No matter the type of Creator, investing time and money into social media platforms is fool’s gold, as they own the audience you built.
By default, I no longer have access to my Facebook Pages, as I refuse to comply with Facebook’s 2-factor login requirements they have imposed on me.
Two-factor authentication (2FA), is a method of establishing access to an online account or computer system that requires the user to provide two different types of information. With two-factor authentication, you’ll need to provide both a password and prove your identity some other way to gain access.
What did I do to have Facebook tell me I must do two-factor authentication in order to post on my Business Pages? I am being penalized for having too much organic reach. I have over 300,000 followers on six Business Pages. My brand The Street Poetz is the largest US based publisher of independent Hip-hop news on Facebook.
In 2021, Facebook forced my brother, who is our Facebook Ads account manager to do two Factor login in order to have access to our Facebook Ads account, and he complied. But just in case some funny business happened with his mobile phone or mobile phone number, he opened a Skype account and gave that as his two-factor login phone number. The beautiful thing about a Skype account is that it is web-based, therefore can be accessed anywhere, whether you have your cellphone or not.
A Web based phone number, also known as a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the number assigned through a VoIP service. Either through an app or the Internet, you enter the number on a dial pad, and functions just like a landline or mobile phone. Google Voice is a VoIP service.
Later, my brother would discover Facebook doesn’t accept web-based phone numbers for two-factor authentication. By then it was too late, and has been locked out of Facebook since April of 2021.
When Facebook came up with this crap in 2022 for me to give two-factor authentication to login into Facebook, I refused. Facebook even suggested it was planning in the future to make me jump through more hoops after complying with their 2-factor login requirement.
My Facebook story is why any digital marketer would tell you, “You must have your own website and email list,” see “It’s the #1 Reason to Own a Website.”
My brother and I paid Facebook thousands of dollars through Facebook ads to build up our page followers only to have the social media platform to reduce reach to 1%. When a recent post reached nearly a half a million organic Facebook users, which was a 200% increase of page followers, I was suddenly being treated just like those who pay Facebook for reach.
According to Benjamin Peterson, a Certified Facebook Marketer for Brainspin:
“Facebook has made algorithm changes that reduced organic reach drastically. The changes are implemented so that anything that doesn’t interact with your page on a frequent basis will very rarely see your posts, unless they go directly to your page. What this all sums up to is that Facebook wants you to pay for advertising on their platform, by crippling your organic reach.”
The other day, Contemporary artist Rafi Perez and Jewelry designer Chloe Anjali posted, “Why I Don’t Rely On Social Media For My Art Business,” on the YouTube channel Rafi Was Here Studios. It inspired me to write this Artist Social Network post, and to post their video below.
Conclusion
It’s fool’s gold to build a customer or fan base on these social media platforms. The graveyard of social media platforms, or the zombie-ing of features on these social media platforms are too numerous to cite. It is why investing time or money on social media platforms is bad for any small business entrepreneur, whose product or service is in the field of creativity.
If you have had any social media platform horror or success stories, Artist Social Network and our followers would love to hear them. Just drop us a comment below, thank you.
