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4 Ways to Customize Your Facebook Link Posts for More Clicks https://ift.tt/34kDWXi Want more people to click on your Facebook link posts? Looking for hacks to customize your Facebook links? In this article, you’ll discover how to use little-known features in Facebook that will drive more traffic to your site. #1: Hack Facebook Ads Manager to Use a Square Image in Your Facebook Page Link PostUsing a square image in your Facebook ad takes up more space in the news feed, making it easier to grab attention. What if you want to use a square image in a post but don’t want to spend money on ads? I’m going to show you how to share a square image (or video) link post without spending a cent; you don’t need to activate the campaign. Open Facebook Ads Manager and set up a campaign with either the Traffic or Conversions objective. At the ad creation level, upload a square image or video to accompany your ad. Be sure to switch your campaign off at the Campaign level before you publish it. How to Deliver Better Results With Your Facebook Ads—Online Training! Next, click on the hamburger menu on the top left-hand side of Ads Manager and select Page Posts from the Create & Manage column. Select your page from the drop-down menu that appears, and then find the post you just created. Click the checkbox to the left-hand side of the post. Click on Actions, then Publish or Schedule to share your post to your business page’s timeline. #2: Enhance Your Facebook Page Link Post CopyYou can type three lines of text in a Facebook post before your message gets cut off by the See More link on mobile (as of August 16, 2019). Your posts don’t have to be fewer than three lines, but the first three lines of your post do need to entice people to click on your post. What can you do to help grab attention in the news feed? Here are two easy options. Use EmojisEmojis are visual shorthand that gives your audience a quick idea of what is to follow. Emojis are also colorful so they make your update more noticeable to news feed scrollers. Worried you aren’t emoji-literate? Use Emojipedia to find the emoji you want and see what it will look like on Facebook. An emoji’s appearance on Facebook can be quite different from what it looks like on your keyboard. Use the Feeling/Activity ButtonThis button is located at the bottom of your Facebook post window, and you can use it to add context to your post. You can choose one of 13 feelings or activities like Feeling Curious, Traveling To, Eating, Attending, and others. The feeling/activity you choose appears at the top of your update and doesn’t count toward your three lines of text space. #3: Keep the URL in Your Facebook Link PostLink posts give your audience a massive clickable area that sends them to your website but there are still some users who don’t know where to click. When you post your link to Facebook from your page, leave the link in place after the preview appears. It may not look pretty but it could mean a few extra clicks. #4: Confirm That Facebook Associates the Correct Image With Your Content LinkYour link preview image needs to be a scroll-stopper. It must grab attention fast enough to interrupt the scroll of Facebook users who quickly move through updates. The image you choose for your link preview should be a horizontal 1200 x 600 px image. Most links have more than one image in them and it’s not always clear which image Facebook will choose to show. Use the Facebook Sharing Debugger tool to find out which image Facebook will choose before you publish your post. If it’s not the image you prefer, you can change the image by logging into your website. If you use WordPress, the Yoast plugin makes it easy to tell Facebook which image to use. Get Facebook Ads Training—Online!The Facebook Ads Summit is ideal for any marketer who wants to better understand the latest Facebook ads strategies and improve their testing and analysis. The world’s top Facebook ads experts show you their proven techniques. The Facebook Ads Summit is a live online training event from your friends at Social Media Examiner. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MOREView the page or post in edit mode and scroll to the Yoast section near the bottom of the page. Click on the Social tab to choose or upload the image you want to appear with your Facebook links. Click Save. Now paste the URL of the page or post back into the debug tool to force Facebook to re-crawl your link and find your preferred image. This may take a few tries. Many website platforms have built-in functionality similar to Yoast. If your site doesn’t, ask your web developer about adding Open Graph Markup to the header of your page. This will tell Facebook what to look at. #5: Ask People to Save the Link for LaterWhat if your ideal customer sees your post, but doesn’t have time to or can’t click straight away? One way to ensure that they don’t forget about you is to ask them to save the post. Facebook reminds users that they have saved posts so you have a better chance of capturing that link click later. #6: Research and Analyze Your Audience Behavior to Determine the Best Time to Publish on FacebookMuch has been written about the best time to post on Facebook. The truth is, there’s no single best time that applies to everyone but there’s likely a best time for your business. Here are some steps you can take to find that time. First, start analyzing your Facebook link posts. Is there a time of day common to your top clicked posts? If so, that’s your starting point. Next, map out your customer avatar’s day. What will they be doing and when will they have time to read the links you post? A stay-at-home parent will have a very different schedule than a small business owner, an office worker, or a manual worker. If your ideal customer is a stay-at-home parent, the best time to post could be late morning, after the children are in school. People who commute to work by train have time to read while they’re traveling in the early morning. Manual workers might not get a chance to read until they’re home in the evening. When you know the type of customer you want to attract and what their day looks like, you can optimize your posting schedule. Finally, create a custom report to segment your Google Analytics session data by Facebook sessions. To do this, click on Customization and then Custom Reports near the top left-hand side of your analytics dashboard. Then click on the New Custom Report button. Under General Information, add a title to name your custom report. Under Report Content, name your report tab, click on the + Add Metric button, and choose Sessions as your metric group. In the Dimension Drilldowns section, click on + Add Dimension and add Day of Week and Hour as your Dimension parameters. Under Filters, select Social Network and add Facebook in the empty field. Save your report. Open the report, click Secondary Dimension, and select Hour. Now you can see the days and times during which most people are visiting your site from Facebook. Download the report as an XLS file so you can sort the data by day and time in Excel. This will give you a quick view of your best times to post each day. Adjust your posting schedule according to what you see. Be sure to test these schedules on Facebook to identify your optimum posting times. ConclusionFacebook wants users to stay on the platform for as long as possible. This makes it challenging for marketers to direct traffic to their websites but it can still happen. In yesterday’s article, we shared how to publish more content your audience is likely to click through. Today, we shared how to structure and deliver your Facebook link posts so they’re optimized to generate clicks and engagement. What do you think? Will you take a bit of extra time to use these techniques? What questions do you have? Share your thoughts in the comments below. More articles on Facebook marketing:Get your 2020 tickets! There are 17 tracks of content available from the world's top marketing pros! Social Media via Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner https://ift.tt/1LtH18p September 3, 2019 at 05:06AM
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Meme celebrates the internet's favorite highly versatile actors https://ift.tt/2UrNMC3 Some actors are more versatile than others. For scientific proof, please see the following meme. After Reuters tweeted and deleted a post stating that Kirsten Dunst was "best known for her role as Spiderman's girlfriend" (have they ever even heard of Bring It On?), a discussion about the truly versatile actors in our midst ramped up on Twitter. Soon, it became a full-fledged meme, with people saying their faves could role-swap with basically any famous part. "Rachel Weisz could do James Bond but Daniel Craig couldn't do The Favourite," reads one tweet from user @chastaen. Frankly, this is a great point. The best thing about this meme is that there are so many good examples to choose from — one for any allegiance you could imagine, really, with the exception of Leonardo DiCaprio. Even Hilary Duff gets her well-deserved time in the sun here. "Hilary Duff could do Inglorious Basterds but Brad Pitt couldn't do Cadet Kelly," user @filmlesbian wrote. We'll take it!
How could all of you say something so controversial yet so brave? Social Media via Mashable https://ift.tt/2DCFv97 September 2, 2019 at 01:13PM
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Multi-level marketing schemes are scams. Here's how to avoid them. https://ift.tt/2ZN3loR It’s Cheat Week at Mashable. Join us as we take a look at how liars, scammers, grifters, and everyday people take advantage of life's little loopholes in order to get ahead. Like gender reveal parties and painfully public engagements, seeing multi-level marketing scams pop up on your feed has become a social media milestone. At some point, you're sure to scroll past pink and blue balloons, watch vertical videos of couples shrieking at Disneyland, and receive the dreaded "Hey girl!" message from a high school acquaintance you haven't spoken to in years. The Securities and Exchange Commission notes three hallmarks of a pyramid scheme: There's heavy emphasis on recruitment, a promise of high rewards in little time, and an insistence that the participant can quit their day job to "work from home." More often than not, "investors"—who usually pay to participate—make money not from their product revenue, but from getting others to participate as well. As Jim from The Office pointed out to a lost Michael, the foundation of participants and layers of recruiters eventually starts to look like a pyramid. Pyramid schemes are illegal, but multi-level marketing technically isn't. Also called pyramid selling, network marketing, and referral marketing, participants typically buy product in bulk and then sell it individually to customers. Think companies like LuLaRoe, which sells clothing; Herbalife, which sells supplements; or Rodan + Fields, which sells skincare. Instead of a traditional retail store or site, customers can only buy products by going through "certified" or "registered" sales reps. In other words, you can only get your heinously patterned legging fix by buying directly from someone who had to buy them wholesale in hopes of shilling them to friends and family. As the Federal Trade Commission reports, less than one percent of MLM participants make a profit. That's right: More than 99 percent of participants lose money instead of making it. Most of these companies target vulnerable women like stay-at-home moms and military wives who don't tend to be financially independent anyway. The 2011 report states that out of 350 MLMs analyzed, every single one was recruitment driven and top-weighted. Those at the top made the most profit "at the expense of a revolving door of recruits." "This is after subtracting purchases they must make to qualify for commission and advancement of the scheme," the report continues. "To say nothing of minimal operating expenses for conducting and aggressive recruitment campaign — which (based on the compensation plans) is essential to get into the profit column." Spend money to make money? That sounds sketchy. MLMs have been around for decades, but the universal adoption of social media has only fueled them. At the same time, they're so widely hated that MLMs even have a subreddit dedicated to complaining about them. On r/antiMLM, Reddit users warn others of the toxic MLM "hustle" and mock the "huns" who get sucked into it. To avoid getting scammed by MLMs — which eventually collapse anyway — skip the "business opportunity" and stay aware of these warning signs. Run from the "Hey girl!" messagesWhen old acquaintances hit you up again after years of silence, it can mean one of two things: They genuinely want to rekindle your friendship, or they're trying to sell you essential oils. MLM huns often use a pre-written format to reach out to potential customers. Sometimes they flub it, like in this post from r/antiMLM. If the message you get seems a tad robotic, it's probably only a matter of time before they launch into their pitch about working your own hours and being a small business owner. Just politely end the conversation and move on without the burden of thousands of dollars worth of inventory to get rid of. If you have to "invest" money to join, don'tWhile some "investments" are worth paying for up front, like buying a house, you shouldn't spend thousands of dollars on cheaply made clothing and expect to make a profit off it. MLMs are legal, according to the FTC, but that doesn't mean the strict parameters set by the government will protect you from shady purchases. As Quartz reported in 2017, MLMs only pushed people further into debt because of the pressure to buy inventory. The "buy in" investment for LuLaRoe, for example, will cost you $5,000. While the company claims that participants, which it calls consultants, can profit from spending less than $5,000, Business Insider obtained data in 2017 that showed more than 80 percent of consultants made less than $5,000. A total of 10,834 sold nothing at all, and the average revenue was about $3,387. Based on a LuLaRoe consultant's numbers, one blogger estimated that consultants would have to spend at least $15,000 on inventory and mark prices up 40 percent to make any profit. And while there are success stories of women who made upwards of $30,000 a month selling, the high profits were ephemeral. Jill Domme, a former consultant, told Vice she once sold $37,566 of inventory in a month, but sales dipped and never recovered. She's now $39,000 in debt and drives for GrubHub. Buying a massive inventory in hopes of selling it at markup probably isn't the best investment. Just look it upGot an offer that sounds too good to be true? Google it! Jaded ex-participants who managed to escape the crushing jaws of MLMs have taken to the internet to warn others. Elle Beau, a former Younique representative, wrote a detailed blog about her "Poonique" journey. She, along with others determined to prevent vulnerable people from falling into the trap, formed the "Anti-MLM Coalition" and compiled a master list of known scams and direct selling schemes. The South Dakota Office of the Attorney General also recommends looking into how long the company has been in business, whether the company has been sued for "deceptive business practices," and checking with the state attorney general for complaints against the company. If you find any mentions of recruitment, make a run for it. You don't want to get crushed when that pyramid comes crumbling down. Social Media via Mashable https://ift.tt/2DCFv97 September 2, 2019 at 06:04AM
