BFD Day 13 (Fire Drill 12): Before You Lose Access to Your Social Media Accounts
Clean transcript (lightly cleaned: names and obvious mis-hearings fixed, paragraphs added)
Picture this. It's Tuesday morning. You open Facebook and it says your account has been disabled. Okay. You open Instagram. Locked. You try LinkedIn. Restricted. You try TikTok. Nothing. Maybe one person got into your email and changed everything. Maybe a bot decided you broke a rule you have never even heard of. It doesn't matter. Everywhere you try going, the door is locked. And the only thought in your head is, what do I do now? I'm attorney Tamsen Horton.
Business moments like this are predictable. Your panic is optional. This is your business fire drill before you lose access to your social media accounts. Before we go any further, one question. If every social account you own vanished tonight, how many people could you email tomorrow morning? If the honest answer is, I don't know, or I'd have to log in and find out, stop here and go back and listen to the previous episode. You need to export your email list.
10 minutes, save the file somewhere you physically control, not inside your email platform. This is the cheapest insurance policy available to you as an online business owner. Here's why I'm pushing this. Your social followers are not yours. You know this. You're renting a booth in someone else's mall, just like I am, and the landlord can change the locks without telling us. That CSV file on our own computers is different. That's the customer file in your own filing cabinet.
You are not physically holding your asset if you don't have a copy of that CSV file. Because yesterday or the previous episode, we were talking about what happens if you get locked out of your email platform. So that's why having a CSV file in your hands or your digital hands is really, really important. So if you missed the previous episode, pause this, go listen, come back, I will wait. Here is how this fire alarm goes off. Your account is suspended for violating community standards and nobody will tell you which one.
You feel like your appeal just goes into a black hole. Or you're hacked. The password changes, the email changes, and now recovery codes go to the hacker or to a phone number that you haven't had in three years. Or the person who runs your social media, a VA, an agency, a former employee, set it all up under their login and they've moved on. Or your Facebook page has exactly one admin and your personal profile gets disabled. The page goes with it.
The common thread in all of these, nobody wrote down who owns what. The other common thread in all of these, nobody wrote down who owns what or what's connected to what. So let's start where I love to start. Why do you have a smoke detector in your house? To warn you before the fire goes off? I bet that's why you do. It's why I have one. Well, I built a free one for your business. It's called The Smoke Detector. 11 questions, takes about three minutes, and shows you which fires your business is most likely to have, including ones already smoldering.
The link is in the show notes. Please go use The Smoke Detector. Are we reacting or responding to this fire alarm? They're very different. Reacting may look like this. You panically create a brand new account because you can't log into the current one, which some platforms can treat as dodging a ban. You rant about it in public where you can. You click the email that says Meta support, verify now, which is probably phishing. You answer the stranger in your DMs who promises to get your account back for a fee.
Please don't pay recovery specialists unless they are from a trusted, verified, vetted source. And you may have been submitting the same appeal 15 times, which could inadvertently make things worse. Responding looks different. You have a one page, and when I say page, this is not necessarily a physical sheet of paper, but one set place of a recovery sheet. You know who else has admin access. You have a copy of your email list in CSV format. And tomorrow morning, you can easily write to your email list and say, hey, here's where you can find me now.
Quick recap, if you missed the dog story that I shared, or it's been a while since you listened to it. When we got our first dog, the breeder told me, you have the groomer booked every four weeks. That's great, but you need to know how to give this dog a bath in case something happens. Then one Monday morning, the dog got sick in the crate at 6:30 and I didn't have to figure it out in the middle of the mess because I already knew how. The same principle applies here.
Your social media manager is the groomer. Great, but you need to know how to bathe your own dog, meaning know the recovery path and have the paperwork. Let's run the drill. D-R-I-L-L. D, don't react. No new accounts, no public rants, no clicking anything that arrived by email or DM. Go directly to the platform's official help page yourself. R, record everything. Screenshot the notice, write down dates, times, and every appeal that you submit. Keep a recovery sheet for each platform, which I'll walk you through in a second.
I, identify the real risk. If this is a hack, a policy flag, a false positive, or a platform-wide tech gremlin took us all hostage, each one has a different path. A hack means secure your email first, which you have a copy of your most recent email list in CSV format that is on your computer where no one can hold it hostage. A policy flag means appeal with proof you own the account. So depending on what has locked us out, that depends on what plan we're going to move forward with.
