My Instagram account has been disabled for almost 2 weeks now. During this time, I have been doing a lot of reflecting, in addition to, re-evaluating my business practices moving forward. For today’s post, I thought that I would share with you a few lessons that I have learned as a result of this little hiccup. I’m hoping that these lessons will help you in more strategically using social media to navigate your business moving forward. Here are 3 Important Business Lessons That My Disabled Instagram Account Taught Me:
Lesson #1: This Happens to WAY More People Than You Think So Have a Back-Up Plan
When it comes to having a business, you need to be ready for every and any possible scenario that could affect your business negatively. Before this happened to me, I never in a million years thought that my account would be disabled like this. I naively thought that this only happens to people who actually violate policies and obviously, I was very wrong. Remember: Social media bots don’t care who you are or how many followers you have; every account is fair game when it comes to disabling and deactivating accounts.
Please do not naively think that you are the exception to the rule because you aren’t. This is probably going to happen to your Instagram at some point too. BUT if you plan ahead, you can incorporate various other methods into your business to connect with your followers and still continue to reach your audience if this does ever happen to you too. (More on that below)
Lesson #2: I Relied on Instagram Way Too Much for Traffic and Networking
Instagram is a wonderful social media platform for engaging with others and building a community. I absolutely love engaging with my fellow resellers and fashion-lovers on Instagram and I would spend quite a bit of time on the app doing so. Sometimes, I would spend less time focusing on other things that I should have been for my business as a result; That is a big NO- NO.
So what do you do when your primary method of communicating and connecting with others is taken away?
I began to think about how we as resellers use Instagram for our businesses. Are we using Instagram to connect with others? Are we using it to promote our businesses? Or are we using it for a little bit of both? If your Instagram was taken away in the same manner that mine was, what would you do if it was your only way to connect with other resellers? I really let that sit with me for a minute and thought that I should touch on this topic.
Personally, I have many avenues for reaching my audience. I own my own website, have email subscribers, and use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook Pages, and Pinterest, to name a few. Additionally, I am selling on multiple reselling platforms and have the capacity to run an e-commerce store on my own website if I wanted to. All of this to say that if any one of these platforms were to be taken away from me, I have other avenues to promote my business and connect with others.
It would always fascinate me when I would go on Instagram and see other people in my niche with thousands of followers rely solely on Instagram for running their businesses, especially if they also incorporate personal branding into the equation. There is no way for you to connect with them other than through Instagram or through their Poshmark closet or Mercari store links. Knowing what I know about business, this is kind of alarming to me. These platforms can be taken away from you in a second and then what do you do?
All of this to say, please do not rely on a single social media platform to connect with others and run your business. Branch out and have other methods to network and connect with others in your niche. The more places that you are able to branch out, the better; if you can, I would also suggest investing in platforms that you can fully own. (More on that below)
Lesson #3: You Don’t Need a Social Media Account to Run a Reselling Business
One of the first things that crossed my mind when I lost my Instagram account was: How am I going to connect with my audience and introduce myself to new people in my niche? As I stated in the previous lesson, I realized that I spent way too much time and energy focusing solely on Instagram to bring me traffic and networking opportunities. This was a BIG BIG mistake on my part. Yes, I have many other methods for connecting with people but over the years, it was just easier to rely on Instagram as it was my main method for working with brands.
When this first happened and the initial panic set in, I wasn’t sure how I my business was going to run without Instagram. My business is made of 2 parts: (1) Selling Items Through Reselling Platforms and (2) Personal Branding/Blogging Projects. Turns out, I could successfully continue to do both without Instagram- who knew? I continued to make consistent Poshmark and Mercari sales and I was still able to work on my other personal branding ventures without delay.
Additionally, I began to try to figure out how I could use traditional marketing techniques (without using social media) to promote my business moving forward. As I stated in lesson #1, it is important to have a back-up plan in case you lose access to everything. In reality, the only facets of my business that I own and that no one can take away from me are my blog and email subscribers. Every other platform that I am on is owned by somebody else and can be taken away from me at a moment’s notice. This is something that should be kept in mind when running an online business.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of how long this whole process takes, my business model is going to have to change. My one saving grace in this whole ordeal is this blog. Without this blog, I would probably not be able to continue many of my projects and would have a harder time connecting with my amazing and supportive audience. Before I go, I want to personally thank every single one of you who supports my blog, has subscribed to my email list and has reached out to me.
If there is a blogger or reseller that you connect with and want to support, I kindly ask you follow them on all of their social channels. If they have a blog, bookmark it and subscribe to their email lists so that you can stay connected. If they have social media accounts, follow them all. It is very disheartening to be separated from your audience and by connecting with them through other methods, you are able to stay in-touch when something unexpected happens.
Also, visit THIS POST if you are interested in learning about my Instagram account becoming disabled.
If you don’t already, be sure to check out my Instagram for more Reselling Tips at @ RecycledRosesGuide (Click HERE)
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