When it’s all gone in an instant

It’s only been a couple of days since I stopped existing.

On Facebook anyway.

I was in the process of checking my notifications when an error message popped up on my screen: “Session expired.”

I clicked through to log in again, just to find another error message telling me that my account was disabled.

Again, I clicked through to the Help Centre and completed the form to let Facebook know that my account had been disabled by mistake. I included all the relevant information they asked for and hit the submit button.

Apparently, I was to receive an email shortly.

I was annoyed but calm.

I went to check my personal inbox to find two emails from Facebook with links to reset my password - as requested.

I had requested nothing of the sort, of course, so yet again clicked the relevant link to tell them that it had not been me wanting to change my password.

It slowly dawned on me that my account had likely been hacked.

Now, I was annoyed and inconvenienced.

And then I got the following email with the somewhat worrying words: “permanent loss of your account”:

Followed by this message that kindly pointed out they "won't be able to reactivate it for any reason":

I couldn’t leave it at that, so went back to the Facebook help centre and submitted the same form I had already submitted two more times. To make myself feel better, but to also hopefully raise a flag on the Facebook system making these ridiculous decisions.

It’s been a couple of days now and I have heard from several experts that I will have to let it go and open a new account.

If you’re anything like me, you likely also use your Social Media accounts and channels for business purposes: You have a group for your audience, you’re a member of networking and membership groups, you may have pages for your business and connect with potential customers through messenger.

I have and do all of the above, but all of that is now gone and there doesn’t seem to be any way of me getting it back.

I’ll have to start from scratch. As far as social media is concerned anyway.

I’ve now been sulking for almost three days, refusing to create a new account because I’m fuming with Facebook.

However, I needed to share this story with you to make sure you’re aware of the importance of building an audience outside of your social media channels of choice.

Your funnel is the most essential and important process of your business - whether it’s an online or brick-and-mortar business: having a way to contact your customers and leads is essential.

No customers = no business.

So, if you’re unsure where to start with systemising your business, start here: Implement a process to capture contact details for your audience when they book their first appointment with you, buy their first product, join your free group.

Don’t lose the foundation of your business because a third party provider is glitchy, has no customer service or decides to change its algorithm

Thankfully, I haven’t lost nearly as much as some would, but it was still a good and necessary reminder.