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How to Drive More Facebook Organic Traffic to Your Site https://ift.tt/2kmaBJR Want more traffic from your Facebook posts? Need algorithm-friendly ideas that will get your content seen? In this article, you’ll learn what to avoid and discover ideas that will help you get more Facebook traffic. #1: Avoid Posts That Don’t Play to the Facebook AlgorithmFacebook marketing has never been harder. What used to be a significant traffic source has turned into a place where it’s challenging to get clicks. Tactics that worked a year or two ago could now result in you getting less reach not only on individual posts but also on your page as a whole. If you want to drive more traffic to your website from Facebook, one of your largest barriers is the platform’s ever-changing algorithm. Here are three types of Facebook posts that incur negative effects from the Facebook algorithm and quick fixes to improve your posts to align more closely with the algorithm’s preferences. Cut the Clickbait PostsIn 2014, Facebook started cracking down on what they called clickbait. What qualifies as clickbait? Posts that are sensational and withhold important information or mislead the reader with the goal of driving more traffic to a website. Here are two examples:
These kinds of posts used to get a lot of clicks, which meant they’d start appearing higher in the news feed. The problem for Facebook was that this tactic often led to poor-quality content. Facebook discovered that “80% of the time people preferred headlines that helped them decide if they wanted to read the full article before they had to click through.” Facebook’s first method for fighting clickbait was to measure how long people spent on a site before clicking back to Facebook—the longer, the better. This means you need to find ways to keep your visitors on your site longer. In 2016, Facebook released another update designed to tackle the problem. This time, they identified phrases that were common in clickbait headlines and used these to determine poor-quality content. They warned, “Links posted from or shared from Pages or domains that consistently post clickbait headlines will appear lower in News Feed.” How to Deliver Better Results With Your Facebook Ads—Online Training! So if you’re posting clickbait to your page consistently, or other users are publishing clickbait links from your website, you’ll see a decrease in reach on your posts, your page, and any links posted to Facebook from your site. What to Do InsteadWhen you’re creating content for your website, make sure the headlines won’t be considered clickbait by Facebook. Avoid using sensational, exaggerated, or misleading language. When sharing to Facebook, give readers a good idea of what’s in the linked content. That way, they’ll know if the content’s valuable before they click. To keep readers on your site longer, make sure your web pages are optimized for mobile and include subheadings to lead people to the information they seek. Also check your site speed; if it’s not fast enough, users will abandon your website before it loads. Drop the Engagement Bait PostsMore engagement means more reach and ultimately more link clicks. But you can get on the wrong side of the Facebook algorithm if you try to artificially inflate your engagement. In late 2017, Facebook released an update to the algorithm to crack down on what they called “engagement bait.” Facebook announced they would use machine learning to identify posts that encourage people to react, like, comment, tag, or share, promising to demote posts in the news feed that use engagement bait. If your page repeatedly uses these tactics, you could see an overall drop in reach. What to Do InsteadAvoid using the words “like,” “vote,” “comment,” and “tag” in your posts. Eliminate Image or Video Posts With Links in DescriptionsAlso in 2014, an update from Facebook emphasized sharing links as link posts. Some marketers will share a link in the caption of a photo or video instead of using native link posting on Facebook. Facebook prefers that you post your link as a link post so they can prepare a preview including the headline, a large photo, and a description. This information adds context to your post and lets people make a more qualified decision about whether they should click. Facebook says it will demote posts that include links in photo captions. A 2018 experiment from Agorapulse’s Social Media Lab confirmed that link posts get more clicks than images with links in the captions. What to Do InsteadAlways post your links as link posts on Facebook. #2: Analyze Facebook Traffic to Identify Links That Drive High Click-Through TrafficNow that you’re primed in the Facebook algorithm, you need to decide what kind of links you should share to Facebook. What content do you have on your website that will appeal to your Facebook audience enough to make them click through? What content will get you more traffic? Let’s look at some ways you can identify the types of posts that will capture your audience’s attention. Use Facebook Insights to Assess Your Facebook Page Post PerformanceWhat are you posting on Facebook that will