On Monday, 4th October, the world stood still.
We’re only joking, of course… the world did NOT stop spinning and we survived the great Facebook outage of 2021 which lasted less than a quarter of a day but seemed like much longer for some.
Working in social media, when the digital conglomerate Facebook went down, alongside its relatives Instagram and WhatsApp, we were curious to know how people felt.
Once we were back online, we asked our followers on LinkedIn and Twitter (our resilient soldiers) how they reacted to the outage. Here’s what we learned…
Instagram is top dog
We asked people which app they noticed had gone down first and which app they missed the most, and Instagram reeled in the most votes for both polls.
Not only were people on the photo-sharing app, which has seen astronomical growth over the past 12 months, when the Facebook outage struck, but they were also pining for it during the 6 hours that we couldn’t share a #selfie.
We’re addicts!
When asked if people checked the apps that were down on that silent Monday night, voters said a big YES.
Whether it was intentional or a subconscious ‘quick scroll’ we were after, we couldn’t go less than a working day without checking in on our favourite apps.
Facebook, NOT ‘fave’-book
Out of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, Facebook was the least loved out of the apps with only 6% of voters saying they missed it the most.
Could it be that Zuckerberg’s brainchild is slowly dying out?
Staying connected is key
Instagram came up trumps across the polls, but WhatsApp came second across the board.
Clearly, we rely on the app to communicate with the people we’re closest to, emotionally and physically. Has there been a shift from mindless scrolling to actually using our apps for a purpose?
What does your business need to take from this?
If there is one thing you need to learn from the recent Facebook outage, it’s that Instagram is king. As soon as the apps were back up and running, we were opening Insta to double-tap to our hearts’ content.
This means Instagram is probably somewhere your business needs to be if it isn’t already.
The second thing you should learn from this outage is that anything can happen in the social world; take Lounge Underwear for example, which was launching its largest-ever social campaign when the outage struck.
If your primary platform went down, would potential customers be able to find you elsewhere? Are you active on relevant social platforms? Is your website up to scratch? Or would your business fall off the face of the earth along with your chosen platform?
Let us help
At J&PR we don’t just specialise in one social media platform, nor do we just specialise in social. We’re a team of wordsmiths and content creators who just so happen to be blinking good at social media strategy.
Let us help you make sure your business is well-equipped for anything.
Not on Instagram yet, and suddenly panicking about it?
You have nothing to worry about, book in with Sophie for a Two-hour Takeover training session all about Instagram and she can set you up on the app, teach you all the tricks and make sure your business will thrive on there.
Our Two-hour Takeovers are one-to-one and completely tailored to your business and needs, so you’re in the safest of hands. Despite us being based in Telford, we can meet with businesses all over the UK to train them in social media and public relations as our Two-hour Takeovers are virtual!
Want to expand your digital presence?
Whether your website needs to be kept up to date with regular blogs, or you think your Facebook page shouldn’t be your only online presence, we can help you.
If doing your own social media is your thing, we offer Two-hour Takeover sessions on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google My Business. We’ll spend two hours working on your chosen platform to make sure you can run it like a pro.
If you want to trust a former journalist with your website content, we’re your people. We can provide you with regular blogs, written by ex-journalists, that are relevant to your business and ready to be loved by search engines.
Email us at info@jandpr.com or phone Kirsty on 07811749489 and let’s talk about how we can help.
