Deb MilesDo you rely on social media to communicate with your client? Are you ready to pivot your business when faced with a technical outage? Let’s have a look at critical reasons you need to move away from your reliance on social media.
The last few years have seen many businesses having to learn how to pivot in the face of a crisis, and moving online has been a major method for keeping the business cogs turning. However, there is a saying which I think you might be familiar with – “Never Put All Your Eggs in One Basket”.
This saying has never hit home more than October 2021 when Facebook and all its subsidiaries experienced a global outage. This followed in the footsteps of outages experienced by Google, not once but four times between 2018 – 2020. While the financial costs of the outages in 2021 for small business is largely unknown, it is estimated to have cost Mr Zuckerberg in excess of $60 Million in advertising fees.
And that is a lot of advertising that small businesses were using at that time through just one social media conglomerate.
Unfortunately, while financials were not known, the time lost for businesses was 6 – 7 hours, which is significant for any small business, particularly in Australia when the time was experienced in prime marketing hours. This presented a massive hit for those businesses who moved to social media with all those eggs put into one basket pretty much getting smashed during that one outage. Another blow for small business who pivoted towards social media in the first place.
Relying on social media for developing your business and reaching your client, while a pertinent strategy, is still fraught with many risks. There is no denying that social media marketing has become a billion-dollar industry, particularly with the advent of the Insta-famous celebrity, but relying solely on social media should never be your only means of marketing online. Let it be one method of communicating with your clients. In fact, let it be a strong method for supporting your message online but not the only method.
Social Media should just be one way of delivering your message and growing your business.
Diversifying your communication strategy ensures you reduce the risk of technical outages that are out of your control, while giving you flexibility to reach a wider audience. Not only does a diverse marketing plan mitigate your risks, but it also gives you an opportunity to engage with your current client while attracting new ones.
Your marketing plan should be about providing you and your clients with alternatives. Make it easier for your clients to access information and to reach out when they need. Form an integrated multi-channel marketing strategy and grow.
In the next article I will discuss a variety of other platforms you should be utilising to deliver your message, and increase the number of ways to communicate with your current audience while growing your audience reach.
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Rebecca-Lee
Jacq Koloski
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