So there’s a really old article on my blog about getting your Alabama Massage Therapist License. Unfortunately for that article, the process outlined for getting a license is no longer correct. Licensing applications and renewals finally went digital! The mindset advice in that article remains relevant so I’m going to leave it up and make it point to this post.
For years I grumbled as I filled out my paper license renewals, slapping a sticky note to the front of the paperwork reading, “Please put this online!” before shoving it in an envelope. One day they made not only the license renewal, but the initial massage therapy licensing application a virtual experience. As with all things, there are positives and negatives about going digital, but overall, the slow, steady progress and keeping up with the times is good. I think it makes the application and renewal process a lot easier: no trips to the post office or the bank, just a credit card and some electronic documents and it’s finished.
Keeping up with the times is good
Because there seems to be so many questions about all things dealing with the code that governs the massage therapy industry in Alabama and how that applies to our initial Massage Therapist application process, I wrote an eBook about how to get that initial Massage Therapist License for Alabama. It’s free for the low, low cost of your email address. I’ll use that email address to send you a monthly newsletter about my continuing education courses or you can just unsubscribe later.
Click this link to go to the sign-up page for my eBook, So, You Want to Get a Massage Therapist License: A Guidebook to Getting Your Alabama Professional Massage Therapist License. And I’d love to hear your feedback about the eBook!
I have a story to tell you about learning a hard lesson. It has to do with protecting your virtual assets and averting catastrophe before it happens. To be honest, I’m firmly in the, “I never thought it would happen to me,” camp on all of this which is why I’m choosing to share it.
It’s been a long time since I created my virtual, online presence. When I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy in 2008, I used trusted online providers that did the security part of website protection for me. As this website matured and moved platforms to accommodate Alabama Barefoot Massage Training Center, I again used trusted sources with built-in protection, so I didn’t have to worry.
Around the same time I opened Harvest Moon Massage Therapy, social media exploded. I made myself a Facebook account because that’s what we were all doing and FOMO. In 2010 I created what was then referred to as a “Fan Page” on Facebook for Harvest Moon Massage. I remember thinking it would be a great place to advertise my little micro-business for free/cheap. And it was. I was so excited about it that I was asked by AMTA-AL Chapter to teach other massage therapists to do what I had done with this tiny, little Facebook page. They also recognized the value of an advertising platform that worked rain or shine, 24/7 for free.
One of the things I never thought too hard about was how a Facebook Business page could be considered a capital B, capital A, “Business Asset”. Maybe because of the slow, creeping growth of social media, what started as a small business presence had grown into a significant part of how I marketed my business to the public. I had loosely in the past considered adding an extra admin to the Facebook page, but I didn’t know anyone who would want to fool with all the extra notifications and such so I put it off. Hold on to your hat, cause here it comes. BAD MOVE! Colossal mistake…probably a rookie mistake too.
Catastrophe Strikes
I got hacked, my Facebook profile got hacked. Well, technically I got scammed, then hacked, then deactivated by Facebook. It was horrifying, terrifying, a really, really bad thing. If you didn’t already know, Facebook support is crap. I talked to so many bots and automated responses it wasn’t funny and brought me to tears a few times. Getting an actual person to respond to my appeals and emails wasn’t much better. I experienced for the first time ever the circular email of never-ending confusion.
It was bad enough that my personal profile had been hacked, but I also lost control of my Facebook pages, aka, Business Assets. Keeps getting worse and worse, eh? Yeah…I filed admin appeals and requests and went around and around and around for more than six weeks.
A Miracle
One day about 5 weeks out from the hack, I got an email from Facebook asking didn’t I want to review all these 714 notifications from my old account. So, with almost no hope that this latest appeal would work, I clicked the link and went through yet another appeals process. I literally had so little hope I just went about my day. Three days later, I opened my computer and suddenly Facebook is in my face asking do I want to log in to my old account. Wait, What? WHAT? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?
And wonder of all Christmas miracles, I was in my old account. Things had changed, I won’t go into it, because my only order of business at this point was quickly adding as many new admins to my biz pages as I possibly could. Because this couldn’t actually be real, could it? Could the Facebook botgods have actually given me my account back with all related privileges and permissions? I fully expected at any moment for a bot to take over and lock me out again because this doesn’t happen. Anyway, cut to why I’m telling you this big, long story.
Protecting Your Virtual Business Assets
Before we can protect our virtual business assets, not just your website, we need to figure out what and where they are. Now that I’ve been through this experience, I would define a virtual business asset as anything online that represents my business, drives people toward my business, and/or I use to manage my business assets. Social media accounts definitely fit into that definition and it’s pretty hard to miss where that stuff lives online. So how do you protect these business assets that live on social media platforms? Especially when every single one of them are individual platforms with different rules and logins and security systems. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, and those are just the ones at the top of mind.
Here is a general list that I hope will help you start designing your own virtual business asset security plan.
