It’s Time to Take Your Eggs Out of the Zuckerbasket
A global outage of Facebook and Instagram has made something abundantly clear: too many business owners rely on social media alone for their operations.
As of this writing, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are down for most users across the globe. Whether or not the system will come back is yet to be known.
But here’s one thing that has become glaringly clear: too many businesses rely on Facebook and Instagram for their survival.
Over the past few years, I’ve watched as many of my friends have left their 9–5 and start their own businesses. (Go entrepreneurs!)
From network marketing to brick-and-mortar businesses, entrepreneurship is on the rise — and that has created an incredible opportunity for many who want to follow their passions.
However, as I watch new businesses pop up, I’ve started to see a startling reality emerge: many of these entrepreneurs are launching their business operations solely on Facebook and Instagram.
I recently had a conversation with a potential client who told me that they really didn’t feel it was necessary to invest in digital marketing outside Instagram and Facebook.
Their logic? “We get plenty of comments and clicks through our socials, so why invest more money in a website or other marketing methods?”
Unfortunately, if your business is propped up on the apparently shaky foundation of social media alone, your existence is tied to theirs. If they go down, you go down.
So ask yourself, is your business functioning right now while Facebook works out a solution to its problems? If not, you can bet that your competitors who invested outside the platform are doing just fine.
Your Social Media Apocalpyse Survival Kit
The global outage of Facebook and Instagram should be a wake-up call for anyone relying on social media as their first and foremost business development model.
Here are some of the areas you must invest in right now to ensure your business can withstand the fall of social media:
1. You Must Have A Website with SEO
Look me in the eyes, young entrepreneur.
You. Must. Have. A. Website.
“But I get more traffic on social media! What good is a website?”
If your business lives on Facebook or Instagram, you are now discovering that eerie silence that comes when one entity owns your communication platform. If you are going to survive in today’s digital marketplace, you need to invest in an optimized website.
Even if you are in network marketing, you have to set up an SEO website to reach more clients and potential customers. That way, if Instagram or Facebook goes down, you can still get in touch with your existing customers through email marketing or phone calls.
When you are searchable on the web, your customers can find you even when your social media presence is gone.
(Here’s a secret: you can actually blow past your competition right now by investing in a website. So few are migrating their social media to a website presence, so get ahead of the curve!)
2. Invest In Email Marketing Tools
The best business minds take a “crisis” and turn it into an opportunity. I’ve already received two emails today from businesses that are using the outage as a chance to offer their services.
Here’s the thing — when social media is down, people will need to push SOMETHING on their phones. If you’re like me, you’ve started refreshing your email app to see if anything will give you that dopamine rush.
You should already be investing in an email list, but now is the time to really get serious about it. This is also the time to start collecting leads and using them strategically.
Email marketing can feel overwhelming. Don’t worry. All you have to do is send out short, concise messages to your subscribers, clients, or potential customers about what’s happening in your business. Tell a story, make a joke, anything. Just communicate in an authentic and engaging way!
3. Make Sure Your Customers Can Call You Directly
It seems obvious enough, but there are probably a lot of small businesses out there that only have an email contact form and no phone number.
Seriously.
I’ve seen businesses out there who rely on the “drop us a DM!” call-to-action as their only way of communication with PAYING CUSTOMERS.
What will you do when the DM slide breaks down? Make sure your customers can call you and schedule an appointment if Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp go down.
4. Get Social in REAL LIFE
When people need your product or service, there’s only so much they can do online. One of the best things you can do to fail-proof your business is to build and maintain a social presence in real life.
This is incredibly easy if you know where to look. Get out in the community and let people know what your business is all about. Sponsor a golf tournament, adopt a street, attend a local civic gathering. Just get out there!
Don’t Let Facebook Run Your Business
Ok, so I’m not going to punch a gift horse in the mouth here. The advent of social media has made it possible for so many to build their small businesses into scalable enterprises.
However, there are some things you have to wonder about: the social media platforms we rely on, how they come and go without warning, and what you would do if they were just… gone?
What’s your plan if Facebook goes down? How will you communicate with your customers and clients if messaging apps crash? If this isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what is.
