Yesterday, for maybe 45 minutes a panic ensued for many business owners, Meta crashed bringing down Facebook and Instagram.
At first, when it happened I thought maybe I had done something to my Facebook page because I was trying to fix a client’s Instagram page, that was not linking to their Facebook page. I called my husband into the room to see if his Facebook was working, to which he exclaimed of course it was. I said have you tried refreshing the page, and that is when I realized it wasn’t me it was the system.
So the next step, turning to X to see if anything was posted, and of course, the world had ended as everyone ran to that platform to see if Facebook and Instagram were down. It’s kind of ironic isn’t it, using a different platform to find out if another platform is down.
Regardless, yesterday’s outage was a great reminder that marketing is much more than using Meta, that there are other platforms available, or better yet, the old ways are just as important as the new ways.
So let’s delve into that a bit further. What are some of the other things that we can rely on when platforms like Meta decide to take a break from the world?
The first thing to do is to not panic, even if you are a social media manager. Once you realize it isn’t your fault, you now have no control over what happens next, remember if Meta is down, it’s down for everyone else.
There are so many other wonderful marketing options available.
- The first of course is having a strong website, keeping it maintained, updating blogs, and making sure that information is current and always available.
- Email is still a strong communicator, sending emails is an effective way to communicate to your customers or clients.
- Newsletters are very important for sharing stories, and information and engaging with your clients and customers, whether you use online or paper, creating a newsletter is a vital tool, especially for not-for-profits.
- Other platforms like X, Pinterest, and TikTok are also great places to have a presence.
- Billboards, now that people are spending more time in the car, having a billboard with your information and face is a great way for people to get to know you, and if they are a passenger in the vehicle and they are bored they can check out your website.
- Newspaper is not dead, in fact with some of the recent decisions, other smaller local ones are stepping up, which means that the viewership will be increased with less competition.
- Magazines are always found on a coffee table somewhere.
- Radio is the original podcasts
- Google has a great platform for advertising, it’s a bit complicated but if you find an expert they can guide you in placing your ads properly.
So in conclusion, there are more options available than Meta, you just have to be open to old and new ways of marketing.
Don’t put all your advertising dollars into one basket, diversify is key.