All posts by Antje Jager

Facebook just Removed a new Wave of Suspicious Activity Linked to Iran

Facebook just Removed a new Wave of Suspicious Activity Linked to Iran

Facebook just declared its latest round of “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” this time out of Iran. The company took down 356 accounts, 262 Pages, 162 Instagram accounts and three Facebook groups, that showed “malicious-looking indicators” and patterns that recognize it as a potentially state-sponsored or otherwise coordinated and deceptive activity.

As Facebook Head of Cybersecurity Policy transcribed in a press call, Facebook coordinated nearly with Twitter to find these accounts, and by co-operating early and often, the company was able to use that to create our investigation.” Today, Twitter published a postmortem on its efforts to fight misinformation during the U.S. midterm election last year.

As the Newsroom post details, the movement affected a broad swath of regions around the globe:

“There were multiple sets of activity, each localized for a specific country or region, including Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, US, and Yemen. The Page administrators and account owners typically represented themselves as locals, often using fake accounts, and posted news stories on current events… on topics like Israel-Palestine relations and the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, including the role of the US, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.”

The Iranian activity wasn’t focused on conceiving real-world events, as we have seen in other cases. In many examples, the content “repurposed” reporting from Iranian spread ideas that could benefit Iran’s positions on different geopolitical matters. However, Facebook refused to link the newly recognized activity to Iran’s government directly.

“Whenever we make an announcement like this we’re really careful,” Gleicher said. “We’re not in a position to directly assert who the actor is in this case; we’re asserting what we can prove.”

How to Respond to a Negative Twitter Reply or Feedback

One primary reason why brands are unwilling to use Twitter is because of negative customer feedback. More and more often customers are using Twitter as a forum to place customer service complaints, making brands wary of joining what seems like a black hole of customer complaints.

Twitter users can apply smartest techniques to grow on the platform and even can buy Twitter followers on WP Dev Shed. But how to deal with the negative feedback? While not all tweets that get on your way will be negative, there is a benefit to having your brand on Twitter: you have control over turning negative feedback into positive ones. Negative feedback will be present on Twitter whether you have a twitter account or not. You can’t control what’s being said about you, but you do have control over your answers to unhappy customers. Here are many ways that you can deal with negative feedback on Twitter.

  • Kill them with humor and kindness

Last week, ThinkGeek had a typo in an email they sent out to their loyal customers. They had a lot of Twitter followers point out this typo through Twitter. Instead of ignoring the typo or getting disturbed at the hundreds of finger-pointing tweets, ThinkGeek responded with funny tweets to their followers. One example:

Can’t you just see those ThinkGeek monkeys wailing because of their typo? Makes me smile every time.”

  • Be honest

Southwest Airlines was having a problem with their website, getting many angry tweets from exhausted customers. Instead of replying with the general customer support tweet, Southwest Airlines responded with a genuine apology and honest answer. It’s hard to stay mad at someone who is willing to empathize with your pain.

  • Give them a solution

A Gap client was unsatisfied with the quality of one of her purchases. The company was proactive in reaching out to the customer to suggest that she return the product. Instead of being afraid of negative feedback on Twitter, embrace the chance to change negative customer experiences. Reach out to angry customers, frustrated clients or out to make you look like a fool. The more honesty and empathy you share with your customers, the more they will appreciate the experience you create for them.

Google is Shutting down Google+, Admits low Consumer Adoption

Google is going to shut down the consumer version of G+ over the following months. The decision follows the discovery of an earlier undisclosed security flaw that exposed users’ profile data that was attended in March 2018.

A software bug was discovered that provided access to private profile data of more than 500k users for developers. Still, Google said that there’s no evidence of developers being aware of this bug. There’s also no evidence that any data has been abused. The bug was discovered in March 2018. A report in the Wall Street Journal states Google did not reveal this data sooner because it feared regulatory inspection.

Google + failed to live up to expectations

Google admits that G+ has been unable to reach broad user or developer adoption since its introduction. The company revealed that the engagement and usage of G+ are even lower than some might have guessed, as 90% of user sessions remained less than 5 seconds. With that said, it’s not possible that Google+ will be missed, although it’s surely worth noting that it’s shutting down. At one time Google put vital effort into promoting the adoption of G+, including using its information to personalize search results based on what a person’s contacts have +1’d. G+ may have been shut down eventually, but it’s the security breach that pushed Google’s hand.

More on the security breach

Through a security audit, Google determined the following:

  • A bug in one of the G+ user APIs implied that applications additionally accosted Profile to handle that was shared with the user, however not set as public.
  • Data is compelled to static, changeable G+ profile fields including name, gender, age, email address, and occupation.
  • The data breach does eliminate some other data a user may have associated or presented on G+ or some other service.
  • The bug was found and immediately patched in March 2018.
  • Almost 500k Google+ accounts were possibly affected.
  • Google can’t confirm which users were individually affected by this bug.
  • There’s no evidence that any developer knew about this bug or abusing the API.
  • There is no proof that any profile data was abused.

G+ will close down above 10-month time frame, which is covered for culmination before the end of this August.

More information will be available over the following months, including methods that people can download and move their information.

What do you think about G+ shutting down?

Did you use Google+ for your business? How do you feel about G+ being shut down? Tell us in the comments below.

What Is the 10-year Challenge on Social Media?

For a lot of us, being forced to look through old pictures of ourselves can be an unpleasant experience. Did I really wear that out in public? Why did I do that to your eyebrows? And what in the world was I thinking with those highlights? But The first big meme of 2019 is not just making users look at their old embarrassing photos, but actually share them with the world.

It’s called the #10yearchallenge, and its premise is extremely easy. You share a photo of yourself from 10 years ago next to a picture from today, to reveal how far you have (or haven’t) come. The challenge has taken over every corner of social media. Users are doing it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.

Remember, back in 2009 we still took pictures with actual, physical cameras. We even wrote our Facebook statuses in the third person, wore Live-strong bracelets, and iPhones weren’t useful for much other than that application where you had to pretend you were drinking a pint of lager. A lot has changed since then. Right?

