It Happened! I’m still in shock. It is been one month since my Instagram account got shut down. By no fault of my own. After years and years of creating a community I now am left feeling a little lost and calculating my next move.
How It Happened:
A little over a month and a half ago I logged into my business account on Instagram and realized that I had been hacked! Someone or something, had posted $30 Ray-Ban ads on my main feed! When I went to go change my password it had already been changed and I wasn’t able to log back in. But I was still logged in on my iPhone. So I then went into my account and deleted the photos and carried on as per usual. Or so at least I thought.
About two weeks later after being pretty active on my account I went to go post a reel and poof! I was nowhere to be found. Just a small quick message from Instagram saying that they had shut my account down for fraudulent reasons and if I wanted a request for it back to press a link and wait 30 days! So that’s what I did but nothing happened. Not an email, no more notifications, my account literally did not exist anymore.
My Next Move:
I sat on it for a few days and hoped that it would just magically reappear. But finally did a little digging on my own. It’s funny because when you go to recover your account there is no direct way to do so. I found this article which led me to this link so I was actually able to make the most progress yet.
I reported that my account was shut down without proper reasoning. I did just what the article said. I didn’t apologize for my actions I stated that I needed my account back please and thank you! Within moments, I received an email back with a confirmation number. This confirmation number they asked me to write down on a piece of paper and take a selfie of myself. I had to show today’s date the name of my Instagram account, the number and I had to have both of my hands present in the photo. So I did this excitedly sent it off and was waiting for my reply.
Insert crickets here.
Nothing, it has been two weeks and I haven’t heard anything. I really don’t know what else to do. I’ve had that account since 2014. Documented my entire journey from working as a nail tech under someone else’s roof, going out on my own and building my own studio, to total shut down because of COVID-19. Then rebuilding all over again as an educator trainer and coach to others that want to improve their craft and grow!
This was my baby I literally put years and years and countless hours into this account as you can imagine I’m devastated. I feel that it’s all gone in a blink of an eye.
Social Media Is Fleeting:
It has all really made me question social media in general. Remember awhile back roughly around the same time that this started happening to me, Facebook and Instagram and a few other applications were shut down for the day? That even got me thinking all those years of photos of our families and adventures and memories they don’t belong to me they belong to these apps. And they can all be gone in the blink of an eye!
Remember when Donald Trump was talking about shutting down TickTock? That’s real life! That can’t happen. Many people rely on social media for their incomes as did I! But this has taught me that we do really need to stretch a little farther and think even farther outside of the box in case something like this happens to you!
Maybe it’s time to start printing real photos again and putting them in photo albums. I would be devastated if all the pictures of my son we’re gone tomorrow. He is an adult now and when we first started taking pictures of him and putting them on Facebook he was two years old. That’s his entire life!
What Now:
So what am I gonna do about my business? I’ve really contemplated this over the last few weeks. Should I start another account? Start from scratch with zero followers. It seems like such a daunting task. Left me feeling a little hopeless and like I didn’t really want to bother anymore if I’m being honest.
But that’s just not me. I’m passionate about nails and I always have been! I’m going to continue to use this platform, my website, as a vehicle to help coach, inspire and educate others in this community. But I think I am going to start a new Instagram account. I’m going to really niche down this time and focus solely on a small press on nail business. I was starting to see some momentum with this before my account was shut down. So I’m planning on putting a lot of my creative energy into rebuilding a new Instagram community. I will add links to this article once it is up and running 🙂
The only way I’m losing my website is if they shut down the Internet completely! Which is possible! But hopefully not as risky as some of these other social media apps.
It has been a challenge. But the one thing that I have learned over the years being (to a fault) a die-hard entrepreneur, is that things get challenging. Things change. The world changes!!! We have to take a minute to “lick our wounds” but then it is time to move on. Maybe this is an opportunity to do better, to do more or to reinvent myself. I guess I will never know unless I try.
Thank you for reading and following me on my journey. If you have had any experience with losing your Instagram account please let me know! I’d love to hear from you!
Until next time, lots of love and stay safe xxoo
Cheyanne