Welcome back to episode 399 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
Guys, one more episode until 400. Today is 399 and it feels appropriate that it is three things you need to know in May of 2018. I know I say this every month, but dude, it’s May. Woo. Today we’re gonna talk about some API and policy changes on Facebook and Instagram. Some GDPR stuff and whether or not that applies to you. And some good resources because I am in fact, not a lawyer. And then three, a couple questions via Instagram from some listeners about Instagram. We’re gonna talk a little bit about Instagram to wrap up the episode.
If you are not yet in the know, and you don’t know that we are doing next week’s episode live, get your ish together man, ’cause I’ve been talkin’ about it. No, so if you go to Facebook.com/thestaceyharris, you can see there’s a pin post on there promoting the event. We’re gonna go live right on that Facebook page. If you don’t like the page yet, fix that. Like the page and stay up to date with the fun. We’re gonna go live at 2 pm on May 8th, 2018 so you can watch us live.
I do encourage you to watch live because in addition to the talking about first 399 episodes of the show and how the show started, the future of the show, I’m also gonna be giving stuff away, like prizes. We’re gonna give away some amazon gift cards. Mostly because they’re my favorite kind of gift cards to get. We’re going to be giving away some Backstage access, and we are gonna be giving away one lucky winner a 30-day VIP pass, meaning bam, Backstage Amplifier Mastermind. 30 days, which means free call with me and a whole month of accountability to get ya ish done.
You’re gonna wanna watch live and all of that is gonna be live giveaways so I highly recommend you join us live. Again, that’s May 8th at 2 pm. Also, there is a brand new free training up on the site. If you are over on show notes page, and you scroll all the way to the bottom, you’ll see a link to get a new training. 100% free training. It’s about 25 minutes long, and it’s basically the five things that make people’s social media just suck. Suck to do, perform.
We’re talking about all of the important stuff like knowing where to post, ideal clients, policies and knowing kinda the rules which is some of the stuff we’re actually gonna talk about today. Maybe most importantly, we’re talking a little bit about focus. Focusing on sort of one strategy, making incremental changes. It’s all good stuff. I highly, highly recommend you check it out. Again, it’s at the very bottom of the show notes page. Or if you go to thestaceyharris.com/quickstart, you will find it there as well. All right? All right.
Let’s jump into the things I want you to know right now. We’re gonna try to keep this one pretty quick so we’re gonna jump in.
Number one, Facebook and Instagram have made some API changes.
If you don’t know what that means, the API is what the third-party tools you’re using to maybe schedule or check analytics, are using to actually access the Instagram and Facebook data. These changes mean that some of your tools may not be performing the way they once did. To get optimal results from a third-party tool, for Instagram certainly, make sure you have an Instagram business account.
If you’re looking for a third-party tool to schedule Facebook content with, I would suggest skipping that and actually scheduling content on Facebook. It does actually improve your organic reach and with reach being as difficult to come by as it current is, we certainly want to do everything we can to increase our chances of being in newsfeed. That means scheduling right on Facebook is going to be optimal. But, you may see that some of the features you have long loved are long gone. It’s not the end of the world. I assure you contrary to what some people may be saying, it simply meaning sort of changing up your strategy, and changing up what you’re doing as far as executing some of your content. A big example of this is the group API, so the way third-party tools can access groups is changing up a bit. That means using the analytics that Facebook gives you instead of third-party tools.
Also, if you’re an admin in a group, you can schedule content in your group. You don’t need a third-party tool to do it. It may just mean changing up where you’re actually doing it. More importantly I think, the bigger change we’re seeing, is actually in the policy updates for pages. And also there have been some policy changes for … and really more transparency with how content is being reviewed and removed if it may goes against their community terms. I highly, highly, highly cannot recommend this enough really. I highly recommend you actually read these. Pay attention to them. They’re the rules of the game, guys. And guess what? It’s Facebook’s sandbox, not yours. They get to say what you do in it. Just like if they were in your sandbox, you would get the say. But they’re not, you are. They get to say. Make sure you’re paying attention to that.
If you are a member of Hit the Mic Backstage, we did a training, actually we did a quick Facebook live in the group a couple weeks ago where we talked about the changes to things like custom audiences, and the requirements around the pixel in your website. That is certainly stuff you need to be paying attention to, so you can check that training out inside of Hit the Mic training Backstage. The Reader’s Digest version, there’s gonna be links in the show notes. Thestaceyharris.com/episode399 to actually read them. But, it really comes down to permission and coming by your list legally, and being able to show where you got those contacts from.
The big, big thing is gonna be if your site has a pixel on it, which, it should. You’re gonna need to notify the site visitors that they are being pixeled. This is all to comply with our next topic GDPR. All of that goes into effect May 25th of 2018. I would highly again, recommend reading those and if you’re a Backstage member, make sure you watch that training because we kind of break down what the stuff means for you.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, guys, it comes down to this. The people who are going to be most impacted by this are the people who are doing not great things. If you are doing this the right way, if you are showing up and being authentic, and honest, and real, and not trying to steal audiences, or buy email lists, you’re probably gonna be fine. Make sure you’re paying attention to that stuff. Again, links in the show notes.
