Social Media Rapture 2021

So yesterday. Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp were down. In what almost seemed like a digital rapture. This has happened before of course but with the pandemic and fuel scarcity issue, people’s minds were going into overdrive.

So there I was trying to send a message at around 3pm to a group chat and couldn’t get through. I asked my brother if his internet was ok and he was like yes so I just thought hmm. The new iPhone is out, it must be Apple trying to get me to get a new phone. I just brushed it off until I had to do a podcast recording and couldn’t get in contact with the person. Listen I don’t play about my money and I’ll take any publicity that comes my way.

Then I remembered the patterns of previous social media outages and thought yes we were definitely having another one. Now mind you this morning I just opened a Tik-Tok account for my company and this was almost the sign I knew we needed to push our content onto various platforms.

On the business side I wasn’t worried though you know why? I have a website (www.zasikglobal.com and mailing list (click this link to subscribe if you haven’t done so already http://eepurl.com/hHASlv). When I need to reach my customers it’s at a click of a button. But how many businesses have that luxury. Especially within the African communities.

Facebook really helped me with sourcing fresh produce from suppliers in other parts of Zambia. Now poof that platform was down. I feel sorry for the marketeers who solely depend on those platforms as a primary source of income.

Do you know what’s funny? Someone told me Instagram and Facebook are trying to get into e-commerce. Not trying they are doing it. (You can also purchase groceries for your family on our Facebook page Zasikglobal and Instagram @zasik.global) Imagine depending on them around eg. Christmas our busiest time and customers not being able to place their orders. Yikes.

I’ve always been the one to join Facebook groups and listen in on business talks on Clubhouse. The one thing that was consistent is the fact that they would always tell Women, in my case, to have a place to be found if something ever happened to social media platforms.

On a personal level. I was actually good. Let me reiterate. I have had my blog for over 7 years this posting thing isn’t new to me. I’ve been taking pictures and putting it into my album pre socials. Lol that was a humble brag. I digress.

Here are a few tips for business owners:

1. Be on as many platforms as possible. Did an oldie in the back ask what are they? Well. Apart from Instagram and Facebook. These are Pinterest, Twitter, Tik-Tok, Snapchat, YouTube. And a substitute for WhatsApp is Telegram.

2. You need a website. How are you a business owner without a website? And don’t tell me it’s expensive. When I started my e-commerce journey I used Big Cartel which is free for the first 30 sales each month. Stop making excuses!

3. Start a mailing list. I must say it was truly draining starting a mailing list. Actually it’s draining learning how to do anything until it’s done. Start a mailing list on Mail Chimp or ask people subscribe to your website. This will allow you to engage with your customers if this happens again.

4. Hand out flyers often – ha. It’s funny right. Why would you hand out your business card or flyer? Oh it makes sense now doesn’t it after not having the major platforms running. It’s simple. So that people know how to find you. It’s important when you are a need based business to capitalise on any form of publishing even if it is old school.

No one can tell when social media platforms will go down. As a business owner would you survive without Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp??