Instagram Blocked My Account, This is My Response

If you want to know why I've been quiet on social media, well, Instagram blocked my account for 9 days. The alert messages states

"your account has been temporarily blocked from taking this action [liking posts, posting, commenting on posts, replying to comments]. Sharing your account with a service that helps you get more likes or followers goes against our Community Guidelines. This block will expire on 2020-08-12. Tell us if you think we made a mistake"

Firstly, let me make this clear, I did NOT use any service to help me get more likes or followers. But what I did do, was I unfollowed too many people at once. The algorithm detected this as spam and blocked me. I was still able to share posts to stories and I could still send and receive direct messages. Did I think this was a fair "punishment" for unfollowing people? Absolutely not. Was I fuming? Yes, I think they could have given a warning message first. But, did it effect my business? No, not really.

I don't say this to brag, but my business is good without Instagram. I have other platforms, I have my mailing list, I have ads running, I have monthly contracts via Pink Ship secured that I didn't acquire through Instagram. I just decided to take the opportunity to enjoy a good social media break (which has been amazing by the way).

The thing is, Instagram can shut you down whenever they want and they don't have to explain themselves. I have friends who have had their accounts disabled for no valid reason after reaching tens of thousands of followers, I know people that have been hacked and locked out of their accounts, I've witnessed people struggle with their reach and engagement. If all this makes you feel a little bit nervous about the stability of your page, then good. You should feel nervous. You can't build your business on someone else's algorithm.

The other day I heard a business owner with over 1 million followers boast about how their only marketing channel is Instagram. With pride they boasted "I only use Instagram, I think it's important to master one platform before moving on to others" I was shocked. They went on to brag about how they never studied marketing or went to any marketing courses.

I am here to tell you now, don't follow that advice. It will serve you well to study marketing, even if it's just a webinar here and there so that you can develop a general understand of how every aspect of it works. Learn how to build sales funnels on multiple platforms, not just Instagram.

Instagram, and any other social media platform is a tool. Use this tool to direct your audience to your platform. Your mailing list, website or app: a database that you have ownership of. Maybe Instagram have stopped me from posting, but they can't stop me from communicating with you guys, or delivering content to you all, because you're all here on my mailing list and my website keeping in touch with me.

This is why I stopped sharing 'Instagram Hacks' and started teaching you all marketing. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how many followers you have, as long as business is booming. To build a brand that has longevity, one that will outlive any social media hype, you need to invest time into driving traffic to your own platform and building a database that you have ownership of.

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