The best celebrity efforts

There are a lot of celebrities and stars getting in on the game to show off their #glowup, although many of them look the same.

  • Gabrielle Union is in her 40s now but doesn’t let you think she looks a day over 26.
  • Meanwhile, Jameela Jamil used her #10yearchallenge to make a point about influencer and celebrity Instagram culture.

10-year challenge parodies

As always with memes like this, a lot of people have taken it beyond the original meaning and used it to make hilarious jokes.

The serious side

But some people have also used the challenge to make a point about the environment.

So what are you waiting for? Look for your old pictures in those photo albums and share it on social media to show your #glowup to everyone.

Tips for Successful Digital Marketing Activities

As a business owner, even a small one, it is easy to feel like you are lagging behind the competition. After all, if you’re not a big brand, you can’t afford to hire an army of digital marketers to keep up with the latest digital marketing trends. But, it doesn’t mean you cannot become a one-person army! You can use your knowledge as a weapon. After reading this blog, you will be able to pick up your weapons and beat your competitor all by yourself. Many different digital marketing tips can carry you to success, but most of your competitors don’t know how to use them.

Our primary focus of this article is on the most popular digital marketing tips. They are popular because they are practical, but only if you know how, why and when to employ them. But first, let’s address a wrong way of thinking that many business owners have.

1- Eggs in too many baskets

This is a mistake that many amateur marketers make, trying to do everything at the same time with no experience. They set up ten different social media accounts, a PPC campaign, and a rigorous content schedule on a topic that they didn’t adequately researched into yet. The worst thing is that they have never been used more than half of those social media platforms before!

Are you familiar with this?

If so, then you should hold on. The worst mistake a new business can make is trying to manage too many social media accounts all at once. I will get to that in the next section.

But for now, you should learn that less is more! When you are just starting out, concentration and consistency should be your primary goal.

Concentration: if you try to manage several campaigns at once, you will be overwhelmed and wouldn’t find out which marketing campaigns are better than the others.

Consistency: this is the best way to get your brand off the ground.

  • Being consistent on social media will give you a loyal following.
  • Being consistent in your blogging will build a loyal customer base for you and turn new, cold readers into new customers.
  • Being consistent in SEO means that you will be able to save money in the long run instead of relying too much on purchased ads.

So, if small business owners try to do everything at the same time, they will fall flat on their faces. But you don’t have to be one of them.  By employing these digital marketing tips, you will be ahead of the game.

2- Find your place in social media

Most marketers know that they have to be on social media. After all, social media is not going anywhere! In 2018, 85% of Americans had a social media account.

3- Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is almost new in the field of digital marketing tips. In fact, most of your competition might have never heard of it! And for the ones who have, they are probably going about it the wrong way. But influencer marketing can be a potent tool when used correctly.

So what exactly is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing means that instead of marketing to your target customer directly, you inspire or pay influential people in your community to get the word out about you. When it comes to social platform users, influencers are basically one of the strongest referrals that your company can get.

So what people get wrong with influencer marketing?

Many small businesses still believe that getting lots of backlinks and doing loads of guest blogging will drive traffic and boost SEO. This was accurate in the past, but not anymore. Small brands these days have to tread carefully with getting backlinks and guest blogging because Google has cracked down on this method many times in the past. Google penalizes sites that abuse this method, and that’s not what you want for your new website!

Now that’s not to say that guest blogging is naturally a wrong method. Far from it! But it shouldn’t be done in a spammy form. Instead, it should be done with the primary goals in mind being:

  • Promoting your brand.
  • Building credibility by leaning on the shoulders of your industry giants.
  • Getting into another community.

4- Create an Email List

An email list is probably one of the most responsive and valuable assets you can have.

  • Responsive: according to researches, email subscribers are 4x more likely to share content on social media platforms.
  • Valuable: researchers on CRM found that customers who buy products through email spend 138% more money than the others.

The good thing is, unlike social media fans and followers, you own your email marketing list. However, believe it or not, many people don’t even think about having an email list. Instead, they believe that they can get away with just generating a social media following, which is a huge mistake. Sure, having a good social media following is very essential! But when it comes to turning random visitors into customers, email marketing is one the best ways to do it.

5- The 80-20 Rule for creating content

The 80-20 Rule means that 80 percent of your success on social media will come from 20 percent of your effort. For instance: webinars, videos, blog posts, infographics, etc.

So, how do you apply the 80-20 rule?

It’s quite simple, 80% of your content should bring value, and 20% of it should be promotional content. Valuable content means the content that is fresh, unique, educational, relevant, timely and solves real problems of your audience. So, your success will come from 20% of your effort, but that other 80% is necessary to draw it.

Many brands have it the other way around, which is wrong. 80% of the blogs are overly sales-y, and only 20% of their content contains valuable information! It is said that brands with valuable blogs receive 68% more leads than brands without blogs.

Other benefits of having a valuable blog include;

  • Getting more targeted traffic.
  • Adds a human side to your brand, therefore building loyalty and with your audience.
  • Cost-effective and easy to set up.

6- When should you rely on SEO?

Every marketer who is familiar with digital marketing has heard about SEO. But still, many brands shy away from it because they think it is complicated and too time-consuming. While both of these are true, SEO is the best way to drive organic and free traffic to your blog and website.

Even something as simple as your brand’s name can affect your ranking in search engine. Businesses with a strong keyword in their brand’s name rank two spots higher than brands without a keyword in their name. Instead of focusing on a long-term SEO plan, too many brands blow their digital marketing budgets on PPC ads on the beginning. We will talk more about it in the next section.

So what are the areas that SEO covers?

SEO can cover a wide area. But these are the main ones:

  • Page optimization
  • Website optimization
  • Device optimization
  • Reliable link building

There is a lot to learn, but implementing and learning SEO is necessary y for website visibility, you can take a look at past Google updates. The most critical Google update made websites that aren’t responsive on different digital devices not even show up in the search results at all! You don’t have to learn everything about SEO, learning the basics would be enough. Don’t expect immediate web traffic from doing SEO. It takes time to show results.

