Last week, Instagram experienced one of its biggest outages ever.
So allow me tell you a little story about the Instagram Outage of 2019 from the safety of our website.
Any seasoned online entrepreneur that uses social media will tell you that while outages don’t happen frequently, they do happen pretty regularly. And along with the outage, a few days later, like clockwork, you’ll see business coaches & gurus using Instagram & Facebook to preach about the importance of building an email list, investing in a website, & nurturing your leads in a place you have full control over.
And though it may seem annoying & a little overkill to hear the same message over and over again…
They are absolutely correct.
Truth be told, I used to take Instagram & Facebook for granted.
In 2019, only a year into my business, I was running my operation strictly on Instagram. I had a website in the works (that never launched because I was super indecisive about every single aspect of it), but most of my day-to-day operations consisted of batching content for, having conversations in, & engaging with others on Instagram.
And then, on a chilly November morning, everything went dark.
I couldn’t post, scroll through my feed, DM, or engage with other people.
In the middle of a launch.
I’m not proud to admit this, but honestly, I panicked a little (this was when I was still operating from a scarcity mindset).
I had 1,000 followers I couldn’t reach, and all I could do was sit & twiddle my thumbs until the outage issue was fixed.
And it got me thinking… what would I do if Instagram & Facebook shut down tomorrow & never came back on? What if there was some cyber-attack on these free platforms (which is not a super far-fetched idea) that took months to fix? How would I contact my leads? Would my business even survive?
Luckily, the great Instagram Outage of 2019 was fixed within the day. But that doesn’t mean the next one will be, too.
So I want to talk to you about implementing an IOP (Instagram Outage Plan).
We both know you didn’t spend insane amounts of time, effort, & money to start & run your business just to be at the mercy of a free platform. This is why you need to work to diversify your online presence.
When just starting out, you may have heard that it’s beneficial to “focus on one (offer, platform, etc)” and honestly, that’s horrible advice.
Running a business isn’t easy. This is just an attempt by inexperienced business coaches to line their pockets by tricking people into thinking it’s easier than it is.
Okay, harsh, but… it’s true.
Every business needs to implement these before the next Instagram Outage:
- A website. Your very own home on the internet in which to welcome, host, & nurture your audience.
- An email list. A personal directory of people that love you & your business.
- A diverse social media presence. A few different neighborhoods to walk in & meet new people, that you may then add to your directory & invite over to your house.
- A robust system to tie them all together. A foolproof plan to make sure your business is completely covered if one of these things loses power or floods or… you get the idea.
And if this seems like a lot, it’s because it is.
- There’s no sugar-coating it. But the peace of mind you feel once you have all of these things set up & running like a well-oiled machine? Priceless.
If you’re ready to stop being at the mercy of social media platforms, & start taking your brand’s future into your own hands, reach out & see how we can help. Zehra Studio offers all of this, plus a complete branding strategy & identity system, inside of our all-inclusive atelier package. Get in touch with us to see how we can support you in strengthening & elevating your impactful brand!
