Not long ago, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were down for a couple of hours. It immediately became world news. Many businesses and influencers were already fearing their content, which took countless hours to create, was gone forever. Now that the platforms are accessible again and the panic has subsided, we thought it was time to highlight a less recognized strength of Facebook: its value as a B2B communication platform.
For a long time, people considered Facebook a platform for kids and youngsters. Over the years, the network has gathered communities and content with a strong focus on lifestyle, photography, connecting with friends & family and posting popular content.
But the kids grew up and got everyone involved, and now Facebook is mainly where the older folks hang out. Which means that the decision makers your business is looking for are on Facebook. Which in turn makes Facebook a very interesting, but often underrated B2B platform.
What have we learned?
Try to be prepared, when another outage occurs, and it most likely will occur again, create ‘what if’ scenarios to cover the gap that might need to be filled.
Diversify your media spending, some companies depend a lot on a specific channel to drive traffic to the website. These companies might benefit from a more balanced use of social media ad platforms. In B2B communities, companies tend to have a heavy focus on LinkedIn advertising. Look beyond. Diversify your online presence if you want to prevent it from tumbling down if a platform becomes unavailable.
Are there any other lessons we have overlooked? Let us know what you’ve learned after the recent Facebook outage.