7- When is the right time to use paid advertising?

Many brands spend too much of their digital budget on PPC. They think they should spend money on paid advertising while starting out to get more traffic. But without a long term SEO strategy and a sales funnel, they start to rely on PPC to drive most of their sales. This is not a proper digital marketing method on its own. Because, well, more traffic is an excellent thing, but in the absence of a marketing funnel, you will not get optimal results.

Instead, you need to follow these three easy steps:

  1. Create a compelling and relevant offer. For instance, a free eBook or a newsletter.
  2. Create high-quality content for your website.
  3. Create targeted PPC to get more traffic.

Remember one of the best digital marketing tips: “Traffic isn’t Everything.”

A rookie mistake is to expect to turn random visitors into immediate customers.  You should bring them in first, and convert them into buyers later.

8- Improve the User’s Experience (UX)

Enhancing UX (User Experience) will be the glue that holds all of your strategies together.

The following are the popular ways to do this. There are also a lot more digital marketing tips for analyzing user experience.

  • The content on your website.
  • An intuitive user interface (UI).
  • The communication channels.
  • The loading speed of your Website.
  • Chatbots to use in communication.
  • Intuitive menu navigation.
  • An excellent tone for your content.

To make the optimal choices for those areas, you’ll want to learn more about your target audience.

How to create a good user experience?

  1. Remember to inspire and inform your audience with your content. This will give them a permanent impression of your brand and make engagement more comfortable.
  2. You’ll need a customer management plan to help you relate better with customers. It will take you through complaint and query management. It’ll also collect customer feedback and make them feel like they are a part of your community.
  3. Another thing to have in mind is the effectiveness of video marketing. It proceeds to trend upward in popularity with the growth of live streaming. Popular social media platforms have already embraced live streaming. Consider Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and Snapchat Stories to engage with your target audience.

Final thoughts

As you can see, the most excellent way you can get ahead of your competition is to use the right and tried methods of digital marketing suitably. Your competitors will keep making the same mistakes, while you will be sidestepping the deviated paths and growing your brand with these digital marketing tips.

What do you think? Make sure to check on our other blogs about digital marketing. If you have any other questions about digital marketing or Instagram marketing, you can ask us in the comments below

How to Check your Hidden Messages on Facebook?

Facebook is just like an onion. You can use its features at face value, but if you dig a little deeper, you will find things typically hidden in your day-to-day interactions on the platform, such as Messages. “I use Facebook Messenger and check my inbox constantly,” you may say. Still, you may not know that you have some hidden messages on the Facebook messenger waiting for you to read.

Usually, when you check your Facebook Messages, you are only seeing chats from your friends. That isn’t actually all of your them. Facebook filters messages from people you aren’t friends with on the platform. Typically, this is helpful—many of those messages are just spams. However, every once in a while, a specific message from a not-yet-Facebook-friend ends up in that no man’s land.

How to find hidden messages on Facebook?

You can follow these steps to check your hidden messages:

  • Open Facebook on the desktop.
  • Tap on the message icon at the top right of your screen.
  • In the menu that pops up below, you can see that “message requests” is grayed out next to “recent.”
  • Click on message requests. Here are the messages from users who want to chat with you, but aren’t yet your friend on Facebook.
  • You can also click “See filtered requests” at the bottom of the menu for more missed messages.

You can also receive these messages from the Facebook messenger:

  • in the app, go to your settings, then tap “people.”
  • tap “message Requests” then “Filtered Requests.”
  • This will show you all the messages Facebook considered unworthy of your time.

Once you find out about this secret inbox, it’s a good idea to check it every once in a while, just to make sure you didn’t miss anything important.

What do you think about this hidden inbox? Are you curious who have messaged you? Go ahead and check your hidden messages on Facebook.

How to Set up your 2019 Social Media Content Calendar?

The social media content forest is getting a little scary for brands who don’t have content strategies. Because it is noisier and more crowded than ever, the methods that worked in past years wouldn’t work in 2019. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter are being made to use stronger algorithms and filter out the noise, fluff, spam, and irrelevant content so that they create the exciting conversations, organic engagement and elicit feelings of connection to the social network. The social network platforms are feeling the pressure as much as any social media marketer working in any business.

Boost your social media marketing with a good content calendar

If you want to get a grip on your social media marketing in 2019 and see unbelievable, measurable results, then you should employ a content calendar. You will not achieve goals you don’t plan for and can’t measure. A media calendar will let you organize and prepare your content so that you can use content to attract your target audience and achieve your brand goals.

Content is not a random set of words, videos or pictures you pay an intern or an SEO agency to create and hope it magically boosts your community and generates more leads and revenues although some inefficient agencies may try to sell you on this fact, run from them. “Create it, and they will come running” has never worked, and it’s absolutely not a strategy for success in 2019. You’ll get out of your content marketing what you place into it. The best place to begin if you want to get a grip on your content is by a content calendar. You should also make sure that your content is part of your more significant business and marketing and strategy.

Your content marketing must be the air you and your target audience breathes as they explore your brand, not just purchase your products. Organization and Planning is your solution to success in the crazy noisy online world of today, trust me!

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is an umbrella term embracing all marketing forms that include the production and sharing of content to engage target audience bases. Content marketing contributes to the impression that producing high-quality, relevant and valuable data to prospects and consumers drives valuable consumer action. Content marketing helps you retain user attention and improve your brand awareness.

In simple terms, content marketing lets you sell to your client without actually selling to them. You instead have a communication with them that draws them to you and your brand with relevant, high quality, and valuable information.

How a Content Calendar Helps You handle Your social media Marketing?

The purpose of this blog is not to give you an MBA level education on content marketing. Doing this much in one simple blog post would be impossible. So here are some tips to help you so through planning your media calendar. There are three things you need to consider while evaluating your channels:

  1. Where is your target audience? If your audience is more active on one social media platform over another, that platform is where you need to be adjusting your efforts.
  2.  Which platform had the most growth in the last year? If you see enormous growth on a platform, look through your analytics to understand why. Is it a particular content type that’s attracting people’s attention? Alternatively, maybe a precise campaign boosted your growth?
  3.  Where are your engagement and traffic coming from? Is there a specific social channel that seems to be engaging your customers and driving more traffic to your website? What is your brand doing on that channel differently than others that are causing that difference?

