What Happens When Facebook Goes Down?

For about 15 minutes on Monday, December 10, 2012, Facebook went down. Where you there? Did you feel it? Did you panic?  I hope not. It’s not the end of the world, ya know!

According to a Facebook spokesperson: “Earlier today we made a change to our DNS infrastructure and that change resulted in some people being temporarily unable to reach the site. We detected and resolved the issue quickly, and we are now back to 100 percent. We apologize for any inconvenience”.

I had tried a few times to connect to Facebook. I’m always thinking it’s my computer, but after not being able to gain access via my iPad, I knew something was up. Although, my trusty little iPhone still had access. Apparently, when the address is cached on your phone, you were still able to log onto Facebook.

Not only did Facebook go down, but Google’s Gmail went kaput for about 18 minutes, and Google Drive also went awry on the same day? Ahhh, are we thinking Mayan calendar?

The fact that Facebook went down isn’t really a major disaster, but it is, as is Gmail, a very important communication tool in our lives. Not only are we chatting with family and friends, but many of us use Facebook to communicate with clients. We have begun to depend on Facebook for the way we connect to people on a daily basis, so that when a powerful service like Facebook goes down, it makes you think about how much we depend on it, and that maybe we should begin creating other ways to connect with our clients and creating a back-up system.

But how?

1. As you’re making connections online, collect email address via an opt-in form on your Fan Page. There are apps to do this regardless of which email service provider you use. Constant Contact and Aweber have tutorials on how to do this. Remember, email marketing is permission-based, and arbitrarily adding email addresses of your online community is a huge no-no.
2. If Facebook does go down, there’s always Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and a host of other social sites where I’m sure your Facebook friends are hanging out as well.
3. If you’re working with clients solely on Facebook, then think twice. Facebook doesn’t have to go down for you to lose your contacts.  You know how Facebook loves to shut people down on a whim. Never put all your business eggs in one social site. This should be common sense. Make sure you have a CRM other than Facebook. It doesn’t have to be fancy or intricate.  A simple Excel spreadsheet will always take care of business (oh and don’t forget to back that up as well). Also think about Cloud services like Zoho.com, QuickBase.intuit.com, and SalesForce.com that are totally solid.
4. If you’re looking to back up Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, and other social sites, try SocialSafe.net. While it will cost, at minimum $6.99 a year after the 60 day free trial, everything is stored locally on your PC or Mac for super quick access via SocialSafe’s powerful search and browse functions.
5. Have you ever heard about touch.facebook.com? If Facebook does go down again, you can still access it via this site. It doesn’t look at pretty as Facebook, but it will do the job in a pinch.
6. If all else fails and you really need to chat with a Facebook friend or client – Pick up the phone.

Kathleen Gage, Internet Marketing guru and my Facebook friend says this, “It’s all about rolling with the changes and not getting so attached to anything that we fall apart if it goes away”.  

Eydie

Eydie Stumpf is a Social Media Coach based in Corona, California. Send her your social media and email marketing questions via  http://facebook.com/terramediamarketing, http://facebook.com/terramediamarketing, or info@terramediamarketing.com