London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

Instagram's Outage Convinced Small Business Owners That They Need Their Own Websites

Instagram's Outage Convinced Small Business Owners That They Need Their Own Websites

“I plan to have my own website soon so people can order off that,” said one jewelry designer. “I cannot control Instagram.”

Jewelry designer Alex Rankin sells 25 handmade rings on a busy day via her Instagram store, earning her just over $150. On Monday, with the social media giant down for hours, she sold zero.

“It was awful,” Rankin told BuzzFeed News.

From sponsored posts to Instagram's storefront, various tools built into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have become embedded in business plans and budgets for even the smallest enterprises. Small business owners were at the mercy of Facebook on Monday after an outage lasting more than six hours left some with no way to generate revenue or speak with customers. And after losing sales, business owners told BuzzFeed News it made them