The Facebook & Instagram Privacy Changes Mean Blogs Aren't Dead

Wow – so much has been going on this week with Facebook in the news and its privacy changes. Information technology'southward affected so many bloggers and influencers.

I knew that sure data-sharing apps would exist affected (we're talking Instagram here, and I'yard assuming that nigh of y'all know that Facebook own Instagram) so that nosotros'd no longer be able to see who's unfollowed usa. I besides knew information technology would as well impact rewardStyle'due south simple LIKEtoKNOWit* "likes" system.

The latter means that influencers tin no longer button sales of products equally easily they could with the onetime LIKEtoKNOWit arrangement, whereby people could sign upward to the app, and then receive an electronic mail every time they hit "Like" on a mail with LIKEtoKNOWit details. It'south now washed past screenshots simply, and this is due to the changes in the Facebook privacy policies.

I've long since started becoming indifferent to social media. If you follow me on any of the 3 main platforms (Insta, Facebook, Twitter) yous'll come across that I've gone very, very quiet there. I've somewhat lost enthusiasm for it and I know I need to do it for the blog and to go along in touch with people who only follow me there, but I was already feeling jaded well-nigh it… this latest twist in the Tale (Trial?!) of Social Media doesn't exactly make me eager to return to any of it on a regular basis. But return I must, and like existence abroad from regular exercise for a long time (I know about that 1, too), I know I'll become dorsum into it eventually.

My prediction about social media

Anyway the point is this: I inadvertently predicted these problems when I wrote the other week that abandoning your blog for social media is a huge mistake. I had no idea at the time that any of this shizzle was going downwards (was it reported back and so or is this the first of it?), and I warned people that to rely on social media is dangerous because y'all don't ain the platform. And that the platforms could do anything at any time to effectively put a halt to all your difficult work of building up a following only to meet information technology come crashing downwardly.

I certainly didn't call up that this would happen so soon.

What I did find out this week was a lot more far-reaching than I initially realised. An article on Business of Manner (BoF) this calendar week explained that

"third-parties tin can no longer admission follower lists, relationships data, see which posts users have "liked" or receive notifications when media is posted. Analytics companies that provide follower demographics volition no longer have admission to Instagram data and people tin no longer utilize "bots" to follow accounts or "like" Instagram posts".

Again, wow – my predictions were eerily accurate. I didn't recollect that information technology would be something that would direct affect influencers' ability to make money out of Instagram, I thought it would be some sort of changes to policy (like Facebook starting to charge us to employ the platform) that would mean people would end using information technology every bit much, and influencers would run across massive drops in follower numbers, likes and comments.

Just then there'due south the bit about users no longer being able to employ bots to follow or similar accounts, and that is surely a GREAT thing. Although we tin't in theory apply platforms like Social Bract to find out who's buying false followers anymore (you can still admission stats at the moment, but who knows for how long), it's good to know that these changes effectively back up those of us who are working to increase their following organically.

Then now more than ever before is the time to make sure y'all have some other sort of way of keeping in touch with your followers, especially if your business relies on it. Influencers take been left "scrambling" as BoF put it, such is their reliance on Instagram to generate sales. I know that some influencers with massive followings make an absolute mint through LIKEtoKNOWit, and I wouldn't wish a loss of earnings on anyone (assuming they've congenital that following honestly).

What influencers need to exercise to counteract the changes

Fifty-fifty James Nord, owner of Fohr, agrees that Instagram is not a platform we own or take control over, and that every influencer needs at least a blog or a mailing list that they ain as their master way of keeping in touch with their customers (my choice of word, non his). I say "customers" because if you're making a ton of money through selling clothes, shoes or whatsoever other products to people either straight or through a third political party then yous are VERY much a business, and businesses that sell goods have customers.

(On a slightly divide indicate, he also makes a great case for the reason why influencers should terminate moaning nigh the algorithm: to retrieve that Instagram volition practise anything in OUR interests is delusional. If the algorithm works for them then of COURSE they won't become rid of information technology. We can moan all we similar, but they're non ever, ever going to get rid of it but because we, the people that can utilise the platform for free, prefer chronological posts.)

Hence, for now, I'grand still concentrating on the blog. It'southward all I've really had time for since we put our house on the market place (and had an offer and made an offering on another house all in an extremely short space of time) – this mail service is very late going out because half my fourth dimension is spent on the telephone or filling in forms these days… oh, the paperwork!!

So I urge you to do the same. Don't abandon your weblog or mailing listing, make sure yous're using social media as a manner to support your master platforms – the ones that you own outright, in other words. Think just how different social media (and blogging in general) is today compared to viii-10 years agone… it's unrecognisable. Now, in the space of 1 week it's totally changed.

Blogs AREN'T dead, I say… long alive blogs!

*LIKEtoKNOWit is the Instagram shopping service from rewardStyle, one of the biggest affiliate platforms used by influencers. Information technology enables Instagram users to earn an affiliate income through their Instagram business relationship.

WHAT DO Yous THINK OF THE PRIVACY CHANGES? DO YOU THINK Information technology'South A GOOD Thing THAT BOTS WILL NO LONGER Exist ABLE TO Access OUR Data AND ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO BUY FAKE FOLLOWERS? TELL ME IN THE COMMENTS!

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Source: https://www.notdressedaslamb.com/2018/04/facebook-instagram-privacy-changes-mean-blogs-arent-dead.html