Find Out Which Types of Social Media Content You’ll Create

you have to decide which types of posts you’ll be sharing across each of your social media channels.

There are four different post types that your brand can publish on social media:

  • Pictures: Including single photos or gallery posts.
  • Videos: Including live video streaming or natively uploaded video content.
  • Text: Sometimes one catchy copy is all you need.
  • Links: Links to external content (curate or downed) would fall under this category.

Depending on your brand’s abilities and which platforms you’re on, some of these content types might be more valuable to you than others. If you’re already posting consistently on different social media platforms, use in-app analytics for each platform to look for spikes in traffic and engagement.

Here are some tips to create the best content calendar in 2019:

  1. Take a brand selfie

Brands need to see the art and value of first-person or “selfie” video content. Customers are becoming less accepting of old promo-based messaging. A selfie approach to video content on Instagram stories, Snapchat and IGTV, make your brand more relatable. Users spend hours watching their friends on IG Stories and Snapchat, so encourage them with content that offers a firsthand look at your business.

  • Understand Your Social Audiences

Most brands don’t ever consider this when they are running ads. Find out where the prospect is about their problem. When marketing to someone who doesn’t understand they have a problem vs. someone who realizes they have a problem, the message is very different. Social media is about segmenting people so you can be relevant to the right customer at the right time.

  • Quality Over Quantity

As platforms grow, brands jump onto these trends and flood the social media platforms with average content in an attempt to ride the wave. This causes the audiences they’re trying to attract to tune out before they’ve even processed what brands are trying to reach. Control the impulse to create content for the sake of doing so. Be profitable.

  • Invest in Data Research

Invest your money and time in data research. Companies that understand and continuously optimize their social media marketing strategy are winning the customer retention war. They’re targeting the correct audience. Numbers don’t lie — businesses that prioritize trends and stats will be the ones we notice in 2019.

  • Craft a Significant Brand Narrative

Optimize your business narrative to step up social in 2019. It’s not enough to generate a content calendar based on product or brand messaging. Your content needs to be compelling and evocative to lead people to action. Evaluate your brand story and make sure it’s inspiring and stands out between the social clutter. Ground your content in that message, and it will undoubtedly rise above.

  • Engage with Relevant Influencers

As social networks like Instagram continue to get impressive audiences, it’s time to think outside of the old advertising box. More users, look to influencers for their suggestions on products, what to watch, experiences, etc. Reach out to a public figure in your industry and ask if they will promote your product in a post.

  • Create a Perfect Social Media Strategy

Snapchat Story Ads, IGTV, Facebook features and everything else are methods, not strategies. The best way to up your game is to up your strategy. Do some research and Learn more about your audience.

Creating a stable, research-based plan will help you leap in 2019.

  • Be an Early Adopter

Do not hang around to observe if anyone is going to leap to use a new feature and if it works for them before trying it yourself. Experiment with every new feature that rolls out. You will quickly discover if it will work for you or won’t be a big hit, and you’ll receive a massive boost as a trendsetter by being the first one to try it in your industry.

Conclusion

Now, I understand this seems like much work. It takes time to put features, systems, and workflows in place. These updates will make things faster and more productive, but the implementation still needs some time commitment. However, you know what? It’s well worth it! A well-planned and well-organized content calendar will make a significant difference when it comes to traffic and leads coming to your site. Most brands share content without any purposes or thinking behind it.

Having a good content calendar gives you a considerable advantage and develops your social media authority. Try it, give it 4 to 6 months and come back here to share your results!

Everything about the “Zucker-Bugs”

Almost everyone uses Facebook, but can we all agree that sometimes it kind of sucks? For every great picture or story you see on Facebook, you will see tons of low-quality memes, disturbing content, and even frustrating user interface elements. Let’s put a stop to all these for good. We will cover fixes for some of Facebook’s most common issues so you won’t have to put up with them anymore.

1- How to shut up excessive posters?

We all know someone like this:

  • Your friend posts too many potential rants.
  • Your grandma has no idea how to use Facebook and posts nonsense all the time.
  • That one friend who posts too many photos of their pet.
  • A colleague who
  • copies and pastes a post filled with grammatical errors to let you know they still hate cancer!

These situations result in a dilemma. You don’t like to unfriend these people on Facebook and hurt their feelings, but you are also sick of their posts. The solution here is to unfollow them; you will not see their post updates anymore, but you remain friends.

How to unfollow someone on Facebook?

You can unfollow the annoying friends by these simple steps:

  • Go to their profile page
  • Click on the following box on the right side of their cover picture
  • Select Unfollow [Username].

Now you will not have to suffer from their posts. You will still be friends though, so you can check their timeline anytime you want to find out what they’re up to. They won’t receive a notification of you unfollowing them, so don’t worry, you’re safe! Enjoy your clutter-free timeline.

2- Create an important friends list

On the other hand, there are a few friends whose posts we don’t want to miss. Facebook is changing its algorithm all the time, so you might not even see some of the updates from your friends. To prevent this, you can specify your closest friends and get their updates at the top of your feed, every time.

How to specify a friend on Facebook?

To do this, you have to follow these steps:

  • Go to your friend’s page whose posts you don’t want to miss
  • Click the following box again
  • Select “See First” from the options

Now Facebook will always show you their updates right away. Whether you use this for Facebook stalking or not is up to you!

If you really cannot miss an update from a special someone, you can get notifications when they post something new. To do this:

  • Go to your friend’s page
  • Click the “friends” box
  • Choose “get notifications” from the options on the list.

Now Facebook will send you a notification every time they post something on the platform.

