I went to jail about three weeks ago.
Ok, not the real jail, but social media jail.
Handcuffs. Solitary confinement. Straitjacket. And then I was put under the social media guillotine!
Here’s what happened, which I never thought could happen.
For over a year, I have been posting content on Quora to drive traffic to my online business.
I focused solely on Quora, nothing else. The goal was to become a master at one type of social media platform to generate organic traffic to my website and other assets.
Quora is a forum-based platform that incorporates many features commonly found in other social media platforms.
It took almost a full year to become proficient at it.
I created a large amount of content that required a significant amount of time to produce. It wasn’t easy.
I examined the work of other notable contributors and developed a framework for posting content based on their approaches.
Additionally, I noticed that some of them post duplicate content multiple times a day on different topic-based groups, also known as spaces.
I didn’t particularly like this, so I didn’t repeat it. I created over 60 pieces of content, rotated them, and then reworked them every few months. This way, the same piece of content wouldn’t be reposted multiple times on the same day, week, or even month.
If you have read some of my other blog posts, you will be familiar with this concept, as I discuss how I structured these posts to increase viewership using the Social Media Viral Video Formula.
Things were going great, so I thought.
And then, in early April, I tried logging into my account one morning, only to receive a login error message stating that my account was blocked.
What, my account is blocked? I thought.
Why did this happen?
So, I emailed Quora customer support. I received a reply within a day or two from a friendly customer service representative who informed me that they are looking into the reason for my account being blocked.
One week passed, and I didn’t get another update. So, I emailed customer service again. As before, a day or two later, I received an email from the same friendly representative, stating that they are still looking into it.
Then, after waiting three weeks, I finally got the response I was waiting for.
The representative said that, due to their content policies about repetitive content sharing, they have blocked my account from further use, and this decision is final and not subject to appeal.
So, Quora put my head under a social media guillotine and pulled the rope. That’s it. The account is gone.
Here are the key takeaways, and what you can learn from my apparent mistakes, and what I learned from this situation:
- If I create content that is stored outside my direct control (such as a social media account), I need to save a copy in a location where I have direct access to it. Especially on platforms where there is a risk of having account access blocked. Since I can no longer access my account, I am unable to view my posts anymore. All the content in the posts is no longer accessible, which is unfortunate because I would have liked to use it in the future. Luckily, I saved my posts about 9 months ago, but those are older versions of the content. I had reworked all of them since then, and the newer versions were much better. The newer versions might be lost forever… unless I can think of a way to find them on Quora.
- Social media platforms have different content posting rules, so the mistake I made was not understanding them better to avoid any issues. I’ve heard from other people using TikTok and Facebook how accounts get restricted and blocked, and some are more sensitive than others. This creates a headwind for marketing a business, as it requires consistently sharing original content that is engaging and relevant. For those using these apps for social purposes, it’s easier to develop original content since there is no business purpose behind it.
- Perhaps it is not a good strategy to utilize only one platform at a time. I believe it is ideal to focus on one because it takes time to master it. But the risk is losing the ability to generate organic traffic for a business if the account gets blocked. The reality for me is that I either have to create a new account on Quora and start over there, or start from scratch on a different platform, such as TikTok. If I start on TikTok, it has a different feel, with video-based content that I’m not used to creating. I’ll experience a learning curve creating this content. If I had been active on both Quora and TikTok over the last year, I could have pivoted to TikTok after my Quora account was blocked, and utilized all of my traffic generation time there. Additionally, I wouldn’t have to start from scratch, as I would have been using it for the past year.
- This experience makes me feel skiddish using social media to generate free traffic for my business. It would be much easier to drive traffic using online ads on social media platforms, but the downside is that it costs money to run ads.
Overall, it is embarrassing and frustrating to lose access to my account. I devoted a significant amount of time and effort to it, and I consciously tried to create high-quality content that is helpful to others on the platform.
Another aspect that still bothers me is the lack of a warning from Quora. There was no warning from the platform about getting an account blocked indefinitely.
They could have blocked my account for three weeks to punish me and review the situation, then reactivated it and scolded me not to violate their rules again, or it would have been permanently blocked. That would have been the better approach, as I would have learned that what I was doing was violating their policies, and then worked on a new strategy to prevent it from happening again.
Now, I have to make a decision (quickly, because I have zero traffic generation happening right now!): do I open a new account on Quora and start over again there, assuming I can even do this without them tracking me down and blocking me again? Or, should I try a new platform like TikTok, which many of my entrepreneur and marketing friends have been raving about? Or, both.
Decisions, decisions.
I’ll let you know once I’ve made a decision, and I’ll continue documenting my journey to building my online business here on my blog.