L, lead with calm. One clear, polite, factual appeal through the official channel, not 40, not a public post about how awful the platform is. When you are panicking, you've got to be really careful who's watching, okay? Because this is where I have seen a multitude of unsavory people, unethical people come out of the woodwork. That's when they're like, oh, I can help you. Oh, I can do this. Oh, they can't. They can't. That's why you've got to lead with calm.
And when people walk, I mean, they literally, they fish. Like people hang out in these groups of 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, whatever of our closest entrepreneurial friends. And it's, they prey. Like they literally are fishing in a stocked pond. So lead with calm ties into don't react. But it is why I am so adamant and vocal about not making these fires a panicked public display because that in many instances just pours lighter fluid on an issue because someone appears like they're helping you.
In fact, I was just watching Tad, my current 10-year-old, and I are going to take a trip to Barcelona. And so in planning and in researching the trip, you know, we were watching a YouTube video and they were saying, you know, if someone comes to help you like buy the tickets at the metro or someone offers to help you do anything, you just say no. Like you just say no and you keep moving because while 99% of people can be kind and have good intentions, it's that 1% that can really?
So lead with calm. People see you panicking, especially in public forums. You have just put a massive, massive target on your back. L, lock in the lesson. Use this as your trigger to build the owned channels, to make sure you're taking care of the owned channels. Again, hard copy in your hand, your website, places that your landlord can't lock you out of. I know you know this, I know this. And it really is now in the digital world that we are all occupying, it's just a smart way of diversification.
It really is, it's just smart diversification. Now, if you are thinking, I'm not entirely sure who has access to my accounts, that's exactly what the smoke detector finds. It is free. It takes about three minutes and it will show you where the smoke is. The link is in the show notes. Please go use the smoke detector. I can tell you, as someone who has helped hundreds, if not two to three thousand people within their business. I am still a Facebook admin on people I haven't worked with in 10 years.
Now, am I ethical? Yes. Am I going to lock them out of their account? No. Have I contacted them and said, hey, you need to remove me. I'm not working with you anymore. If I wasn't me, I could be a massive liability for you. I can go in and I can mess with their ads account. I can mess with all their business pages. I can mess with everything. This is a real thing. Now, do I keep following up with them? No, I don't. I move on. But when I log into Facebook and I'm like, oh, look, I'm still getting messages from these Facebook accounts because at one point in time, I was listed.
I am still listed. This is, it is real. You may have completely forgotten that you hired someone and you brought them in and they were helping you. And, oh, you turned this on. I could. It would take nothing. I have full access. I would not get in trouble. Now, I would not do it. Please hear me say that. But there are lots of people who do not have that same approach to your account. So before this fire breaks out, we're going to build your fire extinguisher.
It is one page per platform and I want you to build it today. Now, a quick note, when I say page, when I say write it down, that can be digital. A document, a spreadsheet, a secure note, that is totally fine. But here's my rule for anything that could bring down your life, your finances, or your business. It also goes on paper and you keep that paper in what is for you a secure location. Because if your digital password manager goes down or you're locked out of your email, a sheet that only lives online could also lock you out right along with everything else.
And, much to our frustration, tech companies, they don't always let us back in. Even when we're like, look, it's me. I promise it's me. This is my account. They don't bend, which is a good thing because we don't want them to let hackers pretend to be us. And it's very problematic when we can't get back in. So here is what goes on the sheet. The account name, the URL, the email and phone number tied to it, the original email you signed up with, who else has admin access, where your authenticator app lives, where your backup codes are saved.
Offline, not in the same account you're locked out of, and for any business page or ad account, the page and ad account IDs plus one recent ad invoice or your business paperwork. When Meta handles a lost page dispute, they have asked for government ID, a signed letter, proof of business ownership. So have those findable. I keep, again, Notion is my digital infrastructure. I keep it there. And anything that could bring down the life, the finances, or the business, those are backed up in the paper address book, which I shared about in the episode talking about before you get locked out of your email.
Now, when you're dealing with your everyday passwords, those can stay in your password manager. I could not live or function very well if everything was written down on paper and I had to key everything in. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I use a digital password manager. I have it on my desktop. I don't have desktop anymore. I have it on my laptop. I have it on my phone. I absolutely. And please pay attention, notice what I'm showing you, what this episode is showing you.