3- Get rid of the targeted ads

Facebook makes a lot of money from advertising. Therefore, it spends a lot of time trying to show you the most relevant ads hoping you will interact with them. By default, Facebook just tracks you everywhere you go on the platform and uses your browsing habits to select the best ads for you. You can get rid of these personalized ads and see only general ones for your age group and gender.

How to disable personalized ads?

To opt out of these ads you should:

  • Click on the small drop-down arrow at the top right of Facebook’s window
  • Select “settings.
  • Select “ads” on the left sidebar
  • Open the ad settings category on the resulting page
  • Now you can change the first two options to “No” and the third option to “No one.”

This will stop Facebook from using your browsing history to show you targeted ads.

4- Stop sharing posts with everyone

Just like you get sick of seeing people’ posts, sometimes you don’t want to share your updates with all of your friends. Maybe you don’t want your boss to see what you were up to on your day off, or don’t need another load of your mother’s commentary on what you have to share. By using these few methods, you can simply hide your posts from certain people.

If you want to hide a post from someone once:

  • click on the audience selector button (the one that says Friends or Public) on your post.
  • Select Friends except (username) and search for the one you don’t like to see your post.
  •  Click on the red Remove button to keep them from seeing your post
  • Save Changes to finish.

To prevent someone from seeing all of your posts, you can add them to your Restricted list. Users on this list won’t be able to see anything you post unless it’s set to Public or you tag them in it. To add someone to your restricted list:

  • Go to their Facebook page
  • select the Friends button,
  • click Add to another list
  • Scroll down and click the Restricted list.

5- Block annoying app invites

Facebook features lots of stupid games, all of them designed to waste your time and money. If you’re sick of friends asking for some extra lives in Candy Crush, you can block all Facebook invites and requests by a person or by game. To do this:

  • Go to your settings
  • Select the blocking tab this time
  • Find the block app invites field and enter your annoying inviter’s name

This way you will automatically block all their future requests, and don’t worry this doesn’t affect any part of your interaction with them on the platform.

You can also enter the app’s name in the “block apps” field to prevent it from contacting you.

6- Common Facebook errors

We conclude with tips for a few common errors people get while trying to access Facebook.

Forgot Facebook password

Forgetting your Facebook login information is one of the most common issues people run into. You should try to recover your Facebook account if you can’t log in, but first, make sure your account isn’t hacked, or else you need to report the problem to Facebook.

To recover your Facebook account:

  • Go to the Facebook recovery page
  • Write down the email address or phone number you have added to your Facebook account.
  • Once you managed to identify your account, click continue
  • Facebook will send you a security code via email or SMS.
  • Enter the code, and you will have your account recovered.

Can’t connect to Facebook

Since Facebook in one of the biggest platforms on the web, it rarely faces an outage. If you can’t get on Facebook, follow these steps to diagnose the issue:

  • Check a website like down detector to see if Facebook is really down. If it is, you can’t do much more than waiting.
  • Visit another website to make sure of your internet connection. If your internet connection is down, you can restart your phone, wifi, or cellular to fix it.
  • Clear the cache and cookies of your browser
  • Try to open Facebook in an incognito window or another browser, and if it works, something is wrong with your current browser.
  • Disable your VPN or any other tracker-blocking extensions you are using and try to connect to Facebook directly.
  • Reboot your device and router.

That’s it.

Which Facebook annoyances drive you crazy?

Do you have any other issues with the platform? Leave a comment and let us know about it.

How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Summary?

A few years ago, I posted an article about writing the perfect LinkedIn summary. A lot has changed since then. LinkedIn has made many revisions and updates, and lately, they launched a whole new interface. Also, the world of work has developed even more into a place where the free-agent mindset is necessary for success. So it’s time for a significant update to my last post on this topic.

Before we get into the methods of crafting a brilliant summary, let’s begin with why your LinkedIn summary is so important for your success:

  • LinkedIn is usually the first place people go when they are looking to estimate you in a professional position.
  • If people search your name on Google to learn about you, your LinkedIn profile will likely show up in one of the top places in the search results. Since 78% of Google clicks go to the top three results, those who begin at Google will end up at LinkedIn.
  • For most of us, a LinkedIn profile is the most extensive bio we have online. Your LinkedIn summary will likely be seen by more people than any other social media bio. This added exposure gives you an outstanding opportunity to catch the attention of decision-makers — but only if you have a relatable summary.

A valuable LinkedIn summary does three things:

  1.  It shows the connection. It attracts the right audience who are crucial to your career success, letting them know what you’re about so they can decide if you are related to their goals.
  2. It differentiates you from competitors. With so many people presenting the same services as you, standing out is important.
  3. It makes people want to learn more about you and eventually interact with you one-on-one. Of course, this means congruence with the real-world you is essential.

I have had the chance to help a lot of professionals describe their story in their LinkedIn summary, and what I write here is the proven process we use. It’s a simple method that makes your summary shine:

Step one: Set the scene

First of all, you should decide what you like your summary to say and want you want visitors to do. These questions will help you set the scene for your summary:

  • Who is your target audience? Who are the most important influencers and decision-makers in your world?
  • What do you want them to know or do?
  • How do you want to make the visitors feel?

Write our responses to these questions so you can begin gathering your raw data.

Step two: collect your content

You may feel overwhelmed by the different choices for writing your bio. I recommend organizing your content into these seven buckets:

Skills: write a few sentences about what you do to provide value for your team, brand, and internal or external customers. (I’m the content manager. I have a team of best and brightest writers. I brought them together to write about the most important updates in the world!)

Victories: write about your achievements in your career. Be sure to describe the value you brought. (I saved my company $100k by using a better and cheaper version of blogging software.)

Passions: values and passions. write your operating principles and the things that inspire or energize you (for example, “diversity, creativity, and developing win-win relationships” along with UNICEF.”)

Your superpowers: Explain the things you do better than anyone else – the talents that allow you to be a hero for your colleagues (for instance, “I make team conferences fun and productive, making everyone feel involved; I have been told I am the best listener”).

