by Jay Lane | Jan 8, 2022 | Psychic Business, Social Media, TPA Blog
Social media security is important. Most social platforms afford you the tools to be able to manage your business and to keep potential hackers and trolls at bay. If you are a Page Owner on networks such as Facebook or Instagram, then you’ll understand the realities of this becoming a possibility. Here are some tips to help keep your social media accounts secure, stress and headache free!
Banning Users: When someone makes unwanted comments on your social media page, you can choose to ban a user which in turns removes the comments that they’ve made, eliminating issues quite quickly. Facebook groups are a little different in that the group’s administrator can choose to either send the offender a warning, suspension or remove them from the group completely. Make sure to check your settings to ensure that they are not able to rejoin the group after then been banned or removed.
Social Media Trolls: Trolls are a much bigger problem! You’ll know if you have a troll when they have gone through the trouble of cloning your account or financially exploiting your clients by emailing them asking for money while posing as you or your business. Yes, it’s happened to me! Freaky right? It can be, but it’s best to remain calm and to report these activities. Create a post asking your friends or followers to do the same may also be a good idea. The more attention the situation gets, the more quickly it may be resolved.
Restrictions: My experience with the trolls that had cloned my social media pages were from specific countries and when investigating further, I learned that some possessed hundreds of accounts. I thought this would be a never ending issue until a friend who had had the same issue, suggested that I restrict the country in which my trolls lived which I found under the general settings of my page. When you add restrictions, whether a country or an age restriction, only people who meet the requirements will be able to see your page, and anyone who likes your page, but doesn’t fit the requirements will be deleted. You can update your restrictions at any time. If no age or country restrictions are listed, your page will be visible to everyone. A person who can’t see you page, cannot troll you!
Content Moderation: If you own a page on Facebook, you can eliminate certain words from appearing on your page. For instance, most will add keywords such as “fake”, “charlatan”, or “evil” to there Content Moderation list under General Settings. There is also a Profanity Filter section below it where you can add keywords to that may be useful in keeping unwanted content on your page. Make sure to review your General Settings on your account or go to your Facebook Help Section for more information.
Protecting Your Accounts: Hackers and trolls who like to wreak havoc on social media are part of our every day reality. If they gain access to your accounts, they can potentially cause you quite big headaches. If you’ve noticed some suspicious activity on your account, immediately log out of all locations under your personal account settings. Then, enable your two factor authentication through all of your platforms. It may be a little bit to get used to, but it will give you the extra layer of protection, and peace of mind! I also encourage you to change your passwords often.
I hope that these tips from my very own experiences help you move forward to a stress free social media environment! Do your research and if you have questions, make sure to look them up. The more information you’re armed with, the more it will help you keep unwanted visitors joining your social networks.
Founding Member, The Psychic Associates
Professional Psychic Medium, Vlogger, Writer, Inspirational Speaker, Brand & Social Media Expert
by Jay Lane | Oct 26, 2021 | Holisticpreneur, Marketing and Advertising, Social Media, TPA Blog
There’s black and white, right and wrong, yes and no, but when it comes to social media, not only is there a “light” side to it, there’s also a “dark” side as well! What it all boils down to is belief systems of some of those who creep or bully lightworkers using various social media platforms to do it! Although people do not have any inclination of who these lightworkers are or what they do any given day, they are of the opinion that what lightworkers do for a living is considered a gift and shame those who don’t offer their services for free.
For some, understanding the concept of getting paid for a service, or for a gift, can be difficult for some to accept, but more painful for those who face being told so or shamed publicly about it on social media. It can leave lightworkers feeling guilty about charging for services, uneasy about what they do or who they are. Some of industry’s best have been known to quit their practices because of social media and its pressures.
If you’re working in this capacity, you may be able to relate to: having to deal with disturbing or unwarranted comments under your social media posts; people who harass or threaten you or your business or send nasty emails to you for no apparent reason; being shamed for the type of work that you do or reminded you of how you are taking advantage for some poor soul. I can go on forever, but I think you get my drift! If you have, here are some my personal tips on “Coping with The Dark Side of Social Media“.
Please forgive them, for they haven’t a clue of what you do! Do they understand the life changing impact or influence that you may have had on others? No, in their eyes, you are up to no good. What to do about it? Well, in my earlier days, I would have tried to defend myself and my beliefs, after all, my ego knew who I was!
Is it a good idea to lash out or to defend yourself? Not always. It’s more you say, the more ammunition they have to berate you with! The question to ask yourself is this: will responding to these comments benefit you in any way?
If the answer is no, it’s just best to ban the user, and to delete the comment(s), keeping your post free of negativity and moving on to a happier day. Just keep reminding yourself that some people fear what they don’t understand, because that’s the reality of what you’re dealing with.
