Twitter to the rescue? Recently Twitter did help one of my clients with her problem.
The call
I received a call from a panicked client one evening recently. “I can’t access my web site. I think there’s something wrong with my internet”.
First I helped my client test various web sites and we determined that her internet was working just not the admin access to her web site which she needed to update. So next I asked her who is her web host.
Twitter to the rescue
I couldn’t reach her web site admin either or even the web site for her web host. So I searched Twitter to see if her web host had an account. Sure enough the web host has an account and they were tweeting about their service problems with an ETA on the fix. My client wasn’t thrilled about the outage but at least she knew what was going and when they expected it to be fixed.
Follow your suppliers
I recommend you follow your important suppliers on social media particularly Twitter. This can be the fastest way to find out if there is a service outage. And you can avoid waiting on hold forever with their technical department.
Here are some key supplier Twitter Handles:
- @TELUSsupport
- @Shawhelp
- @downrightnowtoo this account reports outages for major suppliers like Facebook
- @ScanBC reports emergencies province wide road closures
Who should you follow on social media?
Your web host, cloud service providers, your tech consultant, utility providers like your phone company and Hydro, and anyone company that provides mission critical service for your business.
