Meta & Instagram Account Lockouts, Recovery and Reclamations
In 2023 there were so many clients that had lost access to their Social Media accounts resulting in complex, and painful processes dealing back and forth with Meta support to get access back.
I don’t want to sugar coat this – it was a real pain in the rear end and caused a lot of stress and anxiety for many businesses. The most common reasons why businesses are getting locked out:
LOCKED OUT
In MOST cases, businesses struggled to regain access to their accounts over lost passwords, lost access to contact points, staff change over, ex-employee sabotage, and technical issues during the account recovery process. Have processes in place to ensure more than one key person as access to accounts. Have a clear offboarding process. Keep control of your accounts.
HACKING
Accounts that are suspected of being compromised or hacked may be temporarily locked or restricted to ensure security. This is done to protect both the account owner and other users. Its hard and ugly to recover from hacking and its rampant.
2FA YOUR SOCIAL ACCOUNTS
Businesses should implement 2FA for their Facebook and Instagram accounts to enhance security by requiring a second verification step, reducing the risk of unauthorised access and potential data breaches.
VIOLATIONS & COMPLIANCE
Failing to adhere to Meta’s Community Standards, Advertising Standards, Commerce Policies, or other policies and terms. Violating these guidelines can lead to restrictions or account suspension. Keep Compliant – BUT don’t be fooled by FAKE violation messages in your inbox. DELETE.
Google My Business Verifications
We can’t understand how this process gets more convoluted and more difficult every year and now requires a lot of back and forth with Google Support.
There are several Google My Business verification methods:
- Instant verification (even Google states this is a RARE event).
- Postcard verification
- Phone call or text verification
- Email verification
- Video verification
The challenge is every client gets limited options and some are not suitable. Phone or SMS doesn’t work if you have a switchboard of different people that answer the phone.
Whichever you try – its most likely not to work and you will need to try another 3 before you have some success. But please persevere – an optimised GMB has many benefits to your business.