Social Media Terms Of Service

Y'all I fucked up. I went outside of the terms of service of a social media platform. I did it unknowingly.  I got called out and immediately deleted the post. Terms of service, how many of you actually read them in detail before you accept the terms? 

Yeah I didn't think that very many of you did.  I am here to tell you that you should at least give those good ol' terms and conditions a once over or at least Google the Cliffs Notes version of them after you accept them. 

All of this brings up the question, who legally owns your photos on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest? Let's get educated, shall we?

Instagram

The answer from Instagram, “People in the Instagram community own their photos, period. On the platform, if someone feels that their copyright has been violated, they can report it to us and we will take appropriate action. Off the platform, content owners can enforce their legal rights.”  

Ok that makes sense, Instagram has your back by what anyone does with your photo on Instagram, offline you are on your own. But did you know that reposting is actually in violation of Instagram Terms? Yeah I didn't know that either, but given the platform and how it works, a majority of users are cool with you reposting as long as you are linking back to their account. However, always ask before assuming that it's alright.  This is what the terms of service statement says, 

"You represent and warrant that: (i) you own the Content posted by you on or through the Service or otherwise have the right to grant the rights and licenses set forth in these Terms of Use; (ii) the posting and use of your Content on or through the Service does not violate, misappropriate or infringe on the rights of any third party, including, without limitation, privacy rights, publicity rights, copyrights, trademark and/or other intellectual property rights; (iii) you agree to pay for all royalties, fees, and any other monies owed by reason of Content you post on or through the Service; and (iv) you have the legal right and capacity to enter into these Terms of Use in your jurisdiction."

Facebook

Ok cool that's Instagram terms, now let's talk Facebook. Does Facebook own your photos once you load them onto your account?  No, the photos are still your photos, not Facebooks. In fact, it’s right in Facebook’s terms of service: “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook.“  However, let's address what rights Facebook does have with your photos once you've uploaded them. 

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).

Basically, Facebook can use your photo "royalty free" however they feel without asking for your permission or paying you any money they may get from using your photo. 

Pinterest

Great, we've got the big two out of the way now let's focus on Pinterest. Are you using photos from Pinterest as almost a form of a stock photography site? Do you think that just because it's on Pinterest you can borrow it? Well here's the deal unless you are repinning it, that content needs to live on Pinterest. If you do this it's considered copyright infringement. Yeah, buzz kill huh?

Here's what Pinterest actually says,

"If you post your content on Pinterest, it still belongs to you but we can show it to people and others can re-pin it."  You can refresh yourself with Pinterest's Terms and Conditions here. 

In conclusion, is it okay to repin images on Pinterest? Maybe. Is it ok to repost on Instagram? Sometimes. Using other peoples photos on the internet these days is tricky business.  All you can do is refresh yourself with the particular terms of service. How are you feeling about all of this information, are you going to go back and read the terms and conditions? 

Converting Your Social Media Following To Dollars

If you are an online business, a service provider or a brick and mortar the number of followers that you have on social media really doesn't matter. Your business is not online to win a popularity contest, your business is online to gain exposure and put money in your bank account. 

Are the people following you even your ideal client? Are you getting into the feeds, and in front of your ideal client?  In this workshop, we will answer these questions as well as learn the basics of how to start converting your social media following from Facebook and Instagram into dollars. You are spending your valuable time on social media, let's start returning that investment into paying customers, and payment notifications instead of just "like" notifications. 

I am teaching an in person workshop in Portland on this topic

Thursday, October 5, 2017, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

You can sign up HERE hurry seats are limited.

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

A Huffington Post contributor had decided to write an article about the lives of Social Media Managers.  He wanted to showcase that there was more to this type of work than just picking out a pretty photo and posting it to a businesses social media channel.

One morning I sat down with my coffee and began to fill out the questionnaire that he had emailed over. Six experts were going to be chosen for the article. Well, he had 100's of responses, so many good ones that he decided to increase the number of experts to 26.  I am happy to announce that I am one of the included experts.

The article is full of great information from 25 of my peers. I highly recommend the read, especially if you were ever looking to learn more about social media management, or better yet, looking to hire someone to help you with your social media. You can find the entire article HERE

20 Minutes To A Healthier Instagram

Is 20 minutes really enough time to get something accomplished, to save your health to grow your social media engagement?  Today we are going to explore whether 20 minutes is actually enough.

