How To Unlock Your YouTube Account When Your Channel Gets Suspended
Picture this:
You’ve setup your Youtube channel for your Law Firm…
You’re posting great videos…
People are engaging with them and you’re generating new qualified leads for your business from this social media channel…
Hundreds, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of people are watching daily…
Until you get hit with this…
…an email explaining that your Law Office Youtube account has been suspended.
In terms of business, if you link your videos to your blog and other social media platforms (which you should be) getting your Youtube account suspended means a significant loss of potential clients, viewers and credibility.
Just a few days of “dead air” can have a huge impact on your business.
Which is why when my subscribers informed me they couldn’t view anything on my channel a few weeks back and asked me what had gone wrong, I knew I had to take immediate action.
I don’t say this to scare you.
YouTube is one of the most powerful platforms to attract qualified clients to your firm and getting your account suspended doesn’t happen to everyone, all the time.
However, after a frustrating 24 hours of back and forth with Youtube and speaking with other influencers, I realized that there was no one resource for us lawyers to go to for this kind of problem.
So today, I want to share with you exactly what I did so that if you ever find yourself staring back at an email from Youtube telling you you are in breach of community guidelines and your account has been suspended, you’ll know exactly what to do.
3 Steps To Unlock Your Youtube Account
Step 1: Do NOT Email, TWEET!
Yes, you read that right. Emailing Google or YouTube first will not elicit a prompt response, if any. At least it didn’t for me.
Soon after discovering my account had been suspended, I sent an email to YouTube hoping to get assistance and clarity on the matter. Except I didn’t get a reply.
However, what DID get me a prompt response was Tweeting!
I sent a tweet to @TeamYouTube explaining my issue and got a reply almost instantly advising me on my next steps.
You can see a screenshot of YT’s reply to my tweet below.
Here’s why this works: As a social media platform, tweets are more in the ‘public eye’ and YouTube or any corporation with a social presence is obliged to respond to keep up with its public image. So start with a tweet!
Step 2: Submit an Appeal
If you believe your account was suspended due to an error, this is your chance to explain your case to the moderators and have them lift the suspension. You’ll want to submit a formal appeal to YT. Here’s what the appeal form looks like:
This is the only way for YT to review your request so take your time here and fill out the form thoroughly. Here is the link for the appeal submission page: Google Appeal Form. Be careful though as you’re only allowed to appeal a couple of times.
Once you’ve submitted your appeal, all you have to do now is wait for a reply from YouTube.
Here’s what mine looked like:
Victory! My account was reinstated and I was back online with all my content and assets intact. I was relieved that my clients and followers could watch my videos again.
BUT… there’s still one more step you need to take and truth be told, you should already be doing this periodically if you’re using YT or any social media to build your law office’s presence online.
Step 3: Back up all your videos and content
The videos you put out to your community are your digital assets.
You may never get locked out of your YouTube account (I genuinely hope you don’t) but if it does happen, backing up all of your videos ensures that your content won’t get taken away from you.
My advice is to invest in a good hard drive and backup your content regularly. This is the only real way to ensure your content is safe.
Final thoughts…
Thankfully, my banned YouTube channel was reinstated within 24 hours. I had to field frantic texts and emails from clients, followers and partners. Potential clients were unable to reach me through my videos and blog posts since they are linked to my YouTube videos. And in the end, the “secret” to unlocking my account was a simple tweet.
Which brings me to you…
I’d love to know:
How have you done the troubleshooting for unexpected challenges like this? Have you ever used social media as a way to resolve an issue? Let me know!
