We are all aware of Blue Monday (4th October 2021) when Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp were down as we were forced to be either ‘off grid’ or use the terribly character restrictive Twitter for 6-7 hours…but did you know it went down again Friday (8th October) evening?  In fact according to ‘Downdetector’ Instagram has had 192 outages (in the UK) in the last 12 months.

Now I know that personally most people don’t really care, especially if you’re 40+, because social media is just a drain and lets be honest…Who cares what an old school friend you haven’t spoken to in over 30 years, had for tea last night, or that they’ve felt the need to post a picture of their NHS MRI request letter because they felt they needed to prove to the world they are having some ‘tests’.  Blatant attention seeking over medical issues is a bug bear of mine after losing my husband/best friend and soulmate, who valiantly fought cancer for 4 years.

However, I digress.

As a online business owner in 2021 any outage is actually quite concerning and potentially damaging.  As a business most of what we put out on social media is brand and audience building.  The people that follower your pages, groups, comment on your posts etc.  These are the people you tell exactly who you serve and what you can do for them.  It’s the quickest and cheapest way to roll out a new product, service, course, offering etc.  It’s where you drive everyone to your link.tree/website.

But what if it’s not there anymore? 😱

How do you find your people if the main platforms you use are gone?

Honestly, jesting aside…what would you do?  Take a minute to think about it.  Yes you’d get a heap of time back because you haven’t got to spend hours thinking of content but how would you reach ‘your’ people?

Now I don’t have a massive following but the thought of losing what little I have absolutely petrifies me.  Now I know a lot of people could move their communities to Circle.so but it’s not free, relatively unheard of and not suitable for all businesses.

All I can say, is ‘email list!

If you’ve not thought about it before, or you’ve got one but you don’t nurture it, then it’s time to sort that out.

By building your lists you are creating an audience that are hopefully interested in what you have to say, and subsequently interested in what you have to offer.

Although a weekly email to you audience is recommended, starting with a fortnightly/monthly letter is better than nothing.

Genie Top Tips

👠 Make notes about random things that have happened in your week.

👠 Think about the industry relevant topics you can talk about without any prep.

For more information on Email Lists then please check out a previous blog I wrote – Email or Emither List.

Or by all means book a  Genie Powerhour if you’d like to discuss this in more depth and go through your whole lead funnel process from lead magnet to email nurture sequence.