Notes

Website Monitoring Service and The Social Media Networks
If someone were to ask you what tools you use 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, if a website monitoring service may be the only tool in your arsenal contrary to the havoc that website downtime can make for your online business, you are not going for a comprehensive approach to protecting your organization from downtime's effects, nor are you protecting your site's reputation to the best of your abilities. While a website monitoring service happens to be a "must-have" tool with regards to fighting website downtime's consequences, it is not the only tool you need to employ. Should you have yet to explore how social media marketing may be used to your advantage in the fight against the damage due to dreaded website downtime, here are some things to consider.

Communication Is Key

If your visitors can't do something that they want to do while visiting your site, such as make a purchase or browse your site's offerings, they are going to want to know why the site isn't available if they want usage of it. Obviously, if your website is experiencing any sort of downtime, you can't use the pages of your site to go 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 is necessary.

While your site could 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 presence and a following on these sites, you can use these platforms to communicate with your visitors when downtime issues do arise. Let's look at two example scenarios to start to see the difference that using social media in conjunction with your site monitoring service can make.

Scenario One

Site 1 went down. They have no social media exposure, no accounts, and no followings. They have no way of communicating with their potential customers regarding the downtime they're experiencing or updating customers as to when the site should be expected to be back up and running. When customers visit the site they get an error message saying the website 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 lose customers to your competition, whose websites are up and running and who've better means of communication.

Scenario Two

Site 2 has put social media marketing profiles in place and the company has worked on gaining a big social media following as well as utilizing a website monitoring service. The company has prepared for the worst plus they understand that when website downtime occurs, they need to use the social media marketing 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, using their social media accounts. Once the company has estimated how long it will take to find the site back ready to go, they communicate this with their customers as well. They may even use the social media platforms to market an "apology" offer that allows affected customers to receive a set dollar amount off or a percentage off a future purchase to pay for the inconvenience. Not merely does this foster goodwill among customers, it can help ensure that customers will wait until the downtime issue has passed so that they can make use of the apology offer instead of likely to a competitor to satisfy their needs.

Which Company's Lead DO YOU WANT TO Follow?

You have a website monitoring service in place. You are made aware as soon as downtime occurs. The question is, exactly what will you do if you are notified by your site monitoring service that there is a downtime issue occurring? Assuming you have invested time and effort into setting up social media marketing accounts and developing a customer following, you need to use those social media tools in your favor, providing transparency to your customers and fostering goodwill and respect amongst them.

Assuming you have yet to put social media to work for your website, this is the time to create a social media marketing presence in order to 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, it is possible to go to work to utilize those social media marketing tools accordingly.
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