Some fires aren't one combustible thing. Your social accounts are usually tied to your email. Your email is usually tied to a phone number. Your phone holds the authenticator. Your password manager kind of sits behind all of it. One hack, one lost phone, one everything goes up at once. That's why the paper copy matters. Again, if it could bring everything to a screeching halt, burn it down, collapse it, pick whatever word you wanna pick, that is what goes on paper, okay?
It's really important. Now, the ripple check, and this one matters. All of what I'm saying matters. Have you picked up? I'm like, it all matters. For each account on your sheet, I want you to also add a spot of how do I log in here? So email and password, or is there a button like log in with Facebook, log in with Google? Second, what else did I log in using this account? So if you think back to the early days of your business, depending on when you started your business, when that button was right there and fast, Zoom was one tool that I clearly remembered.
You could log in with Facebook, okay? So a scheduling tool, a design tool, any of them, there was definitely a period of time where you would, you know, use Facebook as your login. Or the time you tapped log in with Instagram because it was right there on your phone and you couldn't remember your password, whatever. So inside each platform setting, look for the apps and websites connected to it. The menus are going to change, but it's usually under the tab of security or connected apps.
And every tool on that list is going to go down if you lose access. That's how it's going to go. I am still someone and I'm sitting on this myself, which is why I'm sharing it with you. My Zoom account is logged in with Facebook. And no matter what I have done with Zoom to get them to unlink it, I keep running into roadblocks. So if anyone knows who to contact at Zoom to get it so I could just use an email address or point me, maybe I'm missing something that is just right in front of my face, would you please tell me?
Like reach out and be like, hey, Tamsen, this is all you need to do because this is an issue that is very real to me because when I signed up for Zoom back in the dark ages, one of the options was use your Facebook login. So this is why I say it because if I get locked out of Facebook, I get locked out of Zoom. If I get locked out of Zoom, I can't run key aspects of my own business. So this is a very relevant issue for me. I share it with you. Maybe you're the person who can help me fix it.
And so that you know, I'm right here with you. Right here with you, taking care of these fire drills. So the fix, the fix is relatively easy. We do it before the fire. We go into those tools while we still have access and add a direct login: our emails, our password, our password managers, and we just make sure that we've cleaned them up, that we've tracked what is getting used, where is it getting used. And when you set up anything new, you pause for 20 seconds before you click that quick login button and you keep track of it on your team tech database, mine is in Notion, and you keep track of at that moment in time, this is my username, this is my password, this is what I'm connecting it to.
Especially now with our ability to connect AI, connect via MCP, in many ways, we are sitting on powder kegs. Now we can be smart about sitting on the powder kegs, but we are sitting on powder kegs. So I want you to, I'm gonna give you four habits that I think go really well with this. Number one, log in with your business-owned email and protect that email like it's the master key to the kingdom that it is. Almost every single recovery is gonna start there.
I don't know about you, but I do have multiple email addresses. So cleaning up on accounts and saying, this is the recovery email address. This is what every tool needs to be linked to. That is what I'm talking about for number one. Number two, use an authenticator app instead of text messages and save your backup codes. Now, public service announcement. When you get a new phone, do not turn off old phone with authenticator app until you have new phone with authenticator app on it.
Yes, I made that dreadful mistake back in the dark ages when authenticator apps were just popping up and the person transferring my iPhone. I didn't even know to ask that. I didn't know that it was a thing. It is a thing. We got it fixed, but it was a very long day. It was a very, very, very long day. Number three, at least two people with full control on any business page, not just you and not only the person that you hired. Again, let me reiterate, when you quit working with them, take away their access.
Number four, export your email list. Yes, we are mentioning it again because it is the one file that lets you walk away holding your audience. If you don't have a hard copy of that CSV file and you get locked out, you don't have that list. So you need, you need the list. So quick platform notes. Menus are gonna change. So check the current help pages. That's why I'm not listing them off here. But here is how this at the moment is generally the shape.
Facebook and Instagram start from the official login help screen on a device and from a location that you normally use. Meta may ask for a short video selfie. If you lose a Facebook page, someone else with full control can restore your role. They can also take it away. If nobody can, there is a business support dispute with documents and there's a deadline to appeal a disabled personal account. So don't sit on it. I also am in a Facebook group, Peloton Law Moms.
