Earlier this week, Facebook Inc and its subsidiary web-based services were out of service for a portion of the day. This meant that for about six hours users could not access Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp at all. Being that the world today is so heavily dependent on social media, users immediately went into a panic about not being able to use their favorite apps. A shutdown of this level is something that most people assume thought was impossible for a business such as Facebook.
A scarier fact from this situation is that Facebook lost approximately $22,000/minute that those sites were down and Mark Zuckerburg lost about $6 billion dollars of his personal net worth over the course of the shutdown. That’s $1 billion/hour! We all know that losing $6 billion isn’t the end of the world for Zuckerburg, who consistently finds himself on the list of the wealthiest people in the world, but what about the small businesses that also depend heavily on Facebook & Instagram for sales and new business.
Over the last few years, there has been an influx in small business owners who utilize only Facebook and Instagram for running their businesses because “Why should I pay for a site when everybody buys from Instagram anyway?”. Any seasoned entrepreneur/business owner knows that allowing your business’ digital base to live under somebody else’s control is a capital offense.
Our founder, Eric Woodson, always stresses the importance of having your own websites/URLs to newer business owners. The main fact is that if it lives under somebody else’s control/domain, you are subjected to any difficulties or struggles that their business may endure. Prior to this week, a shutdown of social media was unfathomable, but many people have now seen the light.
Every business, whether brick-and-mortar or digital, needs a digital home base. Here at The Kool Source, we believe in helping our clients get Visible, Found, & Paid. An easy analogy is to think of this in terms of a brick-and-mortar business. In order for your business to get found and paid it has to first be visible. Just as a brick-and-mortar needs an address and physical structure, in the digital world this is your URL and website design.
Now think of whether you would rent or own your business’ physical location. On one hand, rental is a lower barrier of entry and is great for the short term, but also carries the potential of being affected by your landlord’s decision-making. The flip side of that is ownership, which carries a higher barrier of entry but also is more secure long-term. This is essentially the same thing with running a business with a home base on social media vs on your own website.
Where is your business’s home base? Do you do business primarily through Facebook & Instagram and no true website? Are you still confident in sticking with that method long-term? DOn’t make the mistake of getting complacent and let another social media outage catch you “with your pants down”.
If your business or brand is in need of a new site, site update, or landing page, our team at The Kool Source is more than capable of meeting those needs. Visit for full details and pricing on our Web Design services. You’ve built your business, now allow our team to create your business’ “digital home”.
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