Can we trust social media? 3 lessons from Facebook’s recent outage
Earlier this week, we witnessed a huge shutdown of the big 3 social media: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The reason for this is not clear, but the linkage is. These are all social media that belongs to Facebook Inc.
So many people were angry with Mark Zuckerberg for this downtime. Some even took to his personal account stating that this was clearly unacceptable.
Zuckerberg mentioned on his personal post on Facebook:
"We've spent the past 24 hours debriefing how we can strengthen our systems against this kind of failure. This was also a reminder of how much our work matters to people. The deeper concern with an outage like this isn't how many people switch to competitive services or how much money we lose, but what it means for the people who rely on our services to communicate with loved ones, run their businesses, or support their communities."
While this outage didn't really impacted us in Asia, it did bring forth a great reminder for all of us:
You should NEVER place all your eggs in one basket
This week, I spent time reflecting too and realize that being over-reliant on social media isn't a good thing. I must say, I've been FOMO about new updates on social media. I tend to want to be the first to share these insights with you.
So, let's unpack the 3 things we can take away from this mishap by Facebook:
1. Learn to sell your products and services outside of social media
A huge part of my business began outside of social media. In the early years, we didn't even have a website yet. We would be working to get clients by traditional means: a document (brochure, deck, etc) and lots of hard work at exhibitions and roadshows. I did door-knocking too which really wasn't my most favourite because it didn't made sense for my business model.
If we can look back at how people ran their businesses before social media, that will help us look at things from a different perspective. I share about this in my Profitable Fempreneur program. We spend 12-weeks together to build a Signature Offer and push it out into the market that WANTS TO BUY.
If this is what you need, have a chat with me here.
2. Focus on your own marketing channels
There are three types of marketing channels: own, earn and paid. Social media are part of the earned media. When we run ads, that's paid media. What we want is to focus on OWN media. I cover more on this in our Profitable Fempreneur program.
When you focus on own media, you have control over what display and mention. One good example is your website. This is an important own channel that we should always focus on. While I'm busy working on client's sites, marketing and content, I sometimes forget to handle my own marketing too.
So, focus on your website. Build the content you need there and start driving traffic to your own channel.
3. Remember to focus on your audience
There are many social media platforms in the world. Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp aren't the only platforms out there. Take a deep dive into your clients' and ideal client's personality. Find out where are they really hanging out on.
Recently, one of my coaching clients discovered that she's been focusing so much time on Facebook only to realise that her ideal clients aren't even active there. She found that they were congregating on LinkedIn because they needed to. So, with this insight, she could now move her marketing efforts to LinkedIn.
One thing for certain, as a Business Activator & Intuitive Coach, I will NEVER force you to be on any platforms your audience isn't on. I believe in real, no fluff and no bluff approach to establishing yourself online. A purpose-driven business can be led and run without having to be on every single social media. You need to be on a few, but not all.
So, focus on the platforms your audience is on and shift gears to be visible and present there.
We've always spoken, taught and emphasized that we can NEVER rely 100% on any social media. As Fempreneurs, it's never a good thing to place all your eggs in one basket. That being said, relying 100% on social media isn't a smart move, my friends.
We have always wanted to move to our own platforms from early 2021, but we delayed this when we did our first round of test in March this year.
This incident has proven how important it is for us to move to our own platform.
I was in another Facebook Group whose business was severely affected by the downtime. They had a challenge taking place throughout that day and was unable to conduct their sessions on Facebook Live.
Another Facebook Group I was in had their accounts blocked for trying to login multiple times during that period of time. As a result, all their posts were blocked in their group - and they are the admin of the group. I bet that must have felt terrible.
And for people who were using Whatsapp during that time, they were frustrated that conversations and deal potential were cut mid-way.
Of course, people on Instagram were only complaining for a short while. Once they have their Instagram accounts back, they were pretty much okay.
It is now more obvious for us to move away from over-reliance on social media and take control of where our communities should be held in. That's why, we are trusting our decision to move over to our own community portal. We trust that once you get the hang of it, you will be able to see how amazing it is to use this platform. Ask questions, connect with one another and share your expertise too in the community.
I can’t wait to see you on the other side!
