I woke up to several alerts from Facebook regarding a suspicious log-in and other activity on my account that occurred during the night.

By the time I clicked the “It wasn’t me” link on the email alert, Facebook had already PERMANENTLY deleted my account due to bad behavior.

That’s right. They gave me five hours’ notice – in the middle of the night – before pulling the plug due to “my” behavior, after having told me that somebody else was pretending to be me.

I have tried several different ways – based on Facebook’s own instructions – to protest and have it reinstated but to no avail.

Fortunately, I almost never use Facebook, and other than giving me access to a handful of alumni and similar groups, I don’t need it. I’ll just create a new account using a different email address and problem solved.

But … it was a pretty good reminder of the danger of building a business on a platform that is subject to somebody else’s rules. 

That’s why I like email – it’s a completely distributed system with nobody in charge.

So, what would happen to your business if Facebook, or Instagram, or LinkedIn, or whatever, suddenly decided that you were unplugged – permanently? If you don’t have email addresses of your contacts, would you be back to sqaure one on your marketing?

It’s probably worth thinking about.