You were told you need social media to build a profitable business.
You only need a minimum of 5,000 followers to earn $100,000 a year on Instagram.
On average, influencers earn $2,970 per month on Instagram.
That seems like easy money and a no-brainer, right?
EXCEPT those platforms can shut down your account at any time, which happened to Joanne and countless others like her.
“I lost my Instagram account!” is such a common phrase. Most people just hope it doesn’t happen to them.
But your account could be next. 😱
AND, there are lots of people on social media who earn exactly $0, because having followers doesn’t equal profits.
As a business owner, how can you protect yourself from these risks?
The solution: You must control your own platform.
Don’t spend years curating and creating content, only to lose it all overnight.
We teach you how to build a sustainable business using content. With the Content Transformation© System, you have an entire ecosystem on which you can build your PROFITABLE business.
Otherwise, you’ll become one of our cautionary tales here.
1. I Lost My Instagram Account
Imagine waking up one morning to post something on Instagram only to find out that your account is gone.
You can’t log in. All you see is this error message:
Joanne lost 487 Instagram posts in one swoop. Also gone are the 7,000+ likes to her posts.
And there’s nobody she can call or email. It’s all done by computers.
This particular Instagram user got lucky. A friend of a friend was able to reinstate her account.
But most people don’t have that luxury.
Instagram account closures are so common there’s a Reddit community dedicated to help users like Joanne get their disabled account back.
Only last year, another unfortunate soul lost their Instagram account and decided to post content on their own site. Which is probably what they should have done in the first place.
Don’t risk building a massive following on social media by spending countless hours of content creation only to get your account disabled.
Build on your own platform instead. We teach you how to do this in a sustainable way that leads to profits. Watch our free training showing you how.
Hint: It includes blogging on your own platform.
2. How 2 Million Followers Wouldn’t Buy 36 T-Shirts
How many products do you think you could sell if you had 2 million followers on Instagram?
With an average click rate of 1.27% for email campaigns, you could expect 25,400 clicks on an email sent to 2 million people. If only 10% of those people actually buy from you, you can expect 2,540 sales.
Therefore, if you have 2 million followers on Instagram, you should easily be able to sell 36 T-shirts, right?
Of course, everyone has an opinion why that happened:
- Instagram fans aren’t on the platform to purchase stuff
- She didn’t position her brand properly
- She didn’t create enough excitement around the T-shirts
- The T-shirts were nothing special
- The T-shirts weren’t in line with her brand
- She didn’t even post a picture of herself wearing the shirt
But, you can’t get around the fact that it was a lot of work for her to gain 2 million followers. And despite her massive fanbase, she found it impossible to monetize that following. 😮
And she’s not alone.
The content creation isn’t the problem. You need content to attract fans.
The trick is to create content on your own platform within your own ecosystem. You CAN earn $100,000 a year from your website presence. You can even grow a 7-figure business.
But you have to do it on a platform you own and control.
3. I Lost My Facebook Account
By now you’re probably thinking: “It’s just Instagram. If I stick to the other social media platforms, I’ll be fine.”
I hate to disappoint you, but account closures happen across the board. Twitter. LinkedIn. Instagram. Facebook. Snapchat. You name it.
When you’re using social media accounts, you’re playing on someone else’s turf under their rules.
Facebook disabled Jon’s account because he reportedly violated its community standards. He asked for a review, because he didn’t understand how he violated their standards.
After 30 days, Facebook closed his account.
Since, in this instance, we’re talking about a personal social media account, the loss wasn’t monetary, but he lost even more valuable things:
- The connection to over 850+ friends
- Comments and personal annotations on photos and videos of family events
- An online tribute he created for his father
- Stories and condolences from friends and family when his mother died
- Group access to communities he participated in for decades
- 450+ bookmarked recipes
And the list goes on and on.
When we pour our heart out on social media and receive support from our friends, it’s incredibly helpful. But knowing you could lose it all overnight without notice is heartbreaking. 💔
This Facebook user shares a similar story on Reddit.
Facebook doesn’t dedicate a lot of personnel to account suspensions and deletions. You can ask for a review, but you likely won’t get a response.
You have NO RECOURSE when Facebook & Co. decide to delete your account.
Just check out the Facebook ratings on the Better Business Bureau site. When you read through the long list of complaints, you’ll see that many of them have lost their accounts.
And FACEBOOK DOESN’T CARE.
And again, we’re not saying it’s just Instagram and Facebook that are the only offenders.
When you build a following on any social media platform, you give up control. It’s as simple as that.
That’s not a smart business decision.
Build on your own platform instead. Write long-form blog content on your own website. Create a sustainable ecosystem that grows and helps you build your business.
4. I’m at the Mercy of Social Media
Let’s say you’re lucky and you don’t get your social media account suspended.
What happens if your social media account of choice has an outage?
It happened as recently as October 4, 2021. Facebook and Instagram went dark.
This outage probably sparked some positive trends. Many business owners realized they’re renting space from an unreliable landlord by focusing on social media as a primary income source.
And a temporary outage isn’t your biggest problem.
Remember Google+?
Social media platforms are part of trends. The audience on the platform changes. Sometimes, the social media platforms go under.
And they don’t care about your account, your followers, and your content.
If you want to have a viable business and create raving fans who will support your plans to become a profitable enterprise, you can’t rely on social media to get you there.
Instead, let us teach you how to use your expertise to grow organic followers on your own platform. With the Content Transformation System, you’re in full control of your own content and its visibility.
You don’t have to spend money on ads for people to see your content, which is the case with a lot of social media accounts. You also don’t have to post multiple times a day just to get some visibility online.
Once you have your own platform up and running, there are many ways to increase sales for your business.
What Are Social Media Accounts Good For?
We just told you:
- They can delete your social media accounts at any time
- There’s no guarantee you’ll ever make money off your social media presence
The logical conclusion is to get rid of your social media accounts, right?
Not so fast.
Social media has its uses. Here are some activities social media is great for:
- Start conversations
- Add value
- Develop ongoing relationships
But the ultimate goal is to take those followers to a PLATFORM YOU CONTROL.
You can offer them a lead magnet to entice them to subscribe to your list. Your lead magnet must be of real value to your potential customer, explaining how to solve a problem they currently experience.
You can find actionable tips like these and more in our Content Transformation System, where we teach you how to grow your business exponentially using a PROVEN content marketing system.
Are you ready to take back control of your business? Watch this free training to learn more about how content marketing works to build a business on a platform YOU control—and not one that controls you.
