Earlier this week, we were struck by a major social media outage. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were unavailable for hours, causing disruptions to businesses as well as our casual daily scroll. All three platforms, owned by Facebook were out for a total of 6 hours and during this time we were unable to run ads or communicate. This becomes especially problematic if these are key channels for your business. While social media outages tend to be rare for popular platforms, they can happen unexpectedly and cause a lot of hassle. Here are a few things you can explore to stay in touch with your audience.
Is Facebook down? Start by troubleshooting
We all probably blamed our WiFi when first experiencing errors on Facebook and associated platforms! Troubleshooting will help you pinpoint the issue. Is the platform actually down? Does it work on other devices? Have you checked your connection or cleared your cache? Identifying exactly what’s causing the problem will help you to act accordingly.
Follow the traffic
During a social media outage, audiences are likely to migrate to another platform. While Facebook was down, users moved to Twitter, Telegram, TikTok and other entertainment and communication apps. This is where it really pays to have a multi-platform approach to your marketing! You can stay in touch with your audience and commiserate in the disruptions that have affected everybody. This is also your opportunity to run ads on another platform and encourage more website visits.
Stay in touch via email
For those of us who are quick to react, you might already have an email marketing campaign at the ready to drive more website visits and conversions. Still, even sending a quick message via email to let your audience and customers know what’s going on is a great way to keep in contact and remind them you’re still there.
Be ready for when the social media outage ends
No doubt, once social media platforms are back up and running again, they will see a surge of traffic coming back. Be prepared and post an update to let your audience know you’re back online and ready to answer any queries and keep in touch with them. This is also a great time to make sure your ads are back up and running and to reschedule any posts that may have been missed during the outage.
Social media management that gives you one less thing to worry about…
As a full service marketing agency, we can help to spruce up your socials and keep them running, so you can focus on other business operations. We can create content with cohesive branding, schedule it for you and run targeted ads that attract the right audience to your business. With decades of combined expertise, we take the time to get to know you and your company. We take a personalised approach to your marketing, helping you retain and grow that lasting connection with your customers. Get in touch today to find out more!