Interesting stats: Mention things you can quantify – and don’t limit yourself to just the ones that are work-related. (“I climbed four of the tallest peaks; I speak two foreign languages and travel to at least eight new countries every year”)

Validation: Cover all those things that help you prove what you say about yourself such as awards and accolades (for example, “Graduated from the University of Harvard; was awarded an innovation fellowship by the Association of Advanced science”)

Uniqueness: One of the most crucial aspects of reliable content is exclusiveness. If the content on your website is duplicated or plagiarized, then you may not get the desired results from it. One of the best and easiest ways to detect piracy in content is the use of an online plagiarism checker. You can find many online duplication finder tools over the web that can assist you in detecting duplication in writing within a few seconds. You can get access to an effective free online similarity checker by clicking on plagiarismdetector.net without any hurdles. 

After completing your content category collection, take a look at them and try answering these questions:

  • Is there anything missing?
  • Is there anything irrelevant?
  • Is it aspirational and authentic?

Make any adjustment, deletion, and additions to your raw content and then prepare to share.

Step three: showcase your story

Before writing anything, give yourself a “permission to suck.”  we put a lot of pressure on ourselves while writing, and if we lower the expectations of our first attempt, we can typically improve, edit, or recreate something that’s really quite satisfying.

 I recommend crafting your summary in the first person for these reasons:

  1.  Everyone understands you wrote your own LinkedIn summary, so drafting about yourself in the third person looks a bit insincere.
  2.  Writing in the first person creates communication between you and your audience, and that’s the best way to develop a relationship.
  3.  The first person version of your bio seems more like storytelling and less like recording your accomplishments — and the LinkedIn summary is all about storytelling.

That’s it.

Comment us below and tell us about your methods of writing a good bio on social media.

Best Holiday Facebook Contest ideas you Should Run this Christmas!

There’s still time to run an excellent holiday Facebook contest! If you need some last-minute holiday-contest inspiration for your Facebook, you can find it here. And if you want some motivation for pulling such a contest together, then you should know:

64% of Facebook users state they are likely to share a link to a holiday contest or giveaway.

Remember to offer a prize related to your brand. If you give away something valuable that isn’t aligned with your brand, you run the risk of reaching a bunch of people who follow and engage with you only because they want to win that expensive prize. Here are some joyful Facebook contest ideas that you can get up in minutes, whether you create campaigns or run simple Timeline promotions.

Facebook Holiday photo contests

It isn’t hard to get your followers to upload pictures; a typical Facebook user uploads an average of 2017 picture each, every year.

  • Cutest couple picture contest

Theme: the ugliest holiday sweater, best Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus or elf couple.

  • Christmas decorating photo contest

Theme: nature, handicrafts, ornaments, animal, patriotic, retro, etc.

  • Family holiday photo contest

Theme: most creative or awkward family holiday photos.

Facebook content contests

An essay contest is just a contest that involves text rather than photo or video. You can let your Facebook community vote for their favorite topic.

  • Holiday recipe contest

Ask your audience about their favorite holiday recipe.

  • Holiday storytelling contest

Have your Facebook followers share a brief description of their favorite holiday tradition.

  • Dear Santa letter contest

Ask your audience to write letters to Santa about why they should win in your competition.

Status updates for timeline promotions

  1. “All I want for Christmas is … “, Write the name of the gifts you want to get this Christmas, and you’re entered to win. The winner will be chosen randomly.
  2.  “The movie or song that best describes the holidays for me is…” Post the title of your favorite holiday song or movie title here, and you’re entered to win. The winner will be chosen randomly.
  3.  “I found out the truth about Santa…” Tell us your story here, and you’re entered to win. The winner will be chosen randomly.
  4. “The most memorable holiday food I’ve ever had was when…” Tell us your story here, and you’re entered to win. The winner will be chosen randomly.
  5.  “The one New Year’s resolution that I kept was ….” Let us know the resolution, and you’re entered to win. The winner is chosen at random.
  6.  “My 2015 New Year’s resolution is ….” Let us know the resolution, and you’re entered to win. The winner will be chosen at random.

Multi-day giveaways

In multi-day giveaways, you will give out prizes every day for a specific period (for example 12days of Christmas or 8 days of Hanukkah) which can bring you a lot of engagement on Facebook because people come back again and again to enter

  • A Product–a-Day Giveaway: line up awards for every day of your giveaway.
  • A Promotion-a-Day Giveaway: reveal a specific promotion code for a free shipping or discount that expires at the end of giveaway day.
  • A combination Giveaway: share digital prizes such as coupons, promo codes, and discounts, during your multi-day giveaway.

That’s it, guys.

You can run one of the contests above and share the result with us on comments.

7 Creative ways to Add Christmas Spirit to Your Social Media

Holiday shopping Is not a marathon; it’s something that happens in the moment. Instead of going to different shopping malls and searching for the best offers, marketers are turning to their social media channels during the holiday season.

In 2015 over 90% of holiday sales took place in malls and stores, but 57% of them were influenced by social media. According to researches around 65% of shoppers are signing up to social media to find some inspiration for purchase.

Such trends are expected to continue growing in 2019. So, it’s essential for every brand to be present on social media to capture the attention of their target customers and trigger the holiday shopping. So if you haven’t done anything about it yet, you can use these tips that makes your social media more festive and merry for this Christmas.

Decorate your profile and cover picture

Your cover photo should always represent the personality and values for your brand, but if you want to get your customers in the holiday spirit, you have to change it to reflect the season. People are using social media all the time, so a new cover picture will motivate them to check your account and look for exclusive offers or gift ideas.

To start, try to think of the cover picture as your billboard and wonder what information you like to promote during the holiday season. Maybe you have a unique holiday product you want to showcase or some special holiday discounts that your audience would love to hear about? Share that with your customers by a simple and beautiful design that includes bold background color and a right combination of serif and sans-serif fonts.

Even if your brand cannot offer any specific holiday discounts, post a photo of your office Christmas decorations and brand it with your logo to create an inviting and pleasant vibe for your social media.

