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Following the widespread outages experienced by Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger on Monday, Sam O’Brien, Chief Marketing Officer at performance marketing platform Affise, offers up his insight into how this six hour social media halt could impact the business and brands that rely on the platforms on a daily basis.

“Last night’s outage is estimated to have cost $17m an hour, so approximately $102m in total, and when you look at how many businesses use ads on the platform this is hardly surprising!

“Yesterday’s outage of such prolific platforms caused a global panic amongst not only the users who felt lost without access to their profiles and ability to communicate with those closest to them, it also would have had a severe impact on planned social activity for millions of global businesses. 

“More than 4 million businesses currently use Instagram Stories per month, and this number is rapidly increasing. Using a platform like Instagram Stories ads to target and engage with potential new customers gives brands and companies of all sizes the opportunity to showcase a full-screen experience and highlight their offering to users of the app.

“Affiliate and Partner marketing is fast becoming the backbone of the majority of companies' marketing strategy, with 80%+ of global brands now relying on the power of affiliates and affiliate marketing to increase awareness and profits. 

“Facebook now accounts for 9% of all digital advertising, with 92% of social media marketing happening on Facebook. When you see figures like this, the reality of how integral social platforms are really hits home, especially among those who may still think of sites like Instagram and Facebook as nothing more than an app to wish friends happy birthday and post pictures of your recent holiday or new puppy. There are no doubt many marketers breathing a sigh of relief this morning that the pressure of the outage didn’t last longer than six hours - I know I am!”