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If you have, you may want to reconsider after Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram encountered technical issues which caused a 6-hour outage for millions of users on Monday 4 October.
Being reliant on one social media platform (or a few if owned by the same company) comes with a big risk as many business owners, to their detriment, found out this week. One minute your business is there for all to see and the next minute it has vanished, and you have absolutely no control over it.
If you rely too heavily on social media platforms as your Plan A, then you definitely need a Plan B. A lot of businesses operate solely through social media – whether it is through one or multiple pages or groups, your brand or the continuation of business being done could be put at risk. Operating this way can be compromised just as easily by hackers and just as much as an outage. Imagine having multiple income-generating groups and a hacker gets you locked out of your own business?
Take back control – get your Plan B in place.
If you don’t have a Plan B, the alternative isn’t pretty and here’s why:
This recent issue was global - 14 million outages were reported on servers across the globe. Yes, Facebook really DOES have that much control!
Think about how something like this can affect your business- time for a social media strategy rethink?
Has being offline made you more aware of how much time and reliance we give to social media?
By being offline you may have lost revenue, but how can you measure this? Can you claim anything back from Facebook? Not a chance! Poor old Mark Zuckerberg lost $1 billion dollars an hour (on paper off his personal fortune). How much could you afford to lose if it happens again…and more to the point, are you willing to?
It’s not good for your brand when your customer receives an error message - ‘This site can’t be reached’ does not fill potential buyers will confidence.
Think about what would happen if your social media platform of choice had a total wipe-out not just an outage; how would your business carry on? Do you have a disaster recovery plan?Would your business survive? Where would you go next to reach your audience? Would the world even know your business existed?
Cast your net a little wider on social media – this outage saw a huge surge of user activity on LinkedIn and Twitter – with users metaphorically thumbing their noses and poking their tongues out at the misfortune of Facebook, WhatsApp and Insta!
This online eye-opener is the perfect time to re-evaluate your social media strategy to make sure you are still hanging out in the right social space to reach your target audience.
So, what next? Plan B is next!
Your Plan B should consist of 3 core elements:
Get yourself a website – this is the only internet-based online source that YOU can have control of!
Utilise other social media platforms that aren’t controlled by Facebook – spread the social media love and minimise your own risk.
Put in place a solid communications strategy – this is key to staying connected to your customers through a range of multimedia channels such as email, newsletter, blog, video, advertising, networking, and honing your SEO for a further reach.
These are all things that should be present in your everyday digital marketing strategy and planner to communicate with your customers/target audience.
It really is that simple.
And just remember, Mr Zuckerberg has apologised to those affected by the outage…but that is all.
If you'd like to any support with your Plan B or social media, get in touch. I'd love to help you become more social media savvy!
Drop me a DM on Electric Footprint
Call 07958 231817 for a no obligation chat
I'm here to help.