October 5, 2021, was a day like any other day for most digital marketers. But for over 1 million business owners worldwide, the morning of October 5th brought about panic and fear as they experienced an outage on their favorite networks: Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
What Happened?
As Facebook and its suite of platforms experienced a worldwide outage on Monday, it is now bringing to light new realizations for anyone who uses these social media sites for marketing or advertising.
Facebook’s outage took place around 4:00 PM EST, where it remained down for a total of seven hours. During that time, Facebook apologized and acknowledged the potential impact they were having on their business users via Twitter – @facebook
We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any inconvenience.
— Facebook (@Facebook) October 4, 2021
“To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us.”
-Facebook
The outage of three major social media channels could be an excellent lesson for businesses that use one or all the platforms. The crash shows just how important it is to have an up-to-date digital marketing plan in place so your business doesn’t fall apart with issues like these!
What Caused the Outage?
Why was the Facebook network down to begin with? In a blog post on Monday evening, the company said, “configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers caused issues that interrupted this communication.
This disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.”
Is Facebook Still Down?
By 11:00 PM, Facebook had finally resolved its issue with the outage and was able to go back up. Instagram followed suit shortly after to not leave any users behind by sharing their experience on Twitter!
Implications for Business Owners
The outage reiterated what we’ve been saying all the time. Your Facebook business page does not take the place of your website.
While social media and social media marketing do have their place, it is not a replacement for your website. What do you think will happen if Facebook goes down and it’s all you use to market your business?
Here’s a hint: You’ll lose customers.
If your business relies on social media alone, you will have a bad time.
If your business solely relies on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for marketing, then it’s time to take a step back and figure out what other networks or advertising channels that you can use to market your business.
Sure, Facebook is the largest social media network, allowing you to reach over 266 million monthly active users, but you can’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
How Will the Facebook Crash Impact Digital Marketing?
Merav Katz, a corporate marketing manager at yellowHEAD, said that losing access to these three major platforms was eye-opening for many businesses and users.
“It was a shake-up for businesses that rely on those platforms for work,” Katz said. “The outage showed why it’s problematic to depend on only a few social networks.”
Outages like this are infrequent, which means that companies will not have to reevaluate their marketing strategies. However, she expects more people in the business world to start exploring TikTok and Snapchat because those apps were used during an outage when other social networks weren’t affected by it at all.
Speaking of TikTok – be sure to read our recent post: TikTok Marketing: A Creative Strategy for Small Businesses to learn how you can leverage this powerful social media platform for your business.
How can your business be prepared for the next outage?
Even though social media platforms utilize the most current technology, the recent October 2021 facebook outage shows how quickly things can go south even with the most up-to-date software and hardware.
What can your business do to be prepared?
- Don’t rely on social media alone – if a platform goes down, you’ll be left in the dark.
- Back up your social media with a website – without a website, you’re going to lose out. Having a presence on multiple platforms is vital in today’s digital marketing world. Chances are your competition does!
- Use more than one social channel – don’t limit yourself to Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp – research other platforms that could benefit your digital marketing strategy.
- Have your digital marketing plan in place for platforms other than Facebook, specifically Snapchat and TikTok, if you’re looking for alternatives to Facebook. These platforms may not be able to reach as wide of an audience, but they’re still effective in getting the word out there.
- Is your business prepared for Facebook to go down?
- Will you be left behind by digital marketing trends that are trending now?
Take the plunge, figure out what works best for your business, and market accordingly.
If you rely on Facebook alone to market your small business, the Facebook outage is an eye-opening reminder of how quickly things can go south with digital marketing.
To prevent this, you should have a website, use multiple social media platforms if possible, and prepare for Facebook to go down just in case it happens again by having your digital marketing plan set in place. Have any questions? Comment below!
Conclusion
The Facebook outage on October 5, 2021, is a reminder of how quickly things can go south with digital marketing.
Facebook has been the most popular social media platform for years, and it’s easy to see why. With Facebook, you can post content that will reach your friends and family in one click – no need to worry about emailing or texting them individually.
But if Facebook goes down, what do you think is going to happen? You’ll lose customers! If your business relies solely on Facebook for marketing, then it’s time to take a step back and figure out what other networks or advertising channels you can use for marketing your business.
Having a website will make your business stand out from the crowd – it serves as a digital footprint for potential customers to see what you’re all about.
Without a website, you’re going to lose out on new business without even knowing it!
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business grow!
Email info@blaksheepcreative.com or complete the form below.
