Sidestreet Signal — Issue 06
Meta’s new business subscriptions, Cloudflare’s AI crawler controls, and a security reminder worth acting on.͏ ͏ ͏
September 2026 · Issue 06
Sidestreet Signal · Useful perspective for growing teams
More capability means
more defaults
worth checking.
The platforms are doing more on your behalf. That makes the settings around access, budget and verification more important—not less.
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( 01 — What changed )
Three shifts worth your attention.
More tools are moving from “available” to “working on your behalf.” That’s useful. It also means businesses need to be more deliberate about what they pay for, what they allow and what they hand over.
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01
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Strategy & marketing
Meta is putting more business tools behind a subscription.
Meta launched Meta One, a new set of subscription plans across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The business tiers bundle things like verification, more access to Meta Business Agent, publishing tools and additional account-management features.
The Advanced business plan starts at $49.99 per month and adds features including links in organic posts and Reels, exportable analytics, deeper audience insights, story scheduling and team access without sharing the account password.
The takeaway: Treat this like software, not a badge. If team access, direct links or better reporting fixes a real workflow problem, the subscription may earn its keep. If it doesn’t, it’s just another monthly charge.
See Meta’s new business plans →
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02
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Web & digital
Your website can stay searchable without volunteering for AI training.
Cloudflare introduced a new “Disallow AI Training” control designed to separate two things that have often been bundled together: letting search engines index your site and letting the same crawler use your content for AI training.
Cloudflare is now treating Search, Training and user-directed Agents as separate crawler behaviors. Apple, Google and Microsoft either support or have committed to support the new no-training approach without penalizing normal search visibility.
The takeaway: AI access to your site is becoming a business decision, not just a technical default. Decide what you actually want crawlers to do instead of choosing a blanket “allow everything” or “block everything.”
Read Cloudflare’s crawler update →
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A useful rule across every system
Set the access.
Prove the value.
Keep a human checkpoint.
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A quick note specifically for church leaders
An early look at AZLU.
If you lead a church, there’s something new taking shape alongside Sidestreet that I wanted to let you see before we officially launch it.
AZLU is being built specifically for the local church—bringing strategy, story, technology and practical tools together under one senior team. The name comes from the Aramaic word for go, and that’s really the idea: helping churches take the next faithful step with clarity and purpose.
It’s still pre-launch. We’re not making a big announcement yet, but the site is far enough along that I wanted church leaders who read Signal to get an early sneak peek.
If you’re thinking about outreach, your website, Sunday production, communications, guest follow-up or just how all of those pieces should work together, take a look around.
Get an early look at AZLU →
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What changed · continued
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03
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Technology & security
AI is making old security gaps compound faster.
Microsoft’s latest security guidance makes a useful point: AI is changing the speed and scale of attacks, but attackers are still getting in through familiar weaknesses—excessive permissions, poorly protected authentication, unpatched systems, exposed execution paths and gaps between controls.
What’s changing is how quickly one small weakness can turn into a much larger problem across identities, devices, applications and cloud services.
The takeaway: Before buying another shiny security layer, tighten the fundamentals. Know who has access, keep permissions narrow, protect authentication and patch the systems you already have.
Read Microsoft’s security guidance →
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( 03 — Put it to work )
Three things I’d check this week.
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01
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Make every new platform subscription earn its seat.
Before adding another paid tier, name the exact problem it solves. Team access? Better reporting? Direct links? Customer response automation? If you can’t point to the workflow or outcome it improves, leave it off for now.
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02
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Review what your website is allowing bots to do.
If you’re on Cloudflare, look at Search, Training and Agent access separately. If you’re not, review your robots.txt and the controls offered by the search and AI platforms that matter to you. Don’t assume yesterday’s crawler policy still matches what you want today.
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03
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Do a 30-minute admin-access sweep.
List the people with administrator access to your email, website, cloud services and major business platforms. Remove stale accounts, confirm strong authentication is turned on, narrow permissions where you can and check for outstanding patches on anything exposed to the internet.
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Need a second set of
senior eyes?
Send us the thing you’re trying to improve—a campaign, website, technology problem, customer journey or half-formed idea. We’ll tell you plainly whether we can help.
workwithus@hellosidestreet.com
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864-574-3811
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187 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC 29306
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