With today’s social media outages on Facebook and Instagram, it highlights the importance of expanding how you network. It can be devastating to limit yourself to a single network. What happens if it goes away or crashes and you lose key information.
We all have our favorite places to connect, so I get the dilemma. In fact, Facebook and Instagram are where I do the bulk of my networking. I’ve gotten some great leads and connected with some knowledgeable people. Not only can these connections lead to potential work, but they allow for some ongoing learning. Furthermore, it’s also how I stay in touch with people in my circle (outside of business).
However, it just increases the importance of diversifying the way you connect with people – both with peers and potential clients.
Who you know is just as important with how you connect. And you should always have a backup plan.
But what happens when an outage catches you off guard? Well if your to-do list included some social networking time, then it’s time to regroup and start finding some new productive ways to use your time.
Here are 10 things you can do when your social network is down:
1. Review your email list, and download a back up.
If you haven’t backed up your email list in a while, it’s probably a good idea to do this. It depends how fast your list is growing, but you probably want to consider doing this at least a few times a year, and perhaps more frequently. After all, if the service you use is a hacking victim, you don’t want to lose your contacts.
2. Network on another platform during the social media outage.
As with anything, consistency is important, but even if you can’t dig deep into LinkedIn. But maybe it’s a good time to connect with new people via LinkedIn, or join a group or two that fit your interests. If you’re already active on LinkedIn, then take some time to do some market research and see what problems people are having. Maybe you can solve them! Or, better yet, maybe it’s a good opportunity to find a new package that you can offer. Or maybe you want to be driving people to your site via Pinterest. Create some great pinnable images and start pinning!
3. Make a list of people to connect with.
If there are people that you connect with regularly on social but you have no other way to reach them, make a list so you can grab their contact information when the network comes back online.
4. Listen to a podcast.
There are lots of great personal development podcasts out there in a variety of categories. So most likely there are great podcasts in your niche. If you haven’t gotten into podcasts yet, they are awesome! Maybe you want a personal development podcast, and maybe you want a how-to that goes over something you need to learn about. Stitcher and TuneIn are two great apps if you’re not an Apple person.
5. Learn a new skill to build your business.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about WordPress, MailChimp, or Active Campaign, now’s a great time to find a course on it. Some of these platforms have some great educational components. Otherwise there are some influencers and experts that do regular tutorials and you can take some time to learn more.
6. Watch a webinar.
This is related to finding a new skill, but a webinar can be a great way to build your knowledge during a social media outage. Maybe it’s education on an aspect of your niche, or maybe it’s learning about marketing techniques. There are a ton out there and it’s just a matter of finding one that you’re interested in.
7. Make a list of new blog post ideas.
Have some content you really want to write about? Now’s a great time to brainstorm. I’m a big fan of chunking, or getting things done in batches. So one day I think of post topics, and sometimes even title them. Another day I focus on writing. And yet another day I focus on images. It is more productive, and I get in the zone, so to speak.
8. Make a batch of images for social (when the social media outage is over).
You can even start captioning them and saving them in a productivity app like Trello. I absolutely love Trello because it’s so visual. You can drag and drop images, and build your captions with hashtags and then save them to post when you’re ready and able. Key word: able.
9. Build a new lead magnet.
This is likely something that will take more time than you’re ready for, but at minimum you can start brainstorming and mapping it out during a social media outage. There are lots of steps here, but coming up with it is a great first step.
In the end, these are great practices that you can incorporate into the rest of your routine. However, when so much of your marketing plan focuses around social media, a social media outage can be a big headache. However, with some advance planning and this list in hand, you can really move forward with your business, and perhaps even come out on top.
