Let's face it. If you are online and on social media, you're going to get hacked. Probably more than once. It happened to me yesterday when my Facebook account got hacked. I lost my personal account, access to my two business groups, and to one of my business Instagram profiles. I shared what happened on Instagram and Twitter yesterday, and I'm still hoping to get my account back. I'll keep you updated.
I tell you all this to say that if this hasn't happened to you yet, I assure you, at some point, your Facebook account will get hacked. Or maybe one of your other social media accounts.
Fortunately for me, while I lost my existing learning network, I didn't lose my main website traffic or the ability to contact my customers or prospects.
As a matter of fact, if you're on my mailing list, you've probably already seen a version of this information, which is proof that what I'm teaching you works. Getting your Facebook account hacked doesn't have to be the end of your business.
Here are some suggestions I have to hack-proof your business.
How to Protect Your Business from Facebook Account Hackers
- 1Build your business on your own website. Yes, you can promote your business through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. But don't put your main business on those sites. Post the bulk of your content on your website and just use social media to drive followers to your website.
- 2Always send people to your business website. Ideally, this will be a self-hosted WordPress site on your own hosting account. Make sure you back it up regularly and use strong passwords. Change your passwords regularly. You can offer articles, downloads, sales, etc. from your website. Other sites like social media platforms, Etsy, Amazon, etc. should serve to send people to your website.
- 3Setup a mailing list and give people incentives to join the list. This way, when you need to reach people, you can do from your mailing list, completely bypassing social media. This is also good for when your customers, like my friend Angela, delete their social media for their mental health.
- 4Diversify. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you're building a following through at least two to three platforms. For example, I am using Facebook, Instagram and SEO primarily. My account suspension took out FB and IG, for now. But my primary source of traffic for my main business is Google, so that income stream has not been touched.
As for protecting your Facebook pages and communities and networks, follow this advice:
My main message though is that you need to have your own website and mailing list. If I didn't have those things, my platform would be gone right now because a random person somewhere in the world decided it was my turn to have my Facebook account hacked. Or maybe it was a computer somewhere. In either case, my business would be dead.
Instead, I'm still getting new sign ups for my mailing lists on both accounts and still selling my digital products. Even while my Facebook and Instagram accounts are shut down.
If you'd like to learn how to make sure your online business doesn't die when you get hacked, download my free report below:
How do I build my own website?
A Teacher's Guide to Building Your Website will help you setup a basic website to help you document your teacher journey. As you grow more confident, you can start recommending activities and sharing resources.
