A social media outage can affect millions of customers and damage many businesses and their digital marketing campaigns.

For instance, Facebook has suffered one of the most severe outages in social media history, making it inaccessible to nearly three billion users. WhatsApp and Instagram, also owned by Facebook, also suffered the same outage.

Such occurrences become a black day for digital marketers, with businesses losing millions in sales. So, how bad does a social media outage affect digital marketing?

Understanding a Social Media Outage

Social media outages can happen at any time. They can occur due to scheduled maintenance, unexpected technical glitches, or even the network blockade.

Studies show that on average, businesses lose $60,000 per hour when their main social media channels are down.

If the social media outage is for less than two hours, it affects more than four percent of all sales. Beyond two hours, nearly six percent of all sales are negatively affected.

There are several factors that impact the impact of a social media outage on digital marketing:

• The Duration of the Outage: More than two hours will have a larger impact than a shorter outage

• The Severity of the Outage: If the social media channel is simply down, it is less severe than taking it down and blocking access to the network

• The Sophistication of the Business: A small e-commerce business will be less impacted than a large corporate business

• The Size of the Business: A larger business will be more impacted than a smaller business.

• The Nature of the Business: A localized business will be more affected than a global business

• Media Coverage: If the outage is covered by the media, the impact will be larger.

• The Demographic: Users with a larger disposable income will be more negatively affected.

How to Prepare for a Social Media Outage

There is no way to completely prevent a social media outage. However, there are ways to minimize the effect of an outage on your business, such as the following:

1. Think about a Plan B: A backup social network. Schedule a weekly audit of all your social media channels.

1. Have a detailed plan for a social media outage: Define the right people to contact, set an emergency social media account, make a detailed list of all your social media pages.

1. Use the right tools: A social media tool that has a backup social media channel can help you recover from a social media outage.

1. Follow your competitor’s social media profiles: Stay up to date on social media changes and updates from your competitor’s social media pages.

1. Keep your options open: Consider moving your social media presence to another platform.

1. Use a social media monitoring tool: Stay up to date on the social media industry and news.

1. Stay in touch with your audience: Maintain your contact with your audience on secondary channels.

1. Maintain a social media infographic campaign: Help your audience navigate through the channels.

Conclusion

Social media outages can be very damaging to your business. It is important to prepare for such occurrences and minimize the negative impact.

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