Here's the deal we all bitch and moan about the "new" Instagram algorithm, which isn't even new anymore.  The current algorithm is now the standard, in Instagramming.   Here's the deal are you just double tapping on posts or are you actually commenting on the photos that you like?  If you answered that you are only double tapping you are wasting your own damn time. 

I get it, you actually like a photo but why do you like it? Do you like the photo itself or is it the caption that goes along with it? Does something that the person wrote resonate with you?  If you nodded your head to either of these things then why aren't you telling the person? Why did you only double tap and not write something? Are you afraid that you're going to sound like a cheeseball?  I get it, but guess what social media is about being social not just passing the time by looking at pretty photos. To the current algorithm it's not about how many likes a photo gets, it matters how many comments you get. 

Instagram is going back to it's roots, it wants people to ENGAGE. Yeah that's right I just yelled at you. ENGAGE with the masses.  My method for madness is 20 minutes of engagement a day. Set a timer and just start spewing your thoughts. I have a client that religiously does this 3 times a week and you know what their account gains on average 20 new unique followers and comments over night every damn time they engage.  

I get it you can't do 20 minutes a day, but I see you scrolling your feed at least twice a day and I know that you're just scrolling to waste time. Why not make that random scroll time work for you?  Five minutes waiting in line at Target, write 2 comments.  Getting a 20 minute pedicure, dammit you have no excuse comment while your toes are transforming, you are scrolling anyway. 

So in the end, Yes, 20 minutes of engagement is better than nothing. Stop scrolling to keep boredom at bay and start scrolling to build.  Any and every session of commenting contributes to a fitter audience, - and, very likely, happier - you! Just think that by putting in 2o minutes of commenting you are presenting yourself to an entirely new audience filled with potential new clients or sales. 

75.3% More For Your Bottom Line

Fact: 75.3% of people will purchase something because they saw it on some social media channel. If you own a business let that statistic marinate for a minute.

Do you understand now why big business pay for influence marketing, why they have a team of social media specialists?  I'm not going to lie when I first saw this face vase from Target blow up my Instagram and Pinterest feed last year, I went to Target stores and had friends near and far searching for it to no avail. I couldn't understand how can it be in some markets and not ALL the markets.  Anyway a few weeks ago on a leisurely stroll through the aisles of Target, there she finally was. The Insta famous face vase was finally in my hands, a year later. 

I would be super curious to reach out to Target to see just how many of these face vases they have sold.  I was so curious that for fun I Googled her and saw posts from people in Australia and other places far away begging Target to add this vase to the inventory at their local stores. She is even going for double her shelf price on ebay. 

If you are a business and are not updating your social media frequently, my question to you is why not? I can get behind the "I don't have enough time" but this is why people like me exist to help give you hours back in your day so you can focus on your business and still have a current social media presence. 75.3% that's just more money for your bottom line. 

If you do not have the time to concentrate on your social media, let's set up and appointment to chat about how I can help give you hours back in your day. 

(statistics via Social Media Weekly)

Tips to Combat Low Instagram Engagement

Have your engagement and likes been down for awhile now? Are you frustrated? Yeah, me too, and I have six accounts and bosses that I answer too.

The official word is that there was a bug in the explore tab. Supposedly it's been fixed however engagement and likes are still down, all over the platform. Instagram is also testing their spam algorithm to start cracking down on bot commenters and spam accounts that are posting 5x per day or using 3rd party services.

Here are some ways to combat the engagement icky's:

1. Add hashtags back at the end of the caption. I know, I don't like how it looks either BUT it seems to be helping.

2. Change up your hashtags. Last week I spent most of the week reworking a second and third set of hashtags for clients that we are rotating through.

3. Stop using the uber popular hashtags and start using some with less than 50k posts to them for the time being.

4. Interact with the people that are still with you and finding you. Likes and follows don't necessarily lead to sales. Positive relationships and experiences lead to sales, which lead to more customers which leads to word of mouth and more network marketing.

5. Start storying more. Show people that your life is more than a well styled stiff square image.

6. Work on building that email list. I know I know, it's on your list but way at the bottom. However with this plummet of engagement it's just a red flag that you should probably be doing more, getting directly in front of your niche.  

