If someone were to ask you what tools you utilize to fight website downtime, your immediate answer may likely be, "An internet site monitoring service". While that answer in and of itself isn't a bad one, if a website monitoring service is the only tool in your arsenal contrary to the havoc that website downtime can make for your online business, you are not taking a comprehensive approach to protecting your organization from downtime's effects, nor are you currently protecting your site's reputation to the best of one's abilities. While an internet site monitoring service happens to be a "must-have" tool when it comes to fighting website downtime's consequences, it isn't the only tool you need to employ. For those who have yet to explore how social media may be used to your advantage in the fight against the damage due to dreaded website downtime, here are several things to consider.
Communication Is Key
If your customers can't do something that they wish to accomplish while visiting your website, 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 usage of it. Obviously, if your site is experiencing any kind of downtime, you can't use 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 could be down, social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter tend up and running. Assuming you have invested time and effort into creating a social media presence and a following on these sites, you can use these platforms to talk to your customers when downtime issues do arise. Let's look at two example scenarios to see the difference that using social media marketing in conjunction with your site monitoring service can make.
Scenario One
Site 1 has gone down. They will have no social media marketing exposure, no accounts, no followings. They have no chance of communicating with their potential customers regarding the downtime they are experiencing or updating customers as to when the site should be expected to be back up and running. When customers go to the site they get one 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 buy things. Site 1 begins to reduce customers to the competition, whose websites are up and running and who have better means of communication.
Scenario Two
Site 2 has put social media profiles in place and the company has worked on gaining a large social media following in addition to using a website monitoring service. The company has prepared for the worst plus they know that when website downtime occurs, they have to use the social media tools at their disposal to communicate with customers regarding said downtime. When mohela.com status is notified of downtime by their website monitoring service, each goes to work to find out what has caused the downtime so they can communicate the problem with the public, utilizing their social media accounts. When the company has estimated how long it will take to have the site back up and running, they communicate this making use of their customers as well. They could even use the social media marketing platforms to advertise an "apology" offer that allows affected customers to receive a collection dollar amount off or a percentage off a future purchase to compensate for the inconvenience. Not only 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 in place. You are made aware the moment downtime occurs. The question is, exactly what will you do while you are notified by your site monitoring service that there surely is a downtime issue occurring? Should myfedloan.org status 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 customers and fostering goodwill and respect amongst them.
If you have yet to put social media to work for your website, now is the time to create a social media marketing presence so you can have your customer following created and built before a concern with downtime occurs. Then, when your website monitoring service alerts you that downtime is becoming an issue, it is possible to go to work to use those social media tools accordingly.