On July 1st, Meta falsely removed my account for intellectual property infringement. Long story short, I’m starting fresh and learned a shit-ton.
It was day 1 of my Stand Up Copy launch, and my community carried that launch for me across Threads in my absence.
If you added ANY engagement or content to #freequeso during this time, I owe you a frozen one sometime.
Now I’m here to hopefully serve you back – this blog post is broken up into 3 sections, depending on your needs:
- What I’m doing to rebuild my Instagram & Threads presence, and how you can fast track your own community building.
- How to prevent going under when Meta gets a hard on for you – minus any brown nosing or walking on eggshells.
- Some options you might want to have bookmarked in case shit hits the fan and you lose content, or your entire account like me.
THE REBUILD
You know my shtick: you can be clear AND clever.
There’s power in humor, in being YOU. And as long as you’re clear on what you’re saying, the delivery should be as clever as you’d like.
This month, I learned:
You can’t build community by just being clear.
I didn’t have 100+ people engage in an online conversation about my brand going to Meta jail and sharing my program links because I’m CLEAR.
They supported me during this time because I’ve given all of myself to this community.
Clear > clever is lazy, half-assed bullshit.
But I won’t go there.
I learned something else too.
And no, it’s not that you should start your email list ASAP.
“yOu DoN’t OwN yOuR SoCiAL mEdiA”
(Even though that’s true.)
It’s that I would be royally screwed if I didn’t have my Messaging.
Yes, I was still forced to get my butt off Instagram and Threads, and while I’m an optimist by choice – I know, worst case scenario, I won’t REALLY have to start from scratch if I don’t get my account back.
And while email has always been a priority for me, I can EASILY add another platform or start over.
I won’t need to wait until I figure out a content strategy for a specific platform before diving in.
I already know WHAT to say and how to SELL.
More than half of the work is already done, so I would just have to figure out platform specifics, like structure or format.
That’s why Messaging comes before content strategy.
Knowing what to say and how to sell is a platform-less skill, and allows you to be successful anywhere online or offline.
Here’s what I’m doing:
1. I’m showing up as if I never left.
Seeing a blank account… without my saved filters… without the year+ of highlights I curated… without my ongoing Reels series in the feed…
It hit me hard.
I felt this weird “f*ck, I look like a newbie account” moment, but quickly shut it down.
I’m not wasting time trying to convince ANYBODY that I’ve been here a bit.
So I started posting to my Stories like I always have, and I started planning content like I always have.
Although I did put “backup account for @passthequeso.co” in my bio, and my first post was a carousel of the suspension screenshot from IG.
I wanted it to be clear that I had a presence before, but it’s not going to be easy to get rid of me.
2. I’m planning 2-3 collaborations per month.
My inbox and new-DMs were POPPING off with folks asking how they could help.
Xanthe from Oh Sierra Creative suggested using collaborations as a way to expand my reach, while also adding value to my online friends’ audiences.
Since one of my favorite Reels (R.I.P.) was about how to be a biz bestie with MY biz bestie, Kacey of Dev by Jupiter, it was a no brainer.
I have a few in-the-works with…
- Morgan (@morganmarkowski), Creator of Soft Pivot
- Brigitta (@stylexbrigitta), Personal Stylist
- Nicole (@nicolemargueritegray), LinkedIn Expert
- Laura, (@lauraevans.co), Brand Mentor
I exclusively asked folks I KNEW I could bring a helpful angle to so it would be mutually beneficial. And, of course, I’ve made a point to do as much of the heavy-lifting as possible.
So grateful for these friends, sharing their audiences with me!
3. I’m going on a mini podcast tour.
#freequeso trended in our corner of the internet and it stirred up a lot of curiosity around Pass the Queso.
While it didn’t directly turn into enrollments for Stand Up Copy, it brought a lot of eyeballs.
I’m in a position to become my own case study for what my brand is all about, I’m enduring a nightmare for a lot of online business owners, and there’s something quite entertaining about watching a train wreck.
I’m leveraging all of this by jumping on ~5 podcast interviews for different angles on the story and connecting my bounce back to Pass the Queso’s POV.
YOUR PREVENTATIVE PLAN
At Meta, WE are the product. There will never be proper customer service, but it is what it is.
I’ve learned the hard way that there are a few things you can do NOW to protect yourself for a tentative, future incident like this.
After sharing this on social, lots of folks started taking action – this is your social media insurance, OKAY?!
Meta can only assist with public, professional accounts.
That means you need to either be a creator or business. If you toggle to a private account or switch account types, they cannot see data on the backend to help.
Meta support is ONLY included if you are a paid, verified account.
Meta support is never guaranteed and help articles will send you on a wild goose chase, where you’ll end up on the help article you started at hours later.
With that said, you must QUALIFY for a verified account. One qualification is your account’s age, so I can’t verify my new account for a while.
If I were to go back in time, I would open a second backup account and let it age so if shit hit the fan – I could migrate over, verify, and access Meta support.
Your best bet is verifying from the get-go.
IF META TAKES YOU OUT
Meta says their policy is to email you info about removals and offer you a chance to appeal… but they don’t.
There is only 1 email you can reply to that hits a real life person’s inbox.
However, you won’t receive that email until you complete a specific form that nobody gives you unless you ask. But there’s no contact info.
The help articles will guide you to appeal options that don’t exist, help sections without clickable links and forms without submit buttons.
So you have to find a work around. Here were mine:
1. Get in with commerce support. If you still have Facebook access, you’re going to pretend to set up a commerce shop and report a technical issue that will bring you to a chat.
Currently, this is a direct link – but Meta’s links change regularly, so here’s the step-by-step:
Open Facebook and go to Ads Manger → All Tools on the left side panel → Commerce Manager → Create a Shop → Get Started → Next → create a new Facebook Page → create the page, select it, then Next → Create a New Business Account → enter details, select and Next → select circle for standard shipping, then Next → submit shop for review → Finish setup → Next → Exit out the page → Save & Finish Later → Continue → on the bottom right side, click “Learn More” under “Need help?” → Contact Facebook Support → Select “Reporting a technical issue” for the topic → Choose Facebook → select device (desktop) → Explain your REAL LIFE situation → enter an email you have access to and preferably associated with your account → enter phone number because they MIGHT call you → Start Chat
This person is specifically there for Commerce Support, but might direct you to the right person in a live chat if you’re lucky.
I had to try 3x before landing an AMAZING rep who even called a few times to check up on things.
2. Run an ad in Facebook Ad Manager.
If you actively run Facebook ads, you have access to support. (Notice a theme? Spend money = maybe get some help.) If you haven’t, you can place a BS ad and then the chat support option will appear in your account.
3. Get your hands on ANY form.
If you can find an appeal form and fill it out, there is an automated email that hits your inbox that you can reply to.
Here’s a direct link to the one I found, but a few caveats:
- You must have a report number and you can’t just plug anything in or leave it blank. I used the first workaround to get a number before filing out this form.
- When you receive the automated email, they will ask for 3 very specific items from you and have little tolerance for unorganized replies that aren’t formatted per their request.
I recommend adding Streak to your Gmail to track email opens and you can see if any of the provided links/files you send per their request is opened/viewed.
Content and account suspensions are completely wiped after a 30 day window, so act fast.
It’s July 22nd and at this time, my original account is still suspended but I have a few more days before it’s permanently deleted.
While I’ve fully accepted my restart, I’ll update this blog post with relevant information.
I’d love to have a central place to send folks if anything like this happens again. Shoot me an email (em****@pa**********.com) if you have any relevant experience, tips or contact info I can add to this blog.
