On July 25th, Facebook suspended all of my accounts.
Messenger. Threads. Instagram. Facebook. Even my ads account.
My WhatsApp account was the only one that wasn’t affected.
And honestly, I was devastated.
I had just lost access to an 18-year-old Facebook account that I started back in 2008.
All my family albums were on that account. Years of memories.
And Facebook’s reason for suspending it?
They thought my account was deceptive.
How?
How was my account deceptive?
I appealed.
They asked me to submit my government ID and take a video of my face, which I did.
Then they told me to wait.
So I waited.
Every day, I checked the app.
Nothing.
I checked my email.
Nothing.
My Instagram was also locked because everything was connected to that Facebook account.
Even my Wab Digital account was affected.
Thankfully, one of my colleagues could still access my Facebook Page because he had admin access.
But even that came with a problem. He only had partial access, so he couldn’t add another person with full access.
Do you know the funniest part? My ads were still running and generating leads.
So I eventually deleted the Facebook and Instagram apps from my phone.
And I started thinking about something I probably should have thought about years ago:
What happens to my business if I lose access to social media?
I started looking at all the other channels I had.
My website, blog, email list, newsletter, Telegram, Substack, YouTube, TikTok and X.
And I realised something.
I had been relying heavily on Facebook, but I actually had other ways to reach my audience.
Then yesterday, August 13th, I decided to download the Facebook app again and check one more time.
I could log in, but I still couldn’t access my account properly.
Then I noticed a little gear icon at the top right.
I clicked it.
There was an option to change my password because Facebook thought my account might have been hacked.
I clicked it.
And almost immediately, I got an email from Facebook:
They thought my account had been hacked and had now restored my access.
Seriously.
After weeks of being locked out, my account was suddenly back.
Facebook also told me that after reviewing my account, they had determined that it wasn’t fraudulent.
So what did I learn from all of this?
Don’t panic when your account gets suspended.
Appeal.
Submit whatever verification documents they request.
Then give it some time.
Second, I now understand why business owners have backup accounts.
I used to wonder why people had backup Facebook or Instagram accounts.
Now I understand. I won’t judge them ever again.
You don’t necessarily have to do anything wrong for a platform to lock you out.
Their AI systems can simply get it wrong.
And the biggest lesson?
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Don’t build your entire business around Facebook.
Or Instagram.
Or TikTok.
You need assets that you own.
Your website, blog, customer database.
And most importantly, your email list.
Because if Facebook disappears tomorrow, I can still email my audience.
And that’s exactly why I’ve created something that can help you build your own email marketing system.
My Email Automation Service with FluentCRM
If you use WordPress, I’ll build your email marketing system directly inside your WordPress website using FluentCRM.
I’ll map out your funnel and build the automations for you.
This includes:
Welcome emails
Nurture emails
Sales emails
Re-engagement emails
Thank-you emails
Abandoned-cart recovery for e-commerce
Smart triggers and tagging
Amazon SES setup for sending your emails
Testing of the entire system
And you don’t have to pay me a monthly subscription.
It’s a one-time setup fee of ?250,000.
If you’re serious about building an audience you can reach without depending entirely on social media, check out the email automation service offer here
Facebook reminded me of something very important:
Don’t build your entire business on somebody else’s platform.
Build your website.
Build your email list.
Build your own audience.
Because you never know when a platform might decide to lock you out.