So shout out to any fellow Peloton Law Moms out there. And even Peloton Law Moms who really, in many ways, like there's times I think we just keep the world running on many, many fronts, we are often posting in there because it's like, look, how do I get a live person at Facebook? How do I get a live person at LinkedIn? Who do we know? Is anyone in the legal offices of these places? So it's also being connected to people that have connections. So we even have trouble finding a live body.
So it can be done. They change it all the time. It's just something to be aware of. On LinkedIn, you can use the official help form. Again, short, polite, factual. Say it's your account and how you use it. Give them several business days to help you. TikTok, if you are banned, use the appeal option in the notice. If you've lost your email or phone, there's a report a problem form. And if you signed up with Google, Apple, or Facebook, your recovery is going to run through that account first.
So again, when we start connecting all of these things and talking to all of these things, and I'm also going to put another because it's so applicable right now. Face ID, pass keys, passcode, whatever they come up with now. I'm still not on board. The lawyer in me, the estate planning attorney in me, having to get into things when the worst has happened is not so fun. So I am still hanging on every time they say, hey, you haven't set up your facial recognition.
No, I sure haven't. I'm not. And I get that other influencers have said, oh, make sure to take a picture of, you know, when you have your makeup done and when you have your eyelashes on and, you know, this and this and this. And it's like, yes. And now just seems like a good time to mention that because if you have those extra pieces on for how you log in, those can also break or they might not recognize you. So it is a real thing. I am still holding out.
I'm still old school. Give me a password. Give me a PIN number. Because I've been a part of too many nightmare Face ID, facial recognition issues. So I'm just, I'm not there yet. I am, I'm not there, I'm not. If your fire is already burning, secure the email list immediately. If you've made it this far and you still don't have a CSV of your most current email list in your hand, please, please hit the pause button, go do it, and then come back. I am begging you.
It is the cheapest insurance policy that you can get your hands on. And when you get to the point where it's too late, it's too late. Like you've just made it a thousand times harder for what is literally a 10 minute break at max. Okay. So list out, once you have your email list, then I want you to list what else you log into through your account so that you know what could break. Take screenshots. No, sorry, your fire's already burning in this case.
You're already locked out, we're already in the fire. Sorry, I was trying to prevent the fire with the email list. So take your screenshots, file the official appeals, stick to the official channels, do not panic in public because you just put a big old target on your back to be taken advantage of. And there's nothing worse than when something's on fire and you do something that you think is gonna make it better and it makes it worse. That, there's nothing, ugh, it's the worst.
Which gives us your next right decision. You have three options. One, do nothing. Because you have your recovery info, there is a second admin, you have a current export of your email list, you know what to do should you lose access to social media. You're good, you're done. Number two, you need to put this drill in place. If being locked out of social media brings down life, finances, or business, please start with a simple export of your email list.
If you do nothing else, that list is a starting point. That list gives you a fighting chance of coming out of it with a heck of a lot better outcome. So running the full drill, again, link is in the description to get access to the full Business Fire Drills kit. But that email list is going to help even when you're locked out of social media. But again, we're not reacting, we're recording things, we're identifying what the issue is, we're staying calm, we're leading with calm, and we're locking in the lesson.
Number three, you thought of a friend. Listening to this, you're like, oh my gosh, I need to tell such and so. Share this link with them because this is one of the greatest gifts you can give a friend where you're like, hey, I heard this, I know I need to take care of some stuff that I thought of you, I'm sending you the link. They will send you a thank you note, okay? Send this to them. This is how we truly help each other. It's a good thing. Any of those choices are totally valid.
Now, your free homework for today is pick your most important platform to you. Open a blank document, fill in the recovery sheet, including the ripple check, what you log in with and what you log into through it. It could take some time depending on how many things you have connected and how many platforms you are on. Then again, export a copy of your email list into a CSV, save it somewhere not on your email platform, please. Because a platform can change its rules.
It can get hacked. It can make a mistake. And none of that is in your control. What is in your control is whether that platform is the only way someone can find you. And it is the only way that you can communicate with the outside world. Please use the smoke detector. The link is in the show notes. Go find out where the smoke is because business moments are predictable, your panic is optional, and we have the opportunity to run the drill before the fire alarm goes off.
