This is article #12 of “180 Days to Startup” series documenting my entrepreneur journey. In case you want to start from the beginning, please click HERE to the first article. You can also check out what Nodis.io is looking to accomplish HERE.

My current marketing job is in the construction products industry. This is one that is very much lagging in the usage of cutting-edge marketing tools. Having a decent website and a few social media accounts would consider advance in our industry. Our company in particular is just starting to embrace the power of internet (our website is at best, horrendous). We only recently hired a marketing specialist to help us develop a plan to use social network for online exposure.

Needless to say, social media marketing was not my expertise. In fact, I don’t even use it very much in my personal life. Facebook is my only source of online network. It is useful for church communications, events, updates on friends, and instant messenging. In terms of content, I only post pictures once in a blue moon.

I knew from the get-go that going into the Nodis.io project means I will need to overcome this shortcoming to get our product exposed online. Since Facebook is the only social media account I had, I decided to use it as my primary tool. I did a lot of research and watched a number of FB advertisement videos to learn how to use it. I launched a few ads and tested different ad campaigns with targets.

Just when I was getting some results and more confidence, Facebook shadow banned me because we are a blockchain-related company. They would no longer approve my ads and had gone radio silent on my appeals. Gaining followers/likes organically practically became impossible. This event was extremely discouraging to me.

Little did I know, that was actually the best thing that could happen to us in terms of marketing.

I was forced to turned to Instagram and other sources that I wasn’t comfortable with. It was a blessing in disguise and we have gained so much more exposure than what we did on Facebook at practically zero cost.