Tags & Unexpected Media Attention – More often than none, those in the metaphysical trades are tagged in comments that may be made as a result of an post asking for recommendations. I’m sure you relate to requests such as “Does anyone know of a good psychic or medium, reader, etc.?” Suddenly, your notification bell is lighting up like a Christmas tree because you’ve been tagged by clients or followers recommending you or, someone who will comment about what you represent to them in their eyes.
It’s very difficult to read negative comments about yourself, especially knowing that you’ve never met or dealt with any of these naysayers. It’s best to chalk it up to ignorance, and to move on from the post or comments completely.
Change your Setting – It’s best to unfollow the post, or change your settings so that you are not notified on tags. If you’ve ever experienced this, you will notice that many of your followers or friends will stick up or defend you if there are negative comments, which is nice; but some will not, and it can be bothersome.
The best thing to do is to put the post on ignore. What good will it do to read something that really doesn’t reflect the person that you truly are. I always imagined it’s why so many celebrities go into hiding, because of the assumptions that people make when they’re out in public. They could be yelling because they just sat on a bee, but it’s not what you’ll read in the headlines the next day!
Just remember, you are Human, your Soul knows who you are! Social media will at one point or another, make you question yourself or your purpose, but deep down, know that you’re a holisticpreneur at heart and it’s your purpose! It’s your given path, you are meant to be heard, seen and to help people through your gifts!
So tell the world who you are, and repeat after me…” I release and let go the dark side of social media”.
Founding Member, The Psychic Associates
Professional Psychic Medium, Vlogger, Writer, Inspirational Speaker, Brand & Social Media Expert
by Jay Lane | Aug 17, 2021 | Marketing and Advertising, Psychic Business, Social Media, TPA Blog
One of the biggest fears people face when starting this type of business is the fear of social media and the digital world. It’s understandably scary to put yourself out there, the world’s stage. But for myself, I just couldn’t wait. Although I was a little nervous about it, the problem I had was a lack of knowledge with programs and experience when it came to social media, but it didn’t take me too long to figure it all out.
I wanted so badly to find a way to reach a much larger audience in the digital world. I was already producing my own events, but at the time, no one in this field was doing videos, or wanted to be on video for that matter. I knew inside my heart that the digital world was going to change drastically, and I wanted to be part of that.
Digging around to learn more about video applications, I soon learned that I couldn’t find anything at all that would record a video longer than 2 minutes. Through my research, I met a wonderful man by the name of John, who had developed a video program for a celebrity friend of his who didn’t like to write to his wife when working abroad. He felt the need to pre-record a video and email it to his family as a way of keeping a visual connection to his family and because he had no access to Skype.
John offered me use of the program, which at that time, captured up to ½ hour of video. Excited, I started a business called “Video Psychic Advice” using that very program, as I felt it was important for people to experience a visual reading rather than an audio recorded one. The client would email me a question or two when ordering the service, and I would video tape the reading and email it to them. No one else was offering that service ,and it was a high demand item because of the visual experience.
This inspired me to start reaching out to people on social media. My thought was to reach as many people as I could with the messages that I had; I felt that I had so much to share.
I started a Facebook Page, an Instagram and Twitter account, and posted my video readings on these platforms. I would record them using John’s program and upload them to YouTube so that I could share them on my social media platforms. I was lucky enough to start doing live shows early on, however, Facebook’s video program didn’t allow me to have live guests. So my quest to find a program to do this began.
Since then, I have used many different video programs and apps which feed into various social media feeds at once, making it easier to reach a larger audience.
I enjoy connecting with my followers through my “Lives” on social media. One of my favourite programs I enjoy using is Streamyard because I’m able to invite up to 10 guests at once, and the system allows me to pre-record my material. From this material, I form my blogs. What better way to connect with people! I can also interact with my viewers and can broadcast out to many platforms at once, saving me time and money.
I encourage everyone to get their toes wet and start small like I did. Everyone has access to a cell phone, and a camera of some kind. If you’re just starting out, that’s all you really need. There are so many creative apps out there and it’s really quite amazing where those baby steps will lead you to. The video material you record will serve you for years to come and you will be able to use it for marketing campaigns.
So go ahead and have fun, experiment with all of the resources you have available to you. There are free programs such as Clips, and Movie Maker. It’s so simple to edit your videos.
In today’s digital world, there is no better way to be able to connect with your audience. So for those who say, I don’t want to be on social media, you may want to rethink your plan. You know what your purpose is and what you need to do, and besides, practice makes perfect! Not only will you be making some amazing connections, you will be driving traffic to your site and gaining more followers, which means increased revenues for you.
Read my Interview on the Digital Age with Markos Papadatos, NYC
Founding Member, The Psychic Associates
Professional Psychic Medium, Vlogger, Writer, Inspirational Speaker, Brand & Social Media Expert
