Two friends posted this morning about a shocking news.
A community founder's worst nightmare.
Their Facebook groups vanished overnight.
Gone.
One group had 400,000 members. The other had 3.5 million.
Years of community building deleted.
All because Facebook's algorithm decided "AI: Artificial Intelligence" (the group name) was somehow a 'dangerous organization'.
They tried talking to the support team.
But their responses were painfully familiar.
"We're escalating to the relevant department."
"Someone will review your case soon."
"Thank you for your patience."
I've heard this song before.
Six years ago, Facebook banned my ad account because my ads apparently "violated community guidelines"
Funny, because I wasn't running any ads at the time.
I appealed over twenty times across over six months.
Same template responses and same promises to escalate.
My ad account is still banned today for ads that never existed.
My recent experiences with Stripe, and what happened to my friends, actually serves as a strong reminder.
That when you build on platforms you don't control, you might get frozen by corporations for no good reason at all.
Could be software error.
Could be corporate zombies who just want to punch out on time.
Bottom line is that vulnerabilities exist whenever your business depend on something that isn't yours.
Those 3.5 million members weren't really theirs. They were Facebook's.
On loan until the algorithm changed its mind.
My ability to run ads wasn't really mine. It was Meta's.
Revoked without explanation or recourse.
Every platform dependency lives on borrowed time.
Email is different.
Stripe has decided to shut me down, but my email list remained untouched.
Those relationships belonged to me.
No algorithm or corporation could delete or sever these connections.
Those Facebook groups might get restored.
Or they might not.
But every day they're down, those relationships weaken.
When you own your list however, you own your future.
There is one challenge: And that is to keep those relationships alive.
Which is something I am addressing this 30th June.
Dead lists are almost as useless as deleted Facebook groups.
This is why my specific way of writing content is different.
When you extract insights from your experiences every day, you always have something valuable to share.
Your list stays engaged because you stay interesting.
Platform refugees become email subscribers because they want the relationship to continue somewhere else.
The Evolving Authority workshop on June 30th shows you exactly how to build this.
How to turn daily experiences into engaging emails that grow and nurture your list simultaneously.
While giving you the authority that commands sales.
The deadline to sign up is on 29th June because I need to focus on migration after that.
Get all the details of The Evolving Authority & The Augmented Authority here.
FELIX