In June, I began building a new website and updating social media sites from a composer/writer frame to an indie children’s book author heading toward two book launches. The ins and outs of using social media as a marketing tool have become a dreaded specter of my daily existence.
Long before I began building my new Facebook (“FB”) and Instagram pages, I received notice that FB was taking down my old professional page since it had been unused for over three years. I wasn’t concerned because I would just connect a new page for self-publishing and children’s books. WRONG! FB deleted the old professional page two weeks before I started the new endeavor. I could appeal to have FB reinstate it, but it would take longer than I had in my publishing schedule. To build the new Creator page, I needed a new personal account. Then guess what? The only way to transfer your previous followers to the new is to re-invite them to follow the new pages. Meanwhile, it takes several weeks for FB to dismantle the old account, so they show up on Google as a hybrid of the two. It’s getting solved, but Google does not pick up changes instantly. Even though I changed my profile photo across all my social media, on Google, some were still using the profile picture I introduced in 2010.
Since Meta owns and controls Instagram, I opted to link FB and Instagram through the Meta scheduler, where I could schedule posts simultaneously to appear during the most beneficial hours. Later, I discovered I could post some of my Canva graphic creations directly to social media, skipping the steps of downloading the graphic to my computer, then uploading it to six different mediums. It was great until I went to post it on Instagram. I thought it was because it was going through FB. Again, wrong. I have a creator page and not a business page. Ayee! Social media hassles never end.