Social Media Safety: Ladies, it’s all about boundaries!
YES! You've decided to take the leap to share your soul work online! Now, let’s set some boundaries to make sure you keep the posting momentum going.
The tips I’m about to share aren’t your typical safety suggestions. They’re for women who want to protect their privacy AND energy when sharing their soul work on Facebook and Instagram.
While your posts may be public, this doesn’t mean your personal life or location needs to be. You can control what people know about you and your physical location. Below are some handy tips you’ll also want to share with your girlfriends.
Instagram & Facebook Boundaries
First thing’s first: boundaries.
I’m giving you full permission to NOT reply to direct messages (DMs) from people who don’t seem to have a genuine interest in you and your posts. I’m talking about people who friend you on Facebook you and immediately send you a message to promote their product or services.
Or my favorite, Instagram DMs from men who simply write:
“Hi.” or “How are you?”
I’m making a leap here and assuming they aren’t interested in my coaching business.
Don’t spend your energy contemplating what to do. Delete and move on. I know it may sound harsh, but it’s important for you to focus on using your energy in a way that’s supporting your online experience and not depleting it.
If you do decide to engage in a conversation, remember that you have the right to honor your boundaries and express this to the person. Your boundaries are how you maintain a sense of online safety.
If you’re interested in learning how to create social media boundaries so you can make your business visible in a stress-free way, check out my online group program, Soul to Social.
Geotagging
Geotagging is when we connect our location to a post. The benefit of geotagging is people can find you based on your location. This can be a mega benefit, especially if you want to generate local awareness of your business.
But if you aren’t keen on being easily discovered, make sure to check your location settings on your phone. You can determine how your location is detected. For example, if you have an iPhone, you have three options for location settings: never, while using the app, always. You can read more about Facebook location settings here and for Instagram, here.
If you want to use a geotag, you can decide how specific you want the address to be. You DON’T have to tag exactly where you are. For example, I don’t want people to know where I live, so I just use “South Korea” as a geotag. Sometimes I get a bit more specific by tagging the city. Decide what feels right for you.
If you want to geotag a specific location because you want to share the love (which is a wonderful thing to do), but you don’t feel comfortable with the idea that people could find you there, tag the picture or story when you leave the place. There’s no social media rule that says you need to post immediately.
Instagram Safety
You decide how “public” you want to be. You have the choice to have a private account, a public account, and a business account. If you have a private account, no one will be able to see your posts unless you’ve given them permission to follow you. This means that if you use hashtags (which is a great practice to make posts visible to more people), they won’t be detectable. But if your account is public, you don’t have to worry about this. Anyone can see your posts, and your hashtags can be followed. If you have a business account, you don’t have an option to make your posts private.
The block button is your friend. While it’s nice to get new followers, if you feel uncomfortable by anyone who follows you, block them. It’s good energetic hygiene to have followers who connect to your intentions. Some say it helps the algorithm, too. Though I can’t confirm this, it’s worth exploring.
Block the bots. Some of your followers may be bots, which is a techy way of saying they’re computer-generated followers. Why do they exist and who creates them? Beats me. But they usually have a pattern: they barely have any followers, and usually follow A LOT of people. Their pictures also seem to be posted on the same day with no captions. Just block these dudes, and keep on keeping on.
If you want to be extra-safe, consider creating a Instagram handle that isn’t your name. For example, instead of @josettelb, I could be @SMsoulstrategist (hehe… SM stands for social media.)
Facebook Safety
Consider your "friend" policy, especially for your personal page. You don’t need to accept anyone as your friend if you don’t want them to be.
On your personal page, if your posts are public, anyone can see them. Be aware of what you want to make public and what you want to keep private. You can change the privacy setting on each post. If you’re not sure how, check Google by typing: how to change privacy settings on Facebook.
Your professional page will always be public. It’s helpful to be aware of this when you decide where to post certain things.
Please let me know which tips were the most helpful! And if you know any other boss babes out there who could use these suggestions, please spread the love. Let’s stay safe together!
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