It was going well, my relationship with social media and Facebook in particular. I joined Facebook back in the days when you could “poke” someone or buy things for people’s farms — the simple, look at pictures and catch up with family and friends days. Over the years, Facebook became bigger and it became a great way for me to spread the word about trainings, classes and any cool new tips, for free. I was sure to keep all my posts happy, non-political and mostly about fitness on the business page and about my family on my personal page. You know, just followed the basic rules of posting etiquette.
When the world shut down back in March of 2020 and I moved my business online, I began to rely heavily on my Facebook Business Page to connect with clients, add videos and advertise online classes. I was encouraged by every business guru under the sun to “push things out via Facebook, Post at least 3x per week, Build your audience” etc. I’m not a sale-sy person so I didn’t abuse my audience by posting obnoxiously or filling their feed with ads. Instead I formed casual connection with clients and reached out to potential clients when the time seemed right.
Then, in mid-November of 2020, I received an email from Facebook. Someone had tried to log into my account from another computer with the wrong password. They warned that if this wasn’t me, I should log on and change my password. I saw the email at 10pm and after a long day of training and teaching classes, I said to my husband, “I’ll deal with this in the morning” and went to bed. The next day was hectic as well, so by that evening when I sat down to search my brain for a new password, I discovered that my Facebook page had been temporarily disabled. I filled out the appeal form, uploaded a photo of my drivers license and clicked “submit”. I was about to launch a new online service for my clients, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that my account would be restored in a few days. After all, Facebook was a great way to advertise.
It’s now March of 2021 and as I sit here to write this, I still can not log into my personal Facebook account and therefore, I can’t log into my business account. I can’t post about my new online services, I can’t reach new clients on social media. When I do attempt a log in, I still get the message “We have received your information, if we still deem that you are not old enough to be on Facebook, your account will be permanently disabled because it violates our terms of service”. Four months of waiting for Facebook to review my information.
There seems to be no way to reach Facebook — I’ve tried. Any emails found through a google search seem to be defunct or are not answered. I sent a letter, complete with copies of my drivers license to their “Community Standards” department. A phone call gets you no where, it just rings. The company that connects people doesn’t want to connect with people.
Yet, I can connect to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. I can’t connect my Facebook business page to my instagram — they tell me “oops there’s been an error”. I can still log into Spotify — also connected to my Facebook log-in. I still receive daily emails from Facebook “You have 620 notifications since you last logged in”, “It’s so and so’s birthday, log in to wish them a Happy Birthday”. Friends and Family tell me they can still see @coachstaceyruns but they can’t see my personal account anymore. My book club had to revote on books because that was under my account.
None of it makes sense. I’m just a small business trying to connect with customers where most customers are — Facebook.
So, if you were wondering why @coachstaceyruns hasn’t been updated in awhile or you were missing out on some of the videos, now you know. If you are somehow able to help me solve this issue, please comment below. For now though, keep visiting the website and new things will be coming soon!