Back in February, my Instagram account was disabled out of the blue (more on that HERE) and then 6 months later, the account was permanently deleted (more on that HERE). As a result of this experience, I have developed a love-hate relationship with social media. Today, I thought that I would share with you a little more about what it was like working with Instagram and Facebook in the 6 months that I was off of social media and why you should be wary of social media and reselling platforms when it comes to your businesses’.
I’m going to come right out and say it: I don’t really trust social media and reselling platforms when it comes to running my business. As someone who had an active Instagram business account for 5+ years and followed every rule imaginable, I never in a million years thought that something bad would happen to my account. When the worst case scenario did in fact happen, my entire mindset shifted in how I needed to run my business moving forward.
Let me share with you a few of the biggest takeaways that I gained from my experience. Hopefully, you can use this knowledge help you in your business.
You Don’t Own the Platforms that You Use
This is something that people either seem to forget about or are not aware of. The reality is that we do not own the platforms that we use for social media or reselling. When it comes to an online presence, there are only 2 ways that you can own your audience. You can own your audience through email lists and/or a website. Anything beyond that belongs to the platform itself and not you. That means that the platform can make decisions that directly impact you and business and there is nothing that you can do about it.
Let’s look at what happened to me on Instagram. I joined a free social media app in hopes of utilizing that platform to grow my business and connect with others. I played by the rules for 5+ years and Instagram still was able to disable my account for no reason at all. Although I appealed the decision relentlessly for 6 months, they were still able to permanently delete my account without notifying me about it. [I actually found out that the account was deleted by being unable to log into the account one day]. It just goes to show that no matter what you say or do, these platforms don’t owe you anything and can play by their own rules at any given time.
The same concept applies to many of the reselling apps that we use on a daily basis. Although we use these platforms to sell our items, we don’t actually own these platforms; we are just users on an app. Let’s look at what happened with ThredUP earlier this year. Out of nowhere, ThredUP decided to implement new policies and fees to users. This caused a big uproar in the reseller community and to this day, many people won’t send their items to the platform anymore. But what’s not to say that many of the other reselling platforms that we use won’t do the same thing down the road?! The moral of the story is that we, as users, do not own the platforms that we are using and we need to be aware of that and plan accordingly.
Don’t Rely on 1 Platform to Run Your Business
In my opinion, you should be on multiple platforms whether it be in regards to social media or reselling. If something were to happen to one account, you need to be sure that people can find you elsewhere.
Personally, I utilize many reselling and social media platforms. When it comes to reselling, you can find me on Poshmark, Mercari, and Tradesy; And for social media, you find me on Instagram, Facebook, LiketoKnow.it, Pinterest, and my blog/email. If something were ever to happen to one of my platforms, I know that you could easily find me elsewhere. There are so many people out there who are limiting themselves on these platforms by not branching out into multiple channels. If possible, I would consider branching out making sure that all of your platforms are linked in some capacity.
**Tip: I would suggest sticking with the same username across platforms. It makes it a lot easier for people to find you in Google searches.
Let Me Show You:
This is what appears if you search “recycledrosesguide” on Google. Almost all of my reselling and social media channels are in this screenshot (with the exception of my LiketoKnow.it, Poshmark, Instagram, and Tradesy). Although these other platforms are not in the search results, you could easily find them by clicking on any of these links.
Plan for the Worst
No one wants to think about the worse case scenario but you really should. Don’t be naive like I was. Be sure that you have a plan in place in case something were to happen to your account. This is especially important to do as your account grows. You really have to ask yourself, “If I were to lose my Instagram or Poshmark account right now, how would people find me? How would it impact my business?”
[And if you are thinking to yourself that this would never happen to me and don’t want to plan for the worst, I would like to give you a little insight into what happens on Instagram when you lose your account. When you initially lose your account, Instagram will typically send you a security code within 24 hours that will give you the ability to appeal the decision. After that happens, you can appeal as many times as you would like, in order to try to regain access to the account. Unless you have a Facebook Business account and can reach out to a live person via chat, the only way for you to communicate with Instagram is through appeal forms. If you are fortunate enough to reach a live chat representative, they will be unable to help you no matter how you treat them. They are especially well-trained at appearing as though they are going to help you but don’t. And if you are one of those that likes to speak with a manager…. good luck because that isn’t going to happen no matter how hard you try.]
Knowing what I know about some of these platforms, do yourselves a favor and be ready for the worst case scenario to happen at any given time. There is a really good chance that if you lose access to your account, you may never get it back. And then what are you going to do??
If you don’t already, be sure to check out my Instagram for more Reselling Tips at @ RecycledRosesGuide (Click HERE) and my Facebook page HERE.
You can instantly shop all of my looks by following me on the LIKEtoKNOW.it shopping app HERE.
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