Do you have any tips that have been working for you during an engagement drought?

Instagram Live

I talk a bunch to my clients about how important Instagram Live is and that they should be doing it.  While there I sit not having done one yet. Well that changed a few days ago, I was working at The Society Hotel and decided to head up to the roof and film one quick as a promo type video for the Instagram workshop later this month.  

With the recent update Instagram did I was able to save the Live video and place it here as well as on the Facebook page. I love the internet, and now be aware I will be Live a bit more often. Gotta practice what I preach after all. 

Instagram Workshop For Your Business

"I've been a small business for 6 years. If I didn't understand how to compose great photos I would not still be in business. I actually arrange my work flow around good photo content. Social media + good photos = sell things." Tamara Young Consign Couture

Just like every business owner, every business is different, and their social media feed should reflect that. When I first sign on a client, sometimes their Instagram feeds just need another pair of eyes.   Which is totally acceptable because not everyone is born a photographer or a marketer.  If they are a client that lives near me, we grab a coffee and we talk photography basics,  how to get the best photo, how to to up their hashtag and engagement game. 

All of this perked an idea in me, why not team up and ask my "staff" brand photographer that I use for all the website revamps to teach a workshop on how to get a killer social media photo with just your phone.  I pitched her and she said yes, so here it is a two part workshop happening in April at my favorite work from space The Society Hotel.  

In week one brand photographer Ashley Courter will teach you photography basics and assign you some homework. In week two I will help you with your homework and help your business with industry specific hashtags and tips on how to build an authentic following which will turn likes into sales. 

There are still spots available, sign up via the workshop tab.  Come enjoy lattes, wine, snacks all while learning to level up your businesses Instagram game. 

Instagram Spam Comments

In my efforts to stop the Instagram commenting bots and attempting to get social media back on track of actually being social I'm about to drop a tiny bit of knowledge on you.  

You know those annoying spam comments you get right after you post a picture that you've worked really hard on achieving the perfect lighting as well as the perfect caption. You load it and press share, then right away you get a comment, part of you is so excited, it's only been 20 seconds since you posted your hashtags and someone is commenting on your well thought out post. Then you click the comment and it's "Want more followers" or "Like for Like" or my personal favorite "Wow check out my page" and disappointment and annoyance sets in.

Well I'm here to help you with this, you can deter the bot comments and here's how. 

Settings>Comments>Turn On Inappropriate Comments> Type in your custom keywords>Done

It's that easy! Now how are you going to do your part in keeping social media actually social?

Facebook vs. Instagram Marketing

The question that I get asked the most often is, "Should I be concentrating my marketing efforts on Instagram or Facebook?" 

Which I volley back to you as a business, do you know exactly who your target market is? Second what is the median age of your target market?  Once you have the answer to both of these questions, then you can decide which platform is better to focus on.

The truth is one isn't better than the other, it only depends on who exactly you are targeting. 

We all remember the good old days of Facebook when you didn't have to pay more than $5 to get in front of your target market. When you just had to run a relatively generic Facebook ad and it flooded your page with Likes, comments and customers.  Well, we all know that now you have to  pay to play, you have to narrow down who sees you  almost as if you had the ideals customers DNA profile to get in front of the the people that you were trying to reach. 

I get it that's why businesses jumped the Facebook ship and moved to Instagram, because Instagram is how Facebook used to be, except things over there are changing as well and eventually you will need to start paying to play there as well.  Let's face it Facebook owns both platforms. 

There isn't a simple one stop shop answer if you should be on Instagram or Facebook. The method to the madness is this, you have to know exactly who, you are targeting, their age,  their income, what they think is cool, are they more visual or do they prefer to read? Once this is established then it's as if it's written in the stars which platform you should be focusing your marketing energies on.  You do however have my personal permission to just start with one.  Sign up to get the same user name across the platforms but focus on one.

If you were to Google any of the above listed social media platform’s demographics, you will see up-to-date information on who is using each platform, including their age, gender, average annual income, and even their education level. Obviously with that sort of information you could begin to narrow down the options and choose the platform that you think will work best for you.

If this all this research and statistic reading sounds confusing to you then let's set up a free 30 minute consultation to discuss if you need Facebook or Instagram marketing efforts.