#Facebookdown! What should I do when Facebook and Instagram go down?

Glitches and errors on major websites can cost you money if you don't react properly.One of the perils of online marketing is when websites go down. 

If you're running ads or managing social media, you probably feel frustrated and powerless when this happens. I can tell you personally that my main source of grey hairs is when Facebook or Instagram have an outage!

The latest issue, as of 7/3/2019, is related to images not displaying. Obviously this is a problem because a) posts with photos and videos perform better than text-only posts, and b) the broken images are an eyesore! Here's an example:

Although these outages and glitches usually only last a few hours, here are the steps you can take to bolster your social presence when a social media platform is having issues.

1. Check isitdownrightnow.com. 

You can check any website to see if it's up, down, or having issues. You can also Google "is Facebook down" and see if any recent news articles pop up. This will give you a sense of whether it's just you or a bigger problem. It can also give you a sense of the timeframe for a fix.

2. Consider pausing ads.

This might be extreme and unnecessary - if Facebook is down for everyone, you don't have to worry about anyone seeing your ads! But if Facebook is having a display glitch, like what's happening today (July 3, 2019) your ads may be showing with no images. Yuck! Pause the ads until you're sure the issue has been resolved. 

3. Jump onto a different platform.

What's the first thing I do when I think Facebook is having issues? I hop onto Twitter to see if people are talking about it! Consider posting on LinkedIn or Twitter something like, "Sorry if the #Facebookoutage means you can't see our listings on FB or Instagram right now! We're still here - just go to our website to get your fix for now!"

4. Reschedule posts as necessary.

You don't want anyone missing the excellent content you have programmed for today! You might want to move today's posts forward a day (or just a few hours) to ensure it gets posted when people are actually able to view it!

5. Relax.

Don't worry about it. No one is going to blame you when Facebook has a hiccup. Just stay on top of the issue, check back often, and go about your day.

Not sure what to do with your time while you wait? Use it to focus on improving your website while you wait for The Book and The Gram to pull themselves together!