I know, I know, anyone who does anything with social media’s jaw has just dropped reading that title. But stick with me. I genuinely believe that the Facebook and Instagram crash was a good thing. Not at the time because, let’s be honest, when your content won’t load or refresh you have a minor panic/shake the phone/check the wifi/text people/go to Twitter. But now it’s all over, it really was. And that’s exactly what I’m talking about.
Why the Facebook and Instagram crash was a good thing…
If, like me, you use social media to market your business BUT you have some ‘owned’ real estate on the internet too, the crash was a bit stressful. If you have your business on Facebook or Instagram and nowhere else… I can’t even imagine the stress the crash will have caused you. Everything you’ve worked for – gone. Just like that. And nothing you could do about it.
Of course, Facebook and Instagram did come back and although it feels highly highly unlikely that both will vanish tomorrow, if they did, there would be nothing you could do about it. But what IS more likely is that something will change inside the platform (because, well, it happens all the time) and that change could make content less visible and reduce reach, thus reducing the number of potential clients who see it. If all your eggs are firmly in this basket, the crash should have, hopefully, highlighted that you need to spread them out a bit.
But there are things you can do; ways to help spread the risk and allow you to feel confident in that you have more than one way to reach who you need to. I’m talking about websites, mailing lists, real connections and lots more.
And before you think ‘what? She’s changed her tune, she’s a social media junkie’, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. Social media is incredible. I love it. The opportunities it provides for us are like nothing else seen to date and worlds away from how it was when I started in marketing and PR. But the line between owned and not seems to get blurred online, so it’s not uncommon for people online to exist as a business purely on Facebook. And that is what I think the crash, hopefully, shone a spotlight on as a poor business plan.
As always, I hope you enjoy this one – and I hope you pick up some ideas to firm up your online business.
