How Did the Facebook Blackout Affect Businesses?

Home/Blog/How Did the Facebook Blackout Affect Businesses?

Home / Instant Quote / Our quote is from £

On Monday evening, the popular social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp suddenly became unavailable to users across the world, an outage that ended up lasting for nearly six hours.

During the outage, Facebook reassured users on Twitter that they were aware of the situation and were quickly working to fix it. A few hours later, they posted another update issuing an apology and announced the apps were coming back online.

For most of us, it was a relief when the platforms came back to life and we happily got on with our lives. But, for some businesses, the blackout had a lasting impact.

Here’s How it May Have Affected Businesses:

Loss of Sales & Trust

Many business owners use Instagram and Facebook as the main platforms to promote their products. So, when these apps went down, both existing and potential customers lost access. This meant that brands potentially lost out on sales, particularly if they were reliant on Facebook Marketplace or the Instagram Shop feature. Even when these platforms came back online, the situation may have left business owners feeling uncertain about how reliable these apps actually are.

Turning to Other Platforms

After the initial confusion of being unable to access the platforms, followed by being left with less trust in the apps, unsure if there will be an outage lasting even longer in the future, this may have prompted content creators to consider using other platforms. In particular, this might have been the thought process of those who only used Facebook or Instagram to sell products or to reach and engage with their audiences and are now, as a result, looking to expand to apps such as TikTok.

Disruptions to Content Schedules

Business owners and social media managers alike might have spent hours on content, which may have even been sponsored, that was all ready and scheduled to be posted. But, in the end, these couldn’t be uploaded, causing a huge amount of frustration. Not only were they forced to postpone posts to a later date, but it might have caused a disruption to their weekly content plan, which could, potentially, have set their business back. With Christmas vastly approaching, too, which is a crucial time for most businesses, the outage could be seen as very badly timed

The Takeaway

If you’re a business owner yourself, you’ll probably be able to understand this frustration. But, one positive, is that it has encouraged brands who solely use Facebook and Instagram as a means of engaging with their audience to diversify and explore the other platforms available. Their business may even find more success using other apps. After all, social media is a vital tool, particularly when it comes to attracting website visitors.

Tagged With

Contact Us

Let’s get the ball rolling.

Get A Quote

We are passionate about innovation, ideas and experience. Tell us about yourself and your project and we can start the ball rolling.

Misc