Do You Panic When Facebook Goes Down?

Is-Facebook-DownIf you’re a basic Facebook user and find that dreaded “Maintenance” or “Page cannot be displayed” message when logging onto the site, you might get a bit frustrated after multiple attempts to refresh. However, you’ll ultimately just go over to YouTube or Twitter to bide your time. Though what if you’re a marketer using Facebook? When you hear those two dreaded words, Facebook down, how do you handle it?

Many marketers begin to panic, and maybe for good reason. There’s a lot of time and money tied up in the site, and you can never be sure if it’s just down for a few minutes or if it will be down for days or weeks. However, there’s a lesson to be learned from the basic user out there. Don’t fly into a panic. Just bide your time and do other things. Here are a few things you can try if you find a Facebook crash in the future.

How to Handle Business When Facebook is Down

1: Vent Via Social Media

Take your frustrations to social media and use the downtime to your advantage. For instance, if you have a Twitter following, the odds are great that many of them also use Facebook and are also frustrated that it’s down. You don’t have to bash or curse the site, but you can float some tweets out there gauging the atmosphere and voicing your personal dislike of the situation. “What do you guys think about the Facebook crash?” There will probably be trending hashtags you can use, if you’re not creating them yourself, like, for example, “#FacebooksDead” or “#ConstantCrash.”

2: Track Your Data

Instead of twiddling your thumbs as if your collective hopes and dreams are tied up in one social media site, take this opportunity to perform some analytics checks and see if you need to tweak anything when the site comes back online. Take a loot at how your campaign is going, how your ads have been performing, and other key aspects of your campaign. You have a chance here to come back stronger.

3: Try Your Facebook Material on an Alternative Outlet

The reason some marketers get very angry and end up in a panic is that they had plans to use Facebook that instant but can’t now because it’s down. For instance, they may have created a new detailed post that they were sure would draw engagement. If this is a situation you find yourself in, you can wait for Facebook to come back, or you could try your luck with an alternate outlet. You might be able to draw more buzz and engagement by releasing the material elsewhere. At least think about releasing it in another location first.

4: Plan Your Reentry

When Facebook is down, you also have a good opportunity to take your time to plan your reentry. Using the tip above and assuming you had a great post ready to be launched, rethink your approach. You could create a lot of buzz by being the first page your fans see with an entertaining post about Facebook’s crash. For instance, creating a poll about how aggravated people are or something along those lines can really draw a big crowd ready to engage.

5: Speak to Your Fans Personally

If you have the contact information of some of your fans, like their email addresses or mobile information, you could send out a quick message to them and use Facebook’s status as a great talking point to start an ongoing dialogue. It also endears you more to your fans by showing a real side and a real interest in social media interactions. Facebook being down doesn’t have to be a waste in any fashion.

Facebook has great up time, solid servers, and they’re usually able to handle even the biggest updates while the site is still functioning. However, every site experiences crashes and downtime, and Facebook will be no exception in the future. So if you ever manage to encounter a crash, just remember not to panic. Use the time to engage with fans in a different way.

About the author: 

simon campbell Simon Campbell, a writer from a Facebook ad campaign tool – Qwaya. He loves to write different topics about social media and participates in some communities and forums. You can connect with Simon on  Twitter.

 

 

 

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