So you have a podcast you'd like to promote? That's fantastic! Come along with me, as I painstakingly detail all the ways to not succeed in doing that.
Not a podcaster? That works too. Everyone is welcome, to what should be a farce about the road t...
Facebook used to be a good platform, right? This looks like another sure-to-be-easy way to get some social media presence. Try signing up with that.
Get your link to your site on there, fill in some personal details, and dress it up with some witticisms.
You're all set up, great! Go ahead and add a Facebook link to your website. Take down the Instagram one while you're at it.
Now let's log in to Facebook and post something.
But actually, it looks like you've been banned. Don't expect them to ever offer an explanation for this. Perhaps they've heard from Instagram about what a wildly dangerous person you are. Your account is blocked, and they require your phone number to dispute this decision.
If you're not interested in being ransomed for more personal data, you can try signing up again with a different email, but don't give them the same name and birth date as before, or you will be immediately blocked again.
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If you did make the mistake of being consistent about your name and birth date, you're stuck with that phone number verification screen again. At this point, you could cave and give them your number. If you don't, instead uttering a few oaths and foreswearing Facebook forever on principle, then when you check back in a few months the phone number option will be gone, and your account URL will be permanently broken.
In the meantime, you'll learn that Facebook's (and Instagram's) algorithms actively throttle the reach and sharing of posts in order to force you to pay for advertising.