Speaking of GDPR, that’s what we’re gonna talk about next.
Let me start with saying, I am not a lawyer. I did think about going to law school, but I did not go to law school. Therefore, I am in no way qualified to give you legal advice. With that said, I highly suggest you find someone who is. You’re gonna see a few changes early this month to my website. We’re redoing terms and conditions, we’re gonna be redoing the privacy policy, there’ll be some notifications about opting in. And you may say Stacey, you’re not in the EU, why does GDPR matter to you?
Well, it does because some of the people who listen to this show are in the EU. I have site visitors who are in the EU, and we have Backstage members who are in the EU. Realistically, the GDPR stuff is not terribly different than the CAN-SPAM stuff that Canada did several years ago. And, some of the legislation that is on the books and in the works here in the US. I would recommend you be paying attention and go ahead and get what you need.
What’s really great is a lot of our tools are putting together resources. Help Scout, which is what we use to manage support requests and things like that for Backstage. Did a great webinar on it. I actually am part of a really fantastic Facebook group that I’m gonna link in the show notes. This group is put together by Suzanne Dibble, who’s actually a lawyer out of the UK, I believe. She has been doing daily Facebook lives for her group, and she has a ton of great resources. Ton of great information. And she actually is a lawyer. Pay attention to her. Again, I will link that in the show notes.
And again, if you are under the impression that just because you are in the states, this is not a concern, that’s 1000% not the case. I also know there’s a lot of people saying, “Well there’s no way they’re gonna be able to be able to enforce anything, so I’m not gonna worry about it.” I’m of the belief that it’s important to do business the right way, and that I want to make sure that I am leading by example for my audience, and that I’m doing whatever I can to make sure that they feel like this is a safe place, and their information is safe with me. And if that means jumping through some pain in the ass legal hoops, then I’m willing to do that. That’s kinda where I stand with it. Again, you’re gonna see some stuff shifting a bit in my own business over the next couple of weeks. The great thing is we have a year to do all of this and it’s May 1st, and yeah, I’m still dealing with it too, guys. You’re not behind the ball, just get the resources you need.
I want to wrap this up with talking about Instagram.
I had some questions sent to me via Instagram about Instagram, and the one I wanted to touch on today, was how I choose what goes in my Instagram story, versus what goes on my Instagram profile. I talked a little bit about this in the past. I talk about it a lot more inside the Instagram guide that’s in Backstage which is a full on six module program on Instagram. If you’re looking to get started with Instagram, or do more with Instagram, that’s the place to go.
But for me, I consider my profile more of a gallery. More of a curated, consistent look. You see a very formatted look there. We’re got two quote templates, and then a image, usually of me but occasionally something else. That’s in the middle of them. Those templates were created inside of Canva by a graphic designer, and I just changed the text. In fact, if you watch my Instagram stories, Colin, my son, actually does a lot of that. I go through and put together a Drive sheet, an Excel spreadsheet but for Google Drive. I put sort of what I want the image to say, what I want the description to say, and he creates all the images and schedules all the content to our scheduler. I really like being able to serve in that way on my profile. It’s calls to action, it’s tips, it’s sales messages, it’s conversation starters. It’s all sorts of things. And then, I use my Instagram stories a lot more for kind of day in the life, behind the scenes stuff.
If I’m testing language, or if I’m playing with something, or there’s something happening right now that I want you to know about, that’s gonna happen in stories. Because here’s the thing, unless I set them as a highlight, go away in 24 hours. It’s really easy to play with things and feel out where I want stuff to fit and how I want stuff to really feel inside of my social. That’s sort of for me how I balance it. Again, the more curated, attractive content goes on my profile. The more spur of the moment, behind the scenes, have fun stuff, happens in the stories.
Again, if you want any more information on Instagram, you are looking to up-level your Instagram game, the Instagram guide inside of Backstage is the place to go. If you’re already a member, go check that out. If you’re not yet a member, go to hitthemicbackstage.com, and take care of … or take advantage of rather, the $1 opportunity to join us. Spend $1 for the next seven days, and you get access to everything that everybody else sees. That’s a great place to check it out. Okay? That’s everything.
I will see you in seven days from the day this went live if you listened day one for episode 400. I’m so, so grateful to this community and to you for listening. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re gonna hear a lot of that next week, but I’m looking forward to it. I’ll see you there. Ahead of that, I would love to see you Backstage, but I’d also love your reviews. Head over to iTunes, and leave a little love for the show. We’ve got people adding reviews here and there. I’d love to see a lot more that we can share before episode 400. That’s your homework for this week, to leave a review for the podcast. All right? I’ll see you next week for episode 400. Bye.
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