attract link clicks from your audience? I recommend doing a test. Start by posting links to your Facebook page at least three times a week for 28 days. These links should point to your website and third-party articles that will appeal to your Facebook audience. At the end of the 28 days, download your Insights data at the page level. To do this, open the Insights tab on your page and click Export Data. In the pop-up window, select the Post Data report and choose the timeframe you want to analyze (28 days in this case). Then decide whether to download a CSV or XLS file. After you’ve downloaded the file, open it in Excel and sort your data by type so you can see all of your link posts together. While the sheer volume of data in this report is daunting, find the column with the heading “Lifetime Post Audience Targeting Unique Consumptions by Type – Link Clicks.” This column will show the number of link clicks per post. Once you know which links drove the most traffic, you need to find out why. Analyze your top-performing posts. Why do you think they get the most link clicks? Here are some questions to ask:
By doing this testing, you’ll know what’s working on your page. But you’ll also get clicks from other sources linking to your content from Facebook. Get Facebook Ads Training—Online!The Facebook Ads Summit is ideal for any marketer who wants to better understand the latest Facebook ads strategies and improve their testing and analysis. The world’s top Facebook ads experts show you their proven techniques. The Facebook Ads Summit is a live online training event from your friends at Social Media Examiner. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORERun Google Analytics Acquisition Reports to Reveal Top Landing Pages From Facebook TrafficTo see all of the traffic coming to your site from Facebook, delve into your Google Analytics. Navigate to Acquisition > Social > Network Referrals to see how many website visits you got from each social network. Then click Facebook to find the posts and pages on your site that are getting the most traffic from Facebook. You know the Facebook algorithm likes it when people stay on your site longer, so examine the time spent and the number of pages visited in each session that originated on Facebook. Look in the Average Session Duration and Pages/Session columns to see which posts kept users on site the longest. Once you’ve identified your top website pages for Facebook traffic, analyze them to find out what makes them popular:
#3: Research Additional Facebook Channels to Discover Popular Topics to Inform Your Clickable Content CreationThe next step is to research topics that are already popular with your ideal customers on Facebook. Explore Facebook Groups to Find Popular Topics of DiscussionTo find Facebook groups your ideal customers belong to, search for a keyword relating to your business or customer in the Facebook search bar. To illustrate, if you’re in the wedding industry, search for “bride” to find wedding-related groups. You could also search for “wedding,” “nuptials,” or “groom.” On the results page, click the Groups tab in the top menu bar. Join the most relevant groups and look for topics that are discussed frequently. These could be questions that members ask regularly or posts that get a lot of engagement. Make a list of the topics you could write about for your website. Crowdsource Ideas for Content From Your Facebook AudiencesFacebook is a fantastic resource for crowdsourcing. You can use it to spark new ideas and hone the content you’re creating. Use your Facebook page and group (if you have one) and newly discovered customer groups to crowdsource ideas. Tell your audience you’re writing a post, list the topics you intend to cover, and ask for their input. When you publish the content, share the link to the discussion thread and credit the people who assisted you. They’ll want to see the content they helped create, bringing you instant website clicks. #4: Develop 4 Types of Content That Drive Click-Through Traffic From FacebookFeaturing people in your content makes it more shareable. The people you spotlight will share your post with their audiences, giving you more reach and clicks. What types of content should you create? Interviews With Experts and Industry PersonalitiesFind out who your audience looks up to and who influences them. You can conduct your own research to find these people and ask your Facebook group or page followers for recommendations. These are the people you need to interview and feature in your content. Pro Tip: Get to know them online before you approach them. This will give you a better chance of getting a “yes” when you ask for the interview. Roundups That Feature Insights From Multiple PeopleInstead of featuring just one person in your article, ask a group of people to contribute. Find a topic that’s popular with your audience and approach experts to get their tips or opinions. Gather all of their input to create an article on your site. You’ll get more shares from multiple contributors, which will lead to more clicks. If you tie your content to an event or celebration day, your post will likely be even more successful. Listicles That Gather Valuable Sources by TopicRoundup posts require time and effort from your key influencers. A list post, on the other hand, mentions and credits them without imposing on their time. Create a recommendations post like “The best Irish foodie Facebook accounts” or “25 Irish foodie Facebook pages you should follow today.” When you feature people in a listicle, many of those people will share it with their own followers like Klaw did with this article from Condé Nast Traveler. The magic of people posts is when the people you’ve featured actually share your article. Here are some ways to make it easy for them to share:
Freebies and Lead IncentivesLead incentives are great for building your email list, and if you combine this tactic with a Facebook post, you could end up with a lot of website clicks. When you create a landing page for your lead incentive, you’ll get more downloads and keep people on the site longer, which as you know, the Facebook algorithm likes. What should your incentive be? You may already have an eBook, checklist, cheat sheet, or mini-course for building your list, but have you ever asked your Facebook audience what they’d like? Ask them to pick a freebie and give them numbered options to choose from. Because there’s very little typing involved, it’s easy for your audience to respond. You can continue building buzz about your freebie as you create it by asking for opinions on titles and covers. When you have a clear winner, create the freebie and in the comment thread, let your followers know you’ve published it. Because your Facebook audience helped build your incentive, they’ll be more likely to click when you share the final product. When people download your freebie, send them to a thank-you page. The purpose of this page isn’t just about saying thank you and measuring success, however. You can use the space to engage your audience further and send them deeper into your site. Recommend additional reading or direct them to a service you offer that will help them. ConclusionFacebook wants users to stay on the platform for as long as possible, which means you need to share content that interests your audience and delivers on its promised value. In this article, we shared how to discover which content topics your audience is most likely to click on. In tomorrow’s article, we’ll share how to structure and deliver your Facebook link posts to your website content so they’re optimized to generate clicks and engagement. What do you think? How will you use these tips to get more traffic from your Facebook posts? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below. More articles on Facebook marketing:Get your 2020 tickets! There are 17 tracks of content available from the world's top marketing pros! Social Media via Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner https://ift.tt/1LtH18p September 2, 2019 at 05:06AM How to Start Social Media Marketing: A Beginner’s Social Strategy for eCommerce Businesses https://ift.tt/2zIjAJk Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools ever created. The key is understanding how to use it in the most effective way possible. In order to effectively reach customers, you need to learn how to start social media marketing, including the tips and strategies for making the most of every marketing dollar you spend. Fortunately, this article takes a look at the most important details of social media content marketing. Keep reading to learn the most important things you need to know. Develop a StrategyFirst, you need to develop specific marketing strategy. This will help you decide on a budget. Your marketing strategy provides the big picture of what you hope to accomplish. This allows you to maximize your resources, focus your energy, and enable you to effectively gauge the results of your marketing efforts. Set Specific GoalsWhat do you hope to accomplish? Setting very specific goals helps you choose a direction and make better decisions. Are you wanting to drive traffic to your website? Or are you wanting to directly increase revenue? Perhaps the goal is to simply increase brand awareness. If you’re an ecommerce business, maybe you want to target all three. (If you’re looking for an e-commerce definition, this resource can point you in the right direction). Being as specific as possible will help you stay on track, thus reducing the possibility of getting distracted or moving in a direction that will not be as effective in accomplishing your goals. Define Your Target AudienceOne of the primary aspects of an effective marketing plan is to know your target audience. After all, you’ll waste a ton of time and resources trying to appeal to everyone. Knowing the audience will enable you to better understand the type of content to create, how to present it, and the types of channels you should use for reaching your audience. Consider your ideal customer and aim your content at them. Create Specific ContentIt’s important to remember that when it comes to social media content, video remains king. Video attracts eyeballs and holds audience attention far better than pics or text alone. And yet video might not be optimal for your message. Never forget that one of the keys to effective marketing is to match the content to the message rather than approaching it with a one-size-fits-all attitude. Prioritize Specific Social Media PlatformsAnother aspect of your strategy should be tailoring your message and content to specific social media platforms. This is why it’s so important to identify and understand your target audience. After all, details like age range and average income play a huge factor in the type of social media platforms that your audience uses on a daily basis. You’ll want to avoid wasting valuable resources on platforms that don’t typically attract your desired audience. Valuable Tips for How to Start Social Media MarketingLearning how to start social media marketing is crucial for growing your business. Fortunately, the tips contained in this article can help take your marketing efforts to the next level. If you found this article information useful, be sure to check out our website for more social media and tech tips. The post How to Start Social Media Marketing: A Beginner’s Social Strategy for eCommerce Businesses appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer https://ift.tt/2onGYog September 1, 2019 at 06:53AM |
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