According to researches, each person owns an average of 6 social media accounts but actively uses three so don’t limit your posts on using just one social media. Share similar holiday-themed cover photos to all your other social media channels to create consistency and allow people to quickly find and recognize your brand on their preferred social media network platform. This will tie in all your social accounts together and help customers who are using Instagram or Twitter to research your offer in more detail.

Create a Christmassy offer!

Christmas is one of the biggest shopping seasons of the year during which most marketers earn as much as 30% of their annual income, so they try a lot to attract people to choose a particular brand.

Messages such as one day only, buy-one-get-one-free, limited quantity sales, holiday coupons or special discounts are among the most common deals used. To drive attention to the message, make sure you put the text on a background that will not be too distracting for your audience. Apply the principle of font hierarchy and use bigger font size for more essential pieces of the information, such as your discount value.

Share the joy of Christmas

Social media is meant to be social, so use the holiday season to give your content some festive vibe. You will get people excited not only about the holiday season but also about your brand!

You can begin by creating content that ask users what’s their favorite thing about Christmas or what’s their most memorable holiday moments, favorite Christmas food, favorite Christmas present, etc. Whatever you want to write about, make sure that your text doesn’t invade the photo. Use background shapes as a text holder to make them easier to read.

  • Make a wish come true

An excellent way to encourage engagement is to create a prize game on your page or through platforms. Multiple giveaways, in which you give out rewards every day for a certain period (maybe “the 12 days of Christmas”) have the best engagement rate because they make customers come back again and again. Your contest mechanism could be as simple as creating a quiz with holiday-related topics or inviting your followers to share pictures in their worst Christmas sweaters.

Do you have other ideas on how to get your social media accounts ready for the Christmas? Will you try the ones we have recommended? Let us know in the comments below!

Social Media Marketing Trends 2019

These days, social media is playing an important role on every business strategy. If a brand isn’t active on social media, they are making things very harder on their business than they need to be. Social media is consistently changing and improving, so it can be hard to understand how social media is changing the game. In this article, I am going to break down the top social media marketing trends of 2019 that entirely changed our perception of social media.

1-   Augmented reality

Augmented reality is already being used in a few small ways, but it’d leaving a great impact that can last into the future. One of the most obvious examples is facial filters of snap chat. Many of them have sponsors in the corner of screen and users can create their own geo filter as well, you can take advantage of these features to build a better brand awareness on other platforms to further your reach while personalizing interaction.

2-   From text-first to visual-first

2019 is all about visuals. In addition to temporary content, video content in general, including live video, is the crucial section that brands need to focus on. Videos will continue to dominate social network and can be a massive trend for 2019, as it was, for 2018. According to digital marketing expert Marcus Sheridan, 80% of what we share and consume online will be video content, by 2019. Even YouTube continues to grow as platform, giving more opportunity to YouTubers to create authentic video content for their subscribers. By making their presence stronger on these video platforms, brands can benefit from the productive effects of owning and engaging an audience.

“With organic social media for brands slowly trending towards zero across all social media platforms, businesses in 2019 will have to focus on two things to be able to continue to be seen in the newsfeed of their fans and target audience: 1. Engage and build relationships with influencers and invest in a comprehensive and long-term influencer relations program, and 2. Invest exponentially more in newer content mediums such as Stories and live streaming, as well as more traditional visual content mediums such as photo and video.

Brands need to move from a text-first approach to a visual-first mentality when communicating, and similar to how every business became a media company with the advent of social media, they now must transform themselves into a visual magazine if not a television station in order to continue to be heard by the audience that matters to them.”

Neal Schaffer – Renowned author, CEO & Principal Social Media Strategy Consultant at Maximize Your Social.

3-   Social data _ transparency and trust

Data privacy and security across social media has been a critical matter of policy debate during 2018. In fact, social media has made it much easier to create, collect, and collect people’s data on a big scale. Marketers have to find more authentic and interactive ways of communicating with their audience, instead of one-sided marketing discussions twirling around gathering masses of user data without giving any value proposition to the audience.

4-   Changing organic reach

Finally, organic reach on social media is also changing. Earlier this year, Facebook published significant changes to its algorithm, to ensure users see more posts from their friends and family and less from pages and brands. As a result, companies that had powerful methods of organic reach set in place did not face drastic declines in views and engagement due to this change and brands that did not make use of organic reach found themselves at a more significant loss. These highlights are the main area to focus in 2019, maybe one that brands take for granted on social media, to improve their organic reach over social media platforms.

That’s it for today. There are more trends that I will talk about them later on the next blog.

The Best Twitter Memes of 2018

If you feel like there is only bad news on social media and it bums you out, you are not alone. Especially, going on twitter can be really overwhelming, with constant drama, argument and snitch tagging. Memes are the only thing holding social media together at this point. Its been a stressful year so far, but at least we have these funny memes! Let’s take a walk down the memory (or should I say meme-ory!) lane If you like.

1- Eating tide pods

The Tide Pod eating craze started in 2017, but its effects remained well into 2018. The forbidden meals will always have a place in our hearts for the endless memes and cursed foods it inspired.

2- What your child is really texting about?

It looks like texting lingo will always be a mystery to the parents. Luckily, a useful guide to common acronyms became a meme. What are your children texting about? Apparently Olive Garden.

3- Change my mind

Sometimes you see a meme that makes you think there is still hope for humanity. When a conservative expert troll set up a table encouraging people to change his mind about “male privilege,” Twitter got to work and transformed him into a meme. It became a platform to share your real opinions, from putting pineapple on pizza to the plot of Bee Movie.

4- American Chopper hot takes

American Chopper came back this year, helping Twitter to bring back an iconic scene from the original show. The unfavorable father-son duo became a meme for the hottest takes.

5- Build your perfect man

Is there even a perfect man alive? This meme encourages women to build their ideal man. There is only one catch, and you have limited choices. Maybe you will just settle for Paul wisely. LOL

6- Who killed Hannibal?

The “who killed Hannibal” meme is perfect for when you have done something awful and want to shift to blame it to someone else. Some people just refuse to be responsible like Eric Andre in his show!

7- Is this a pigeon?

This picture has been on internet since 2011, but the blow up in 2018 to convey total confusion.