Strong Passwords
Make sure you have strong passwords and a different one for each account. Seriously, don’t use the same password for every account you have. Each platform has different rules for what makes a strong password in their system. Follow their guidelines and then make it a bit stronger. Also, consider using a password vault app. They will help you keep track of all your different accounts and passwords and can add another layer of protection.
2-Factor Authentication
2-Factor Authentication is where you first enter a password, then have a secondary piece of information you provide to prove you’re who you really are. Did that make sense? You might know it as where you get a text message and then enter the code from the text message to log into an account. There are other ways that second part happens. Sometimes it’s your fingerprint, face scan, or an email with another code. If your platform has the option for 2-factor authentication, turn it on.
Administrative Redundancy
Find someone or multiple people to become backup admins for your business accounts. Unfortunately, every platform has different policies and methods to add backup admins. AND you’ll need to be careful that you don’t accidentally violate the platform’s terms of use and get banned.
Security Checkups
If you’re like me, this sounds like torture. I sure didn’t know I was signing up for this when I signed up for that first little Facebook account. But if it keeps me from getting into a mess again, I’ll figure out how to review each of these platform’s latest security changes and make sure my account is safe. I don’t know yet if this will be a yearly, quarterly or monthly exercise.
Here’s a list of articles I found helpful while trying to figure out how to design a security checkup plan for my business accounts.
I hope this has been helpful and given you enough information to get started with a plan to make your virtual assets more secure. Don’t wait like I did, and if you find something really cool and helpful on this front, let me know!
Gosh there is a lot to keep up with as a professionally licensed massage therapist when it comes to keeping yourself current and legitimate.
State massage therapy licensing, insurance, business licensing, taxes (ugh!), professional memberships and organizations, Board Certifications, modality endorsements and certifications all combined keep us accountable to our clients, our community, and our profession.
I spend hours every year making sure that everything is in order.
How about you?
Massage therapy, as a profession, is largely misunderstood. You’ve heard the comments and questions from clients and your salty uncle. And if that’s not bad enough, large swaths of the medical and related professional communities try to dismiss and ignore us. Which is why it’s really, really important that we are diligent in keeping our licenses, insurances, professional memberships, and certifications in order.
Doing the right thing in your business not only applies to how you treat your clientele, it also applies to your professionalism in being a good steward of your local community as well as your professional community. It is our responsibility, each one of us, to hold our profession in the highest regard.
How do we do that?
We do it by being impeccable in our professionalism. We do it by maintaining all of these licenses, memberships, and credentials properly, by supporting our cohorts in their professional journey, and by holding them accountable when necessary. We do it by serving as credible experts in our field.
Need to up your game?
Here’s a few references in case something here has inspired you to up your game!
So if you’ve waited until the final hours before you really need a gift for someone, have I got a deal for you!
Click here to buy a gift certificate for that special someone. All you need is an email address and a credit card and in just a minute you will be printing a gift certificate and stuffing it in a stocking. Easy peasy, and you are done!
Merry Christmas, Everyone!
♥
Harvest Moon Massage Therapy is Decatur’s Barefoot Massage Specialist!
Recently a cool, little place here in Decatur that I enjoyed frequenting went out of business. In my past I was notorious for picking hairdressers, massage therapists, doctors, etc. that pulled up roots and moved away or quit their chosen profession altogether. I talk to people all the time who are having these same experiences. It’s disheartening.
Couple this with a lot of questions about why folks aren’t seeing my social media posts and I got to thinking about how we can all very quickly and simply use some of the time we waste spend on social media to support the businesses and service providers we love.
Many of you may already know that I focus most of my social media efforts on Facebook. I do have LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, and a couple of videos on YouTube and Animoto, but Facebook is where you’re going to find me. I picked Facebook because I’ve been on it for quite a long time and was able to develop my business page with existing knowledge instead of starting over somewhere else. Also, a lot of people are on Facebook and it was free exposure for my business so it just made sense.
Then when Facebook went public and started selling its shares on the open market they changed their algorithms to make it more difficult for businesses to get free exposure to existing and potential customers. So hopefully this will help you 1) start seeing posts from businesses you’re interested in supporting and 2) learn the best techniques to help support your local favorites.
How Do I See Your Posts?
First of all, this technique works for any Facebook business page. I used mine for example purposes because, well, it’s my website so why wouldn’t you want to see my stuff?
So the very first thing you need to do is go to my Facebook page and “Like” my page. Yay! Don’t you wish everything in life were that easy? But, you’re not done yet so keep reading…
The next thing is look for these buttons underneath the cover photo.
Select the down arrow next to the “Following” button. Then select the Pencil icon next to “Notifications”. Please don’t select the “Unfollow This Page” option or you will be sad…
In each section of the Notifications section select the checkboxes for each section that has one and then in the Live Videos section, selection “All Live Posts”. Selecting these options will tell Facebook that you really do want to see what I’m putting out there.
