YouTube, with no explanation but the usual "violated our guidelines" form, shut down a client's account.

Their attempt to reach YouTube and determine what caused the violation has gone unanswered for several weeks. Meanwhile, none of the content is visible, searchable, or even available for download.

Another aggravation is that my client's website videos were YouTube embeds, so years of video messages and sermons are now missing. Unfortunately, this scenario is beginning to become very common. And it's true of Facebook and Instagram as well.

Any social media platform can shut you down for any reason they see fit. It's a private business that decides on its arbitrary guidelines.

So what should you do?

Continue to upload videos to YouTube because they are a great way to drive organic traffic to your site. Remember, Google owns YouTube and its algorithm favors YouTube content. If your content management system allows you to upload and transcode videos, you should use that as a safeguard and upload them to YouTube as well (those using TAG Tools already have that option).

You can also create a Zapier integration with YouTube and upload your videos to either Google Drive or Dropbox. They post to your YouTube account at the same time.

The lesson here is to keep control of your content and audience. Social media platforms are great until they shut you down.

If you would like help with a social media audit, click here and we'll get back to you.