8- Imagine your best life, ladies

A Twitter movement reversed a romanticized version of provincial life by asking ladies about their most ideal life. The meme covers it all, from the plot of Bee Movie to imagining a marriage with Stuart Little.

9- Laurel or Yanny?

The audio illusion tore apart the twitter, with friends turning against each other over whether a recording said: “Laurel” or “Yanny.”It was fun until the Trump administration jumped on and destroyed the meme forever. RIP.

10- By age of 35

By the age of 35, there is no need to have your life figured out. The meme works off a report by Marketwatch telling people that by the age of 35, they should have twice their payroll saved. Twice. Who even has the time for that??

11- I am: straight/gay/bi

The straight/gay/bi meme has it all: nods to classic Vines, pop-punk lyrics and punching fun at tired gender sexuality labels and binaries.

12- Distressed LeBron

Poor LeBron. His reaction after the Cavaliers lost to the Golden State Warriors turned to an iconic meme for, how can I say, when you are so stressed for words.

13- Melania’s awful jacket

Dear Melania, what are you up to? The First Lady wore the worst possible coat for a visit to meet kept immigrant children at the US border. Was she messing with the social media? Was she trolling her husband? Either way, the awful Zara jacket will presumably be recognized as one of the memes defining this presidency.

14- Alexa, play Despacito

This is a nice shitpost. Recollective of the world’s smallest violin meme, “Alexa, play Despacito” is the excellent reaction for overdramatic. Why is this so funny? It is not just about the situation, but telling Alexa to play Despacito is a perfect sign of not feeling anything. It’s art guys.

15- Wholesome memes

People had a knack for seeing the good in anything, and as dark as 2018 was, the wave of wholesome memes brought us a little hope.

16- Selfie kid from the super bowl

Ok, guys, I laughed a lot with this meme on February. I can’t stand it anymore. But seriously, who is Justin Timberlake?

17- The buff Kim Kardashian

You should send this meme to all “gym” selfie guys! What’s up with that? Just go to gym Kim! Go!

18- Left exit 12 off ramp/highway exit meme

This is so true! Have you seen those vague cries online? I should we all should take the right exit.

19- When the wrong song comes up

This is something we all can relate to. Who doesn’t like shower karaokes?

20- Meryl streep at the Oscars looking like fairy godmother from Shrek

I really think celebrities are watching too much animations. Or their stylists at least! This just can’t be an accident!

That’s it for now guys. I will get back to you as soon as I find something trendy for this year. Comment us below if you have a funnier meme on your mind.

20 Celebs Who Nailed their Twitter Bios

Sharing your life story in roughly 160 characters is impossible.

Celebrities do it easier on Twitter. They’re already famous. They don’t need to introduce themselves—we are coming to them.

Here are 20 of the very best Twitter bios of celebrities. You will laugh. You will cry. You will instantly follow them if you are not already.

  • Hillary Clinton

  • Shaquille O’Neal

  • Andy Murray

 

  • Amanda Bynes

 

  • Tom Hanks

  • Weird Al Yankovic

  • Anna Kendrick
  • Rain Wilson

  • Josh Groban

  • Katy Perry

  • Joel McHale

  • Sarah Silverman

  • Jimmy Fallon

  • Jimmy Kimmel

  • Ellen Page

  • J. Novak

  • Jennifer Love Hewitt

  • Patton Oswalt

  • Miley Cyrus

  • Olivia Munn

The Secret to How Facebook Make Money from your Data

With more than $1 billion per quarter in advertising revenue and 1.2 billion monthly active users, few realize that Facebook is more than just a social networking platform. It is a deceptively run corporation, worth more than $100 billion.

We should start by saying that you could assume that Facebook is not indeed a free service because users provide Facebook with data every day in exchange for the ability to use the site. In turn, Facebook can translate your likes, photos, locations, and other online activities into hard, cold cash.

Like, $40 billion in revenue in 2017, to be more specific. This how does it:

Ads, Ads, Ads

This is what the most of Facebook’s wealth comes from. This social network uses a lot of information; it knows about you to show you ads,  it believes you might like, and brands pay Facebook to display their products to the potential customers.

It’s called targeted ads, and it’s nearly the entire way that the company keeps the lights on; almost all of its $40 billion revenue comes particularly from targeted ads. Facebook doesn’t technically sell your data to strangers; it sells access to you based on your data.

Games and Other In-App Payments

In 2017, Facebook got $711 million off of different paid services, like purchases of desktop games offered in-app purchasing. This revenue stream has slowed down over the past several years.

“This decline is likely a reflection of the general shift away from desktop to mobile and mobile games,” Kristina Varshavskaya, a former Product Designer at Facebook.

Gift shop and virtual goods

Facebook currently makes a large amount of money from the Facebook Gift shop. Gift shop enables people to send virtual gifts to their friends. With $1 per gift, Facebook gifts have become a hugely profitable business, causing upwards of $100 million last year.

Facebook is opening up the gift shop to third-party developers to extend the quality of products traded through the shop.

Oculus Rift (maybe someday)

That $711 million value above included the sales of Oculus stocks and products, Facebook’s VR headset and additional gear. Although an expensive purchase at $2 billion back in 2014, Oculus hasn’t been a big supporter so far. With Oculus Go, a new, cheap version of the Oculus product now accessible, Mark Zuckerberg might get closer to his dream of combining VR into the Facebook user experience — using his products, of course.

Facebook watch (also someday)

The Proceeding to grow Facebook’s video experiment is something that the social network behemoth has its eye one.

Expecting to partner with content creators to showcase episodic series, long-form, Facebook Watch is a savvy strategy for keeping users on the site for longer, as well as a new possibility for advertisers, who can run advertisements and commercials during shows.

At an income call in April, Zuckerberg echoed the sentiments that Facebook Watch is an exciting and interesting venture, tempering this by saying it’s a little early to tell how well the Watch is doing.

“We are trying to make it a different experience from what you can get on YouTube… A bunch of the content that has come onto Watch is good and is working,” he said.