Select “News Feed” in the left-hand menu bar. This dialog box will let you select where you want posts to appear in your Newsfeed. I currently don’t have any information as to whether selecting “See First” is any more influential than “Default”
And when you’re done select “Done”
Whew! That was way more work than I thought it was going to be, but now that it’s set up, you don’t have to mess with it anymore and as a bonus when I post anything you should get a notification. And again, you can do this process for any business you’re really into!
How To Support Your Favorite Business Without Spending a Penny
Obviously, if no one spends money with your favorite business this technique isn’t going to work and they are going to go out of business. So what I’m about to show you will help other people learn about your favorites and hopefully spend their money. This is a win-win so that when you’re ready to spend your money, your favorite massage therapist is still able to to give you a fantastic massage, your favorite esthetician can still give you a fabulous facial, or your favorite restaurant is still serving the best chicken salad in town. Using this technique is also going to convince Facebook that you really do want to see what your favorites are putting online and it’s really easy!
I’m going to sum it up very simply: Like, Comment and Share. If you love my massage go to my Facebook page and scroll down until you start seeing the posts that I make. Then do something to the posts. Like one, make a comment on another one, and if you really, really want Facebook to start putting my posts in front of your face, share them with your friends. If you see a sponsored ad that I’m paying for, share it and comment on it. And when I jump on and do a Live video, please watch it (as much of it as you can stand), comment on it and share it. These simple actions speak volumes to the Facebook algorithms (especially when you SHARE posts) and you will have the best chance of seeing future posts.
Interaction is the key. So let’s get out there and interact! I can’t make any promises, but you might just get lucky and win something in one of the contests I run. And since I’m a massage therapist, I usually give away interesting things like, oh, massage!
♥
Harvest Moon Massage is Decatur, Alabama’s Barefoot Massage Specialist!
If you’re looking for that last minute stocking stuffer that will make your friends and loved one’s drool, you’ve come to the right place!
We now have Gift Certificates available here and online! So no worries if you can’t get to the office in person, just head on over to my online gift certificate store and follow the prompts. You can purchase as few or as many as you like in whatever denominations you choose. Then you can print them out yourself or email them to the lucky recipient.
And there’s really no rush if you’re purchasing online. The online gift certificate store will be open up to and including Christmas Day. So get out there and do your shopping, baking and partying, then click the link and finish up in your PJs!
♥
Harvest Moon Massage Therapy is Decatur’s Barefoot Massage Specialist!
Here’s hoping your Thanksgiving is filled with family, friends, and a full belly!
I know many of you will be out shopping bright and early tomorrow so I decided to make shopping a little easier for everyone. I have finally figured out how to activate gift certificate sales on my MassageBook site. So, if you’d like to shop from the privacy of your own home, it is now possible!
Just head on over to my MassageBook profile and select the Gift Certificate tab. Follow the prompts from there and get your Christmas shopping done without even leaving the house!
♥
Harvest Moon Massage Therapy is Decatur’s Barefoot Massage Specialist!
I’ll be headed out to the 2016 AMTA National Convention this afternoon. So my offices will be closed this week. I’ll be back at it October 31st. Between now and then if you want to schedule an appointment, please visit my MassageBook book (existing clients only) or call or text me. I’ll be slow to respond because I’ll either be in meetings or classes, but I’ll get back to you ASAP!
Hope everyone has a great week and hope to see you on my table soon!
Harvest Moon Massage Therapy is Decatur’s Barefoot Massage Specialist!
Since more of my clients seem to be using my online booking system through MassageBook, I wanted to take a few minutes and outline some pointers to make sure you’re getting the best service possible.
Tip #1: Login with the email address that you provided on your original intake form. This is how MassageBook will recognize you. If you change your email address, please let me know so I can change it in the system from my end. Using a different email address will make my system think you are a new client and won’t let you book online.
Tip #2: When you book your appointment online through MassageBook, you should receive a confirmation email almost immediately. Check your email to make sure the appointment you selected is reserved for you. If you don’t get a confirmation email, something went wrong. Try again or call / text me.
Tip #3: MassageBook will send you a confirmation email 24 hours before your appointment. If you don’t receive it please check your spam filter and if you still haven’t received it, give me a call to make sure your appointment time has been reserved.
Tip #4: Put the MassageBook email domain address on your spam filter whitelist or passlist. The email domain address you need to enter is, “appmail.2book.com”.
Tip #5: MassageBook will send you a confirmation text message 2 hours before your appointment. If you don’t receive it and you haven’t already talked with me, please contact me before driving to my office.
Okay, so there’s the biggest ones I can think of right now. If you have further questions about using MassageBook to make and manage your appointments, please give me a call and we can talk about it.
Harvest Moon Massage Therapy is Decatur’s Only Master Ashiatsu Oriental Bar Therapist!
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Since more of my clients seem to be using my online booking system through MassageBook, I wanted to take a few minutes and outline some pointers to make sure you’re getting the best service possible.