3 Lessons I Learned from Getting Hacked on Instagram

My Instagram got Hacked

The other week, one of my biggest fears as an influencer came true! My Instagram page, something I have worked on for almost 4 years and a platform I have grown to over 80,000 women from across the globe, was hacked. I will spare you the sob story but the entire experience put my life and business into perspective. Instead of feeling safe and confident in my personal brand, I now feel a bit violated and cautious. If you are a fellow creator or just curious about my experience, keep on reading!

One: Always Check Emails

My biggest lesson by far is to check out the emails you are receiving before clicking on anything! I wish I knew to vet every single email that comes into my inbox, I’ve become almost robotic at this point and was only checking logos not email addresses. Now I always look at the emails that come in and am very hesitant to click on links unless it’s someone I know or a reputable brand. If you are able to take refresher courses on internet safety, I highly recommend you do so. Scams are getting easier and easier to fall into even for seasoned tech-people like myself!

By the way, this hacking occurred because I received an email that looked like Meta in my inbox and it asked me to click on something. In hindsight I should have looked at the email address because it was very clearly a scam and while I’m good at noticing those for partnership opportunities, I completely missed the mark on this email. One silly mistake can lead to a lot of heartache so always be careful!

Two: Have Multiple Platforms

Don’t shy away from multiple social media platforms!

I think the biggest lesson I learned from this whole experience was having multiple platforms outside of my main one. Sure they aren’t as big as my Instagram but they are profitable and they help my overall brand. I personally work on this blog twice a week, my TikTok daily, a YouTube page throughout the week and my Pinterest page. It’s definitely a lot of work but these separate entities have allowed for various streams of income and places to work while my Instagram was down.

Another perk of multiple platforms is once you get one to a certain level on one page you can move your audience to other pages and allow for those platforms to grow organically. I believe in an organic content strategy and taking the slow and steady route when building an overarching brand. This has allowed for strong parasocial relationships with my audience and in turn I’m able to convert sales and have shinier analytics to share with brands!

Three: being vulnerable is okay

Always let people in, even if it scares you!

My final lesson is remembering it is okay to be vulnerable and admit failure when things go awry. I feel like on social media we are always trying to show a perfect, curated side of us and when that was gone for me, I made a raw, emotional video on TikTok and it received amazing engagement. I also was able to connect with people who are also struggling with their platforms and have been kicked out of Instagram over the years! By opening ourselves up to criticism and the harsher sides of social media, we are most often met with love and compassion which only come from community. While losing my Instagram for a time was incredibly scary, it reminded me who my blogger friends are and I felt so encouraged and supported during the whole ordeal!

Lessons from my hacking

I hope this post encourages you and gives you hope as a creative! I have since received so many messages and connected with so many people across the world who also lost access to their accounts. It’s such a challenging thing to experience but I think in a way this has made me stronger as a person and an influencer. If something like this happened to you, I recommend visiting this Instagram page. He has been so helpful and allowed me to get my page back within a day!

Until next time,

Lauren