LITTLE ROCK, Ark — A day after Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down globally, local business owners are trying to catch up with content, networking, marketing and advertising on the social media sites.
Whether they're selling things in a store or online, social media is a crucial tool for entrepreneurs.
"I have a lot of people who watch me live and then I have people who will come back at the end of the day and watch it as they have time and off work," said Kandy White, the owner of Yarn Kandy in Little Rock.
It's a part of her everyday routine to promote her products online.
She sets up her ring lights around her phone and with one push of a button she goes live. She utilizes social media apps by making videos to promote her yarn kits, but Monday pushed her content back.
"I still had my online store so I posted what I talked about but I didn't get to point them cause Facebook and Instagram make it a little easier cause you can do a post, you can post a kit and you can link it back to your online page," said White.
Kaye Chambers is a real estate agent with Keller Williams.
Facebook being down in her profession meant she needed to start using other options for customers relationship management
"This happening is such a huge eye opener for so many of us, because honestly for those of us relying heavily on social media this can happen any time. I realized I needed to start taking people's contacts off of social media. Putting them in my CRM," said Chambers.
According to Toni Boyer Stewart who's a web marketer and analyst for UA Little Rock, what happened yesterday was a large DNS outage.
"DNS is kind of like the phone book of the internet or a phone book for IP addresses connecting. Facebook is the largest social network and it has the largest following, but you have to diversify your platforms."
Stewart said it's smart for businesses to utilize other social media platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Snapchat and Google as well.
Since those could expectantly crash too, a business website should be their bread and butter.
"While Facebook and Instagram are great tools, when they go down it's kind of interesting," said White.