Website Monitoring Service and The Social Media Networks

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 is not a bad one, in case a website monitoring service may be 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 approach to protecting your business from downtime's effects, nor are you protecting your site's reputation to the best of your abilities. While a website monitoring service is definitely a "must-have" tool with regards to fighting website downtime's consequences, it isn't the only tool you should employ. Should you have yet to explore how social media may be used to your advantage in the fight the damage caused by dreaded website downtime, below are a few things to consider.

Communication Is Key

If your customers can't do something they wish to accomplish while visiting your website, such as create a purchase or browse your site's offerings, they will wish to know why the site isn't available when they want usage of it. Obviously, if your website is experiencing any type of downtime, you can't use the pages of your site to go into detail about what has gone awry or give your visitors 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 effort and time into creating a social media presence and a following on these sites, you should 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 in conjunction with your website monitoring service could make.

Scenario One

Site 1 went down. They have no social media marketing exposure, no accounts, no followings. They have no way of communicating making use of their potential customers regarding the downtime they are experiencing or updating customers as to when the site can be expected to be back up and running. When customers go to the site they get one message saying the website is down because of technical issues, but no more 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 the competition, whose websites are ready to go and who've better means of communication.

Scenario Two

Site 2 has put social media profiles in place and the company has worked on gaining a big social media following in addition to using a website monitoring service. The business 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 talk to 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 issue with the public, using their social media accounts. Once the company has estimated just 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 marketing platforms to market an "apology" offer that allows affected customers to receive a collection dollar amount off or perhaps a percentage off a future purchase to compensate for the inconvenience.  ewtn.com status  does this foster goodwill among customers, it helps ensure that customers will wait until the downtime issue has passed so that they can make use of the apology offer instead of going to a competitor to satisfy their needs.

Which Company's Lead Will You Follow?

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

If you have yet to put social media to work for your online business, this is the time to create a social media marketing presence to help you 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, you can go to work to use those social media tools accordingly.