Facebook faces a global blackout… and we all want to know what happened?!

As we’re sure you experienced, on Monday last week (4 October 2021), you and 3.5 billion people around the globe were unable to log into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp for 6 hours causing widespread panic. Facebook has stated that this was a glitch that occurred during a routine maintenance check on its routers. This was the largest one ever experienced by Facebook.

Since the last outage, which occurred in the early 2000s, the company has monopolized on various sectors of the economy, gaining ownership of other mega social networks like Instagram and WhatsApp; and has become a highly integral part of our daily lives. Facebook’s functionality is also used across the internet for logins into other platforms; as well as logins for tech-home devices.
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Businesses; who rely heavily on the platform for connecting with audiences, promoting products, and creating brand awareness; are at risk of significant impact during these outages. Some businesses have reported sales drops of up to 70% during the outage – according to The New York Times.

As marketers and solution creators, this brings us to a time where we start to think about our marketing practices and perhaps one that in time, that does not involve Facebook. Do we create a pivot whereby our platforms change or the focus shifts? Is it a matter of creating a sequencing system that is reactive to potential downtime to counter potential losses? As time goes by, as do digital marketing practices, it reveals the importance of not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Only time will tell for what is to come, we can only look forward to new technologies or Facebook stepping up their game even higher than what they have. Let’s be honest, we’d hate to see it go!