How my Facebook profile got deleted and what I did to take back control (Part 2)

In my previous blog, I shared how my Facebook profile got deleted and how I gained back control to my Facebook groups and Facebook page. Now let me share more about my experience PLUS the steps I followed when I rebuilt my new profile. 

More specifically, I'm going to talk about the ins and outs of Facebook profile deletion. I’ll share how to protect yourself now, so you don't get booted off, lose your precious images and videos, and how to keep your business pages running. Also, even if you get deleted, how to gain back control of groups and the steps I put in place that saved me. And what I now know about rebuilding a profile plus the silver lining of this whole experience. And yes, there is one. ​

Photos and Videos on Facebook

Did I lose all of my images and videos? Yep, I did. 15 years worth at least. That many photos and videos as well as that many friends. I probably had about 4000 friends. The idea of having to find all those friends again, it's overwhelming. At least one business page and most of my groups were still there. That was helpful. 

There are steps that you can take on your personal profile to protect it a little bit more. After finishing this blog, go to the bottom, open up your Facebook account and follow along to the steps. 

What did I actually do? 

I got a completely new account. Remember, when you create a new account, you can’t use any of the emails that were linked to the account that was disabled. Facebook won't let you. Thankfully, I had another Gmail account that I could use. You might have to end up making a new one. 

In making my new account, I made sure to be starting to add in some personal information (e.g. civil status, school, etc.). The kind of stuff that you'd hope hackers or scammers wouldn't know. I wanted to make sure that people were adding me as a friend, even though they probably like we're already friends. Here are a few steps that I did to make sure that people knew it was me:

• ​I created my Facebook banner for my personal profile to say things like it's really me and added a bunch of pictures of me. 
• I also uploaded a photo from my phone rather than something that people have already seen online like a business headshot of mine as my profile picture. It seemed more believable than if someone could just steal my headshot from my website.
• I also wrote what was happening on my personal page/wall. 
• I did a Facebook Live talking about what had happened and asked people to friend me because getting 4000 to 5000 friends back is not an easy feat. 
• I went to a few key people in my life who have big lists of friends who have similar friends with me. Added them first. After adding them, I was able to go through their friends and add all of them as my friends as well. 

With this process, I started getting friends added and then Facebook would suggest friends, which was awesome. Do you know Marie Kondo? She’s a home organizer who says to look at an item and then ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?” I kind of feel like I was Marie Kondo-ing my Facebook friends. I was like, Yes I want to accept that person because they bring me joy, but this other person's super negative, confrontational, or just post some crazy stuff. 

I now get to choose who I am friends with, which is really great. Maybe you would enjoy that part of it as well. I'm at just over 1000 friends now, and I'm working my way up. 

What I kept hearing from people was they weren’t sure if it was me. They asked if it was a real or a fake account. To confirm, what I did was I sent voicemails back to them to say that it was me. 

The Silver Lining

The silver lining is I've reconnected with a bunch of people that I haven't talked to for a long time. Now in my Facebook feed, I'm seeing the people I know, and I'm seeing more of the people I really like. I’m also seeing more of my clients’ content and their lives, which is a wonderful thing. 

I've covered a lot in this blog as well as the previous ones… the things that you should be doing to back up your information. Remember, you're playing by Facebook's rules. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. You just have to be respectful of that. 

If you are doing business on your personal profile, it might be time to stop or at least have a backup of everything. Now, please know that also every single message, photo, comment, or post that I had on my page, on other people's pages, on my profile and on other people's profiles as well as in groups all disappeared. 

• Every banner in a group that I uploaded is gone. 
  
• Every video that I put up is gone.
  
• Every comment I made to people in my client groups is gone. ​
  

Be aware that it will happen. It's like I never existed. I got completely wiped in my personal profile off of Facebook. 

Business-wise, remember that if you have a group with a bunch of people in it and you lose that group, if you don't have the email addresses of those people, you will lose those connections. If you're using Facebook for business, like me having 21,000 people follow me or like me on Facebook business page means nothing if I don't have their email because if that got shut down completely, if I lost everything, then I would lose all of the connections to those people. 

Be aware that there are some strategies you need to put in place to make sure you bring your connection on Facebook into the email world. ​

I could have been angry with Facebook and spent time trying to track someone down to talk to, but my feeling is like, just move on. See the silver lining in it. It did suck. There's a lot of hours that I had to put into just getting back on my feet with my Facebook profile. 

Compared to some of the things that have happened like COVID, having speaking engagements canceled, not being able to go anywhere in the summer, my father passing away, just all kinds of crazy stuff, losing my personal profile on Facebook doesn't matter as much as other things in life. 

Think about that. If you ever have something happen to you, in the big picture, does it really matter? If everyone's still healthy and happy, then it's okay. Things can be rebuilt. I do believe sometimes that negative things happen to me so that I can share them with my clients and with my community. That includes you. Thank you for being one of my readers. 

P.S. Add me on Facebook! I have so much room for new friends now: Diane Rolston. You can also join the Dynamic Women Global Community.

Read my other blogs here: 
1. How my Facebook profile got deleted and what I did to take back control (Part 1)
2. How to Direct Message on Social Media Without Being Salesy
3. Hacks to Save Time with Your Social Media Posting

Steps to Protect Yourself, Your Content and Your Account:

1. Go to Facebook
   
2. Click the downward arrow in the upper right-hand corner then click “Settings and Privacy”
   
3. Click “Settings” 
   
4. Check the settings of following:
   

a. In “General,” go to “Memorialization Settings”. This means when you pass away or something happens to you, you can have someone else be able to go in your Facebook and take care of it. So choose your person.
b. “Security and Login”:  

• Make sure that you have a strong password and use two-factor authorization. 
• You also want to let them know about authorized logins so that you have it on your phone, iPad, tablet, or on your computer, and anyone else who's going to be logging into your account.
• Set up extra security. Get alerts about unrecognized logins because you might be locked out or disabled because someone else has come in and is trying to “be you” on your account because they've hacked you. 
• You can choose three to five friends to contact if you get locked out. Pick a few people that you trust that will help you to be able to get in. 
• In the “Advanced area,” you can see the different recent activities between you and Facebook and to recover accounts and other items are in this area. 

c. Go to “Your Facebook Information”.

• Check out “Transfer a Copy of Your Information.” Here, you can copy your photos, videos, posts, or other information to another service. This way, if anything happens to your account, you already have a copy. I suggest that you have it set up in your calendar that every few months or once a month (or however often you want) to go in that and you get a backup of all of your stuff on there, if you care to.

Another way to do this is to go to a website that's free called If This Then That (IFTTT). Here, you can set up what they call a recipe. For example, every time you post on your Facebook, IFTTT can save a copy in your Dropbox folder. You want to make sure that you have your information backed up.