INSTAGRAM - IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT???
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INSTAGRAM - IS IT WORTH THE EFFORT???

Updated: Jun 2, 2019




Welcome back beautiful family. I pray that each of you is having a magnificent day. Those of you who know me well are aware that the majority of my efforts are geared around promoting the power of the individual. No power lies in fighting giants alone. Getting on one accord and speaking in ONE voice is necessary for the large companies to even hear an individual in this material society. How ridiculous is the notion of a capitalist society where the majority have no real capital? I am confronted daily with the fact that these corporate giants normally start off catering to the few clients, customer, and users they have. They actually hear them and listen to many of their suggestions. Once they have gained enough customers and clients, they can no longer hear what these individuals have to say. The individual then becomes a replaceable and disposable part of their business equations. That is until a newer, better product comes along and takes their customers or customers realize that the corporation no longer addresses their concerns and take their business (power) elsewhere. Individuals must become intelligent, disciplined consumers. We negate enormous power when we continue to support businesses that don't support our interests and fail to support the ones that do.




WHAT IS IT?





Ok . . . Let's talk INSTAGRAM (IG)! Unless you have been in a coma or under a rock for the last 9 years, I'm sure you have utilized or at least heard of Instagram. For those of you who have not; Instagram is a social networking service that allows for sharing of photos and videos. Instagram is owned by Facebook and was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. They launched Instagram exclusively for iOS in October 2010. An Android version was finally released a year and a half later in April 2012. A website interface followed in November 2012. The Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile apps were released in April and October of 2016.


*Instagram is available for free download on iOS and Android devices. It can also be accessed via the web.



HOW IT WORKS


Instagram will request that you create your free account


You will be given the option to sign up with either an existing Facebook account or via email


Establish your username and password and password and you will be guided through the rest of the setup process.





THE PROBLEM



If interested, you can read more about IG in the included links. Now let's get right down to the meat of the issue. Although I had heard a lot about Instagram, I was hesitant to use it. Friends had spooked me with tales of spending dedicated years sharing content, making friends, building a network, selling products, branding themselves and suddenly it was all for NOTHING! Their accounts were disabled without warning, explanation or regard for their contributions to the companies success. If you are anything like me, you hate the thought of doing double work. So I focused my energies elsewhere and soon put IG out of my mind. It was not until I made the decision to create the Q2 website that I gave setting up an Instagram account further consideration. Having Instagram on my site would greatly assist with promoting my site, my book, artwork, and expanding my network. The crazy stories of my friends' disabled Instagram accounts resurfaced in my mind. I figured if I just followed the sites guidelines, I would have no problems. Besides, all of the content I planned to post on IG had already been posted Facebook and Twitter without incident. So after familiarizing myself with the guidelines, I jumped into it with both feet. Soon I was posting, replying, and adding to my network with enthusiasm. My network began to expand at an accelerated rate. Book sales were increasing and I even managed to garner some work for my IT business. I wanted to make sure that I was replying to my followers as much as I was posting content. I accomplished this by dedicating 3 days to posting and 3 days to reply. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram became my digital PR firms. New ideas for posting content took shape in my head . . . even as I lay in bed unable to sleep. My skepticism for IG had disappeared completely and I began praising the app to my friends and colleagues who had formerly shied away from it. THEN IT HAPPENED! A member of my Q2 site messaged me one night, informing me that she was getting an error when accessing my IG account from my site. My heart dropped and instantly dread rose up in my chest. "No, no, no this cannot be freaking happening," jumped from my mouth before I knew it.







TURNED DOWN FOR WHAT???



Struggling not to show my panic, I did what any user in this situation would do . . . Googled it. Hundreds of testimonies and related information resulted, but none of it removed the anxiety I felt. All of the work I had dedicated to building a network on this platform was destroyed in an instant. I found and followed many suggestions for reinstating my disabled account, but none worked. The horrid "account disabled" error message kept popping up. The more this happened the angrier and more frustrated I became. What kind of company would totally disrespect their loyal users (without whom they wouldn't exist) in such a manner? The fact that Instagram is well aware of this problem and yet refuses to change their procedures infuriated me. How can IG even claim to value its customers, when they fail to provide any warning or explanation for disabling so many accounts. It's as if they are saying that we purposely violated their Terms of Use. I put extra effort into not violating the terms. Had I been given a simple warning and advised of how I violated, I would have quickly corrected myself and known what not to do in the future. Seems like this would have been the logical thing to do.





Reasons Instagram Blocks you:







When companies have gotten so big that they no longer value and hear their customers, they instantly lose me as a customer until issues are addressed. Too many of us accept such treatment and continue to use the violating company's services. Every time this happens, the customer loses more value and the corporation gains more control. Your hard earned dollars and where you choose to spend them are the key component to the American economy. We are trained by savvy marketers to be followers . . . never to be leaders. We have such a group mentality today that all of our thinking is done for us. Dumb, uninformed, or under-informed consumers are a corporation's dream! They count on this. Far too many companies are projecting a "WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT" posture toward their customers' concerns. Instead of spending additional time and resources catering to customers, they focus on the bottom line. Cost-effective methods are normally not centered on entertaining the customers concerns . . . the opposite is usually true.




Algorithms are used by Instagram to scan the millions of accounts for possible violations of use. This is understandable because of the sheer scope of this task. However, when an account is flagged it could be sent directly to an auto dialer, where a human could contact the account holder. A warning could then be given and the nature of the violation explained and corrected. In case of a second or third violation, the account could then be disabled. This would show greater appreciation for customers and their contributions to the success of the company. The stock markets infamous flash crashes should have taught us that algorithms, while they are a great tool for dealing with tasks on a grand scale, are most effective when coupled with human counterparts. Algorithms can NEVER cover every possible situation, so it is wise to have people monitor them and recognize anomalies. America must rediscover the all-important balance between large companies and their customers. This can only occur when individuals demand that their contributions to the success of companies be respected. Again I implore you to STOP BEING A BLIND FOLLOWER! Exercise your discipline, believe in your own worth and become an informed, intelligent consumer. Recognize where your power lies in this economic ecology. When a company takes a zero tolerance stand against it's users, we must take a zero use stance until issues are properly addressed.


*Those of you who normally use the Instagram icon on the Q2 site to access my IG account will notice that it has been removed. This will remain so until Instagram fully addresses this fallacy! POWER UP FAM!





As always we encourage you to share your experiences and thoughts with us! Drop us a Comment!


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