24 Nov Don’t put your eggs in one basket!
Imagine My Surprise…Facebook Account Disabled
Facebook Account Disabled – Don’t put your eggs in one basket! I love social media. During the last year Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are responsible for my connecting with so many like minded individuals, learning about new organizations and ultimately making a solid career change that I believe in. I have met new friends, expanded my business and have really been able to share my love of fitness, nutrition and healthy cooking this year via Facebook. I have been inspired, inspired other and have had fun doing it!
Social media is a game..a game of adding value. We add people, we join groups, we become a part of so many conversations. For me, I had been a success with reaching large numbers of people within a year by adding value to the conversation. I did it the right way. I joined groups, I followed blogs, I wrote my own blogs. Because of my work and value-add to the conversation, it got to the point where I was getting over 100 friend requests per day. I shared information and I contributed valuable info. I did not spam, I did not send out multiple e-mails at once and I certainly never added explicit images! I used a strong password, I had my site set at “secure” I did what I was supposed to do. Imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning only to find my Facebook account disabled. No warning, no reason why, just gone. Poof. 20,000 contacts, a personal page, 2 fan pages, gone…. In case you were wondering, this is what it looks like:
We HEAR this lesson but don’t always apply it. Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. You can’t depend on anyone but yourself. As soon as you put your hobbies, your business, your friends at the mercy of something bigger then you and out of your control you are at risk…
So, moving forward. I will survive of course. It is not the end of the world. I have my health, my daughter, my boyfriend. I have friends. I have a roof over my head, I have you my readers and I won’t stop blogging and sharing. There are more important things in this world surely then social media and I won’t let social media stop me from moving forward. I will take my lessons from this and apply them moving forward and I will come back stronger and more educated!
In the meantime, I am not a dummy. I get that it is important. I don’t dislike Facebook one bit – I just think they need a better way of communicating with users about their accounts. They want people to put a lot of effort and energy into their product, and then without warning, disable their account. There is no person to call, or anything you can do but send an email and wait. I think they could even offer a ‘premium’ service where people can pay a monthly annual fee so this type of thing does not happen to them. If I was doing something wrong…I have no idea what it was. But a nice “please don’t use FB for xxxx, or we will have to disable your account” notification would have been amazing.
SO, until I get my old accounts back I hope you can find me on my new Facebook page.
UPDATE: 12:13am 11/24/2011
Happy Thanksgiving to me! Facebook came through!!!
I was thinking I wouldn’t hear ANYTHING until after the Thanksgiving weekend, but lo-and-behold I got an email shortly after midnight saying that it was an error: 
WHEW!! I was seriously stressing, but that was a great way to kick off Thanksgiving Day. I have to say I’m surprised, and impressed that I got an email from FB at midnight on a long holiday weekend. Soooo…in the end, I am happy, the issue is resolved, and am back on Facebook!
Happy Thanksgiving!
– Natalie Jill
