Small businesses are increasingly dependent on large social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram for everything from marketing, sales, and customer engagement. But when issues like account lockouts or hacking occur, many SMEs find themselves stranded without human support.
For small-business owners, these disruptions can be catastrophic. Losing access to a social media account can mean losing the ability to manage ads, process sales, or communicate with customers – and can thus be a direct hit to a business owner’s livelihood.
ISB has heard from a number of small-business owners about the the challenges they face with large platforms like Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and Google, with the common thread being a glaring lack of accessible human support.
“No support channel offered”
When start-up founder Elliot Cohen was locked out of his business’ Facebook account due to an issue with two-factor authentication, support options from the platform were non-existent.
“There was no support channel offered,” Cohen said. “We had two ad accounts running ads which I could no longer optimise or edit, two company Facebook pages where we could not leave updates. And furthermore, we couldn’t respond to comments or enquiries about our growing business that came through messenger or via comments.”
Cohen said his business was forking out almost $1000 per week for Facebook advertising at the time. The only way to stop the ads was to cancel their business’ credit card and let the ads run out of budget.
“Eventually, I started reaching out to Facebook employees over LinkedIn,” the business owner recounted. “I finally got through to one of them – who I just happened to be at uni with – who helped out and sent me some verification codes I could use.”
Cohen said that the ordeal lasted over a month and significantly impacted his business.
“An endless loop”
Beau Ushay works with small-business social media accounts daily through his business, Virtual Marketing Management, had similar frustrations.
“Everything is automated and you can never get help from a human,” said the marketing specialist. “You get stuck in an endless feedback loop that resolves nothing.”
Even high-profile users aren’t immune. Ushay said that a senior government official who he worked with received no support from Meta when their Instagram was hacked.
“With no human to talk to and the automated solutions going in circles, I believe they’ve given up,” he said.
The cost of support
Laura Dew, director of marketing agency The Wonder Co, receives a large percentage of new clients who come to her specifically to solve issues around social media support.
“I’d say around 20 per cent of new clients are coming to us with some Meta legacy issues that they or their last agency couldn’t solve themselves,” she explained.
Dew said the only way she can help these clients is to use her business’ designated Meta representative.
“Without our designated Meta representative escalating it, the tickets tend to just lead to an endless stream of DMs that lead you round in circles and get you nowhere, and close out automatically very quickly, if you don’t have the knowledge of the platforms,” she explained.
Like Cohen, Dew’s small-business clients only get help by making contact with a human on the inside. Dew told ISB that she was offered a Meta representative due to hitting “a significant amount” of ad spend.
Meta doesn’t make it easy for businesses to access this kind of support. According to the platform’s Business Help Centre, account managers are assigned proactively, with no way for advertisers to request one.
What can small-business owners do?
The surest way to avoid this problem, according to Dew, is to safeguard your social media accounts before an incident has occurred.
“Have two-factor authentication security set up across all social media platforms and their corresponding business and ads manager accounts,” she said.
Small-business owners might also want to regularly back up account data and contact lists, and explore alternative platforms to reduce reliance on one. If you’re a heavy user of one particular platform, saving the contact details of marketing agencies or freelancers with access to an employee of that platform could be a good insurance policy.
Ultimately, the platforms themselves should be doing more to help their business clients, no matter how small these clients are.
“They need a customer service department that can help small business owners who spend money advertising on Meta solve these problems easily on their own,” said Dew.