What to set up before Instagram deletes your account

Our friends at Redd Light Therapy lost every Instagram account they had this summer, and it took them until September to get any of it back. They wrote an honest, generous guide about it, which you should read if you’re in that situation right now. We can’t improve on their advice for the day after.

What we can add is the day before. Most creators who come to Sssion arrive after a scare, and nearly all of them say some version of “I wish I’d set this up when things were fine.” So this is the list we’d hand you while things are still fine, with a note on each about where Sssion fits.

1. Start an email list

If your account vanished, how many of your people could still reach you? For most creators the honest answer is “a handful.” That’s the number to fix.

• An email list is the boring, correct answer. Fifty real addresses beats five thousand followers you can’t contact.
• Put the signup link in your bio today. Mention it in a story once a week. That’s the whole system.
• If you teach, your students’ emails already exist in your booking platform or your DMs. Pull them into one place you control.

Where Sssion fits: this is the piece we care about most. When someone follows you on Sssion, they can opt in to hear from you by email, and their address goes on a list that’s yours. On Premium, export it as a CSV from the Audience page on your desk any time and take it to any email tool you like. If Sssion disappeared tomorrow, you’d still have your people.

2. Have a page that shows up when people search your name

If someone Googles you next week, what do they find?

• A page with your name on it means a deleted account doesn’t delete you.
• Put your booking link, your email, your classes, and your other platforms in one place.
• Make sure it opens without an app and without an account.

Where Sssion fits: every creator who shares publicly gets a page at sssion.com/yourname that anyone can open. It carries your Moments and a way to follow you, it’s searchable, and it takes about a minute. If you already have a website, link them both ways.

3. Stop making backup accounts

This comes straight from RLT’s experience, and we’ll just repeat it.

• If your backups keep getting deleted, more backups aren’t the answer.
• Each one is more of you on land you don’t own.
• Spend that energy on the rest of this list instead.

Where Sssion fits: it doesn’t need to. Nothing here has a rule against pole, and a person, not a bot, reviews anything that gets flagged.

4. Decide now where your community lives

This is the one people skip because it feels like a big decision. It isn’t, really.

• Pick one place that’s yours where your closest people can find each other.
• Bring them there a few at a time. A group chat, a Discord, your followers on Sssion, whatever fits how you work.
• Do it before you need it, so that if Instagram goes dark the room is already warm.

Where Sssion fits: this is what it’s for. Followers who see everything you post, a public page for the people finding you, and nobody in between deciding who sees what. Here’s what creators get if you want the plain version.

If it’s already happened

Read RLT’s guide. They tried the reinstatement services, the verification trick, the Reddit threads, the private contacts, and they’re honest about what did and didn’t work. There’s no magic fix in there, but there is a lot of hard-won perspective, and the reminder that you’re not the only one.

Treat Instagram as borrowed space, not a foundation. That’s their line, and it’s the best one-sentence summary of all of this we’ve seen.