Outage: Is it Facebook or Me?

If you've tried logging onto Facebook today (Sept. 23, 2010), you may be wondering if there's something wrong with your internet connection or if Facebook is down. Fear not; it's not you! Sadly, it seems many people and their grandparents (yes, your customers' grandparents are likely trying to access Facebook also) are receiving a message similar to this one:

 

According to my source at the world's No. 1 social networking site, Facebook is currently experiencing "site issues" causing the platform to either be slow or unavailable for some members.

Today's outage--the second in as many days--calls into question the viability of depending on Facebook exclusively (or any other third-party communication platform for that matter) for your company's engagement campaigns. As I point out in 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Abandon Your Blog for Facebook, you should view your company blog--assuming you have one--as operation central for your organization's market positioning, communications and online community building initiatives, not Facebook.

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