#FacebookDown Takeaways for Your Marketing

Today Facebook was down. Instagram was down. And What’s App too.

I of course immediately tried Twitter when I couldn’t access Facebook to see if it was an issue just on my end or not. And they didn’t let me down by not only confirming it wasn’t just me but also many of the #Facebookdown tweets were quite hilarious about it too. And laughter makes everything better right?

Anyway. Things like this offer the best reminders to take a few minutes now to take stock in your own business. While this week it was Facebook, next week it could be something else you rely on even more.  Or it could be an issue that just affects you. Every day I’m seeing people posting in other groups that they can’t access their business page, or personal profile, etc. on Facebook.  

This is why it’s good to build in redundancy and not rely solely on any single platform for our most important marketing and business needs. That good ole adage, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” comes to mind on this.

For example:

How can you connect with your clients?

• Do you have an email address?
• Cell phone number?
• Other ways to communicate?

If you only have Facebook messenger or What’s App to communicate with your clients for example and that goes down, do you have another way to connect if needed? Or on the flip side, if you can’t access your phone or email, what’s the backup plan?

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Where do you save client info?

If you keep all your contacts in your phone, hopefully, they are backed up to a cloud (good idea to double-check that now), but what if that fails and something happens to your phone?

Or if they are all on your computer and it crashes? Do you have a backup?

If you just have paper copies, you’re not safe either if something happens like a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, or insert the natural disasters that your area could face.

And if you’re relying on a free service to keep your list of email subscribers, it’s best to occasionally download that list just in case. (See also: Mailchimp Closed My Account and I Lost All My Subscriber Emails)

Paid services should be more dependable than free ones, but that’s no guarantee either.

How can new clients find you?

If you only have a Facebook page because it works for you for example, what happens when Facebook goes down? Or vice versa, since many of you use Wix for your website, if they have an outage are there other places online where people can find your information?

Different places to have an easy to find online presence include:

• Facebook/Instagram (same company)
• Google My Business (Maps) listing
• Website
• LinkedIn profile (even if you don’t log in or post regularly, these profiles do tend to rank well in searches)
• Twitter (because that’s where everyone runs when any major service is down)
• Directory Listings

And it’s best to occasionally check to make sure they all have updated info, such as your hours, location, services, contact information, etc.

Do you cross-promote on each platform so your followers can find you in multiple places?

Examples of cross-promoting include:

• Remind your email list to find you on social media.
• Send Facebook fans to follow you on Instagram.
• Send social media followers to sign up for your email list.
• Offer website visitors to connect via your email list, social, etc.

And so on. If they subscribe/follow you in one place, there’s a good chance they’ll also do so on another platform and it could be one they spend even more time on but just haven’t thought to connect there.  

Where do you share your marketing information?

If you write a blog post, for example, you can also build in redundancy in where you share that information. Not everyone will find it on your website, be on your email list, or see it if you post to Facebook or other social platforms. The same goes for if you do an interview on the news, get an article in the paper, etc. Spread the word on multiple platforms to increase the likelihood of more people seeing it.

Similarly, if you focus on one type of marketing action for the majority of your time, remember it’s good to put the message out multiple ways in multiple places too. Or even if you always post to social at the same time of day, you’ll be missing some of your audience.

Most people won’t see your flyer at the coffee shop, the gym, and health food store on the same day for example, and even if they do, they might take it as a sign they really need to book a session with you. 

Plus, there’s the whole Marketing Rule of 7 Exposures, which says that on average it takes 7 exposures to your marketing message/business/name before a consumer will take action and buy. Though that number is likely higher with all the noise and distractions these days.

And presenting that information in different formats and places can help.

Do you have a backup admin?

While this wouldn’t help while Facebook was completely down, if something happens to your personal account and it gets locked out, does anyone else have admin access to your account?

This doesn’t just apply to Facebook but is most commonly an issue for people using Facebook where they lose access and have to start a new page from scratch while the old one sits there adding confusion. You only want to add someone else you explicitly trust and trust to not be doing things elsewhere on Facebook that could jeopardize your page like running ads to banned items or spreading false info. If you don’t have anyone else connected to your business to add, a significant other, family member, or a trusted friend can be your backup admin. You only need one other person but it’s a nice safety plan.

Similarly, if something happens to you, does someone else have access to your passwords to update clients accordingly?

Time to take action

Where can you build in some redundancy so if one platform/service/tool you use isn’t available for whatever reason, it’s not going to be a big problem for your business?

Let us know in the comments or join the conversation in the Reflexology Marketing Facebook group (see redundancy… I’m giving you two ways to discuss this post while cross promoting platforms lol).