Why Was Facebook Down? Will It Happen Again? Here Is What You Should Know As A Small Business Owner

On Monday, 4th of October 2021, Facebook suffered a huge outage that caused the platform and all its main apps like WhatsApp and Instagram to go offline for several hours.

The company reported the outage was due to a network configuration error, while some have the theory that it’s no coincidence.

I won’t bore you with the technical or conspiracy details here, but you can check out this article if you’re interested.

Now, what does this mean for your small business? And most importantly, will this happen again?

 

How Facebook Downtime Affected Small Businesses

Some small business owners reported how the six hours downtime Facebook had impacted their business.

One person saw a one-fourth drop in sales in just a few hours. A whopping 75% drop in sales! While another saw a huge drop in engagement.

The owner of an online clothing store, Porsche Jones, reported they recorded no sales for the first time since they opened last November.

 

What Facebook Downtime Mean For Small Businesses

This basically means that as a small business owner, you can’t put all your eggs in a basket. You need a backup plan.

Stop relying on only Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram to connect with your customers or clients.

It’s time to build a reliable and effective business website that you can seamlessly and quickly fallback to, if you ever get cut off from these platforms.

 

Why You Need A Website For Your Small Business

If your small business doesn’t own a website in 2022, then you should consider building one.

Your business website is what helps you stay online when major internet platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or TikTok go down.

The cost of owning and maintaining a website is way lesser than the amount you could lose, if you get disconnected from your customers for too long.

If you’ve already built a website for your small business, then it’s time to upgrade it from just a digital portfolio that only showcases your work, to a fully effective digital platform for connecting and staying connected with your clients and customers.

 

Conclusion

Now, will this happen again? No one can specifically say. But this isn’t the first time Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp went down.

No one knows when the next time will be, or how long the next downtime will last.

But as a small business owner that relies on the internet to connect with customers, you need to be prepared. You need to take proactive steps to ensure whatever happens next won’t impact your business negatively.