Notes

Website Monitoring Service and The SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Networks
If someone were to ask you what tools you utilize to fight website downtime, your immediate answer may likely be, "A website monitoring service". While that answer in and of itself isn't a bad one, in case a website monitoring service is the only tool in your arsenal contrary to the havoc that website downtime can make for your web business, you are not taking a comprehensive method of protecting your business from downtime's effects, nor are you protecting your site's reputation to the best of one's abilities. While a website monitoring service is definitely a "must-have" tool in terms of fighting website downtime's consequences, it isn't the only tool you have to employ. When you have yet to explore how social media marketing may be used to your advantage in the fight the damage caused by dreaded website downtime, here are several things to consider.

Communication Is Key

If your customers can't do something they want to do while visiting your site, such as make a purchase or browse your site's offerings, they will want to know why the site isn't available when they want access to it. Obviously, if your site is experiencing any type of downtime, you can't utilize the pages of one's site to get into detail about what went awry or give these potential customers estimates as to when they can expect the site to be functional again. That's where social media comes into play.

While your site may be down, social media marketing networks such as Facebook and Twitter tend up and running. For those who have invested time and effort into creating a social media marketing presence and a following on these sites, you should use these platforms to talk to your visitors when downtime issues do arise. Let's look at two example scenarios to see the difference that using social media in conjunction with your website monitoring service can make.

Scenario One

Site 1 has gone down. They have no social media exposure, no accounts, no followings. They have no way of communicating making use of their potential customers concerning the downtime they are experiencing or updating customers concerning when the site should be expected to be back ready to go. When customers go to the site they get one message saying the site is down due to technical issues, but no further information is given. Customers become frustrated with the continued downtime so when they do, they begin searching other websites to meet up their needs and make purchases. Site 1 begins to reduce customers to your competition, whose websites are up and running and who have better method of communication.

Scenario Two

Site 2 has put social media profiles set up and the company spent some time working on gaining a big social media following besides using a website monitoring service. The company has prepared for the worst and they understand that when website downtime occurs, they have to use the social media tools at their disposal to communicate with customers regarding said downtime. Once the business is notified of downtime by their website monitoring service, they go to work to determine what has caused the downtime to allow them to communicate the problem with the public, utilizing their social media accounts. Once the company has estimated how long it will take to have the site back ready to go, they communicate this with their customers as well. They could even use the social media platforms to advertise an "apology" offer that allows affected customers to get a collection dollar amount off or perhaps a percentage off a future purchase to compensate for the inconvenience. Not merely does this foster goodwill among customers, it helps make sure that customers will wait before downtime issue has passed in order to take advantage of the apology offer rather than going to a competitor to fulfill their needs.

Which Company's Lead DO YOU WANT TO Follow?

You've got a website monitoring service set up. You are made aware the moment downtime occurs. The question is, exactly what will you do if you are notified by your website monitoring service that there surely is a downtime issue occurring? For those who have invested time and effort into setting up social media accounts and developing a customer following, you may use those social media tools to your advantage, providing transparency to your visitors and fostering goodwill and respect amongst them.

In case you have yet to put social media to work for your online business, this is the time to create a social media marketing presence so that you can have your customer following created and built before a concern with downtime occurs. Then, whenever your website monitoring service alerts you that downtime has become an issue, you can go to work to utilize those social media marketing tools accordingly.
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