IQ automates account research by aggregating key information into a single, easily digestible summary.
(Read more https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/helping-sellers-unlock-new-opportunities-generative%3FtrackingId=xXtAEMQrSUOekjOsrNS8RQ%253D%253D/?trackingId=xXtAEMQrSUOekjOsrNS8RQ%3D%3D)
Introducing the new Checkout journey report
The new Checkout journey report in Google Analytics 4 shows the number and percentage of users who begin checkout on an ecommerce website or app and complete each of the subsequent steps in the checkout funnel.
The new report is now available in the Monetization topic of the Life cycle collection or the Drive online sales topic of the Business objectives collection on the left in Reports. If you don't see the report, an administrator or editor can add the report through the report library.
Learn more about the new report.
If you're looking for a more one on one style of training to create a strategy for your social media and overall digital marketing and would like to know how to do this by yourself for your own business or for the company you work for, then you maybe interested in doing this training that I offer.
I help you create it at a pace you set, filling in the gaps in your knowledge along the way. You'll be given work to do between the sessions that you can manage and that won't be overly disruptive to your everyday workload.
This will give you accountability and you can contact me anytime during the training if you have any questions that crop up between sessions.
Are you on track for your goals and targets so far? If not, then maybe you should contact me. I have set aside some regular time slots to offer this training and it can run either in 1 month, 6 weeks or even 12 weeks if you prefer! I can give you the dates to fit around both our schedules from day one so you know this in advance. If you would like to learn more about what this covers, then visit this page.
This course has been currently accepted by 5 Local Enterprise Office Areas as suitable for the Trading Online Voucher but you can also get this training directly. Check out all the lovely testimonials I have received regarding this course.
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From January 2023 I started running a monthly subscription of 30 minute per week Business Strategy Pods. These pods are one on one and are strategy and accountability weekly sessions that are pre booked by you at times that work around your own schedule.
You will first complete a pre qualifying form so I know where you're starting from and we shall then speak weekly and have a private 1:1 Facebook Group that keeps you pushing forward and getting stuff done.
How they work:
Podcast 192 - Video Production with Rod Zapien
Podcast 193 - The Importance of Personalization in Marketing
Podcast 194 - Getting Motivated with an Online Challenge
Podcast 195 - The Importance of a Marketing Strategy with Hanna McDonnell
Esther and I are delighted to announce that we have now opened a Etsy Store and you can pick up merchandise and useful downloads that will help you learn and better understand your marketing!
Visit the shop today and every month for new downloads!
I hope you find this months round up useful and look forward to bringing you more updates in a few weeks time. If you need anything in the meantime, don't hesitate to contact me.
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
