Soac Media

06/10/2025

I’m working on a new blog about hashtags and how their role has shifted over the years. Do you use them in your posts? Click on them? Do you think they help with finding new accounts or boosting organic reach anymore?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

05/22/2025

Volunteering with this incredible group allows me to give back to our community in a meaningful way. From supporting local youth to organizing events that bring people together, they do great work in Halton Hills.

Meet Optimist Member: Sue Walker

Sue has been an Optimist for 10+ years, and her favourite Optimist event is our monthly dinner meetings. She loves catching up with everyone. The one line from the Optimist Creed that she works at following is:

“To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.”

About Sue:

🌟 Optimist Roles: Past Board Director. Manages our page and handles all administrative work for our Poker Fundraisers
🌟 Work: Digital Media Partner at CA14 Marketing & Communications, based in the beautiful Williams Mill in Glen Williams
🌟 Family & Pets: Proud grandma to six little ones - five are two years old or younger!
🌟 Downtime Activity: Knitting while listening to audiobooks
🌟 New Skill to Learn: Would love to learn how to fly a plane
🌟 Signature Dish/Food Passion: Loves cooking at home and discovering new restaurants
🌟 Travel Plans: Summer camping and Barbados.
🌟 Favourite Quote:
“If any of you happens to see an injustice, you are no longer a spectator, you are a participant, and you have an obligation to do something.” - June Callwood
🌟 Fun Fact: Sue is a contest champion. She’s won eight trips and her favourite win - a Big Green Egg.

Be sure to say hello to Sue at our next dinner meeting. Interested in joining us? Send us a DM or visit https://haltonhillsoptimists.org/join-us

05/06/2025

A new social media platform is coming ...

https://gandersocial.ca/

04/19/2025

Your Teen's Instagram Account Protections Are Coming to Facebook and Messenger

Worried about what your kids might be up to on social media? If so, Meta's continued crackdown on teen safety might come as a relief. The company announced Tuesday that, starting immediately, it's expanding its Instagram Teen Accounts to other platforms, specifically, Facebook and Messenger.

It also announced additional built-in protections for Instagram Teen Accounts. These will prevent children under the age of 16 from going live on the platform or turning off blurred images, which protect against suspected nudity in direct messages, without parental permission.

Meta first launched Instagram Teen Accounts back in September 2024, in a bid to make the platform a safer place for kids and provide more oversight and supervision options for parents. In an update on Tuesday, the company said it had switched 54 million accounts to become Teen Accounts so far, with more to go. The accounts offer built-in protections, including being set to private by default and a hidden words feature, which will automatically filter out problematic comments and DM requests.

Continued at https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/your-teens-instagram-account-protections-are-coming-to-facebook-and-messenger/

04/14/2025

Phishing Emails Aren't as Obvious Anymore. Here's How to Spot Them

We've all seen those emails pushing amazing offers that seem too good to be true, dire warnings that your computer has been compromised, or even threats of jail time if you don't pay your back taxes right away.

Those are all common pitches from online scammers trying to get you to panic and click on a link you shouldn't, hand over money or personal information, or download an attachment that turns out to be a computer virus.

But new research shows that those common pitches may have just become too common to be effective, leading more cybercriminals to take a different approach.

Kendall McKay, strategic lead for cyber threat intelligence at Cisco's Talos division, says that for a long time, phishing emails featured attention-grabbing subject lines that included phrases like "urgent request" or "payment overdue," but many of the phishing emails spotted by Cisco's systems last year included relatively benign subject line terms like "request," "forward" and "report."

Continued at https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/phishing-emails-arent-as-obvious-anymore-heres-how-to-spot-them/

04/10/2025

Ahead of Canada’s 2025 federal election, TikTok Canada has launched an in-app Election Centre aimed at providing users with accurate and authoritative election information.

This initiative, developed in collaboration with Elections Canada, seeks to enhance voter awareness and participation by offering essential details on voter registration, electoral districts, and various voting methods

The Election Centre serves as a centralized hub within the TikTok app, directing users to reliable information about the electoral process. Available in both French and English, it offers guidance on:​

▪️Voter Registration: Steps to register and ensure eligibility to vote.​
▪️Electoral Districts: Tools to locate and understand one’s specific voting district.​
▪️Voting Methods: Explanations of different options for casting a ballot, including in-person and mail-in voting.​

Notably, this year’s Election Centre expands its inclusivity by providing access to Elections Canada’s resources in 16 Indigenous languages.

Continued at https://www.iphoneincanada.ca/2025/03/24/tiktok-canada-in-app-2025-federal-election-centre/

04/07/2025

Curious about all those election ads you're seeing? How many ads are each party running and what are they spending?

In this video, I walk you through how to use the Facebook Ad Library to see exactly who’s running election ads, what they're spending, and what audiences they're targeting.

https://www.facebook.com/ads/library

03/31/2025

With a federal election underway in Canada, fake posts and misleading ads are already popping up in our Facebook feeds. I came across one today and recorded a short video to walk you through why it’s fake and how to spot the red flags.

If you want to get better at spotting misinformation online, this is an excellent resource:
👉 https://mediasmarts.ca/break-fake .tab=0

Even if a friend shares something - it might not be true.

03/20/2025

How to 'Reset' Your Instagram Algorithm When Your Feed Needs a Fresh Start

Instagram has launched a way for users to hit the reset button on their Instagram algorithm — completely wiping the slate clean on their home, reels, and explore feeds.

https://buffer.com/resources/reset-instagram-algorithm/

03/17/2025

🔍 Can You Spot a Deepfake?

With AI-generated videos and images becoming more convincing than ever, it’s getting harder to tell what’s real and what’s not. Misinformation spreads fast, and deepfakes are a big part of the problem.

Test your skills and see if you can spot the fakes with this interactive Deepfakes Detective tool: https://deepfakestracker.org/deepfakes-detective/

Understanding how deepfakes work is the first step in protecting yourself from misinformation. Try it out and let us know how you did!

03/13/2025

Testing Begins for Community Notes on Facebook, Instagram and Threads

Highlights:

✅ Meta will shortly begin testing Community Notes across Facebook, Instagram and Threads in the United States.
✅ Meta expects Community Notes to be less biased than the third-party fact-checking program it replaces because it allows more people with more perspectives to add context to posts.
✅ Notes won’t appear publicly initially as Meta takes time to ensure the system is working properly.

More details at https://about.fb.com/news/2025/03/testing-begins-community-notes-facebook-instagram-threads/

Thoughts? Will this be better or worse than 3rd party fact checking?

03/08/2025

Social media advocacy: How to promote a cause in 2025

Find out how to efficiently spread awareness for your cause and connect with policy-makers through smart social media advocacy.

Find out how to efficiently spread awareness for your cause and connect with with policy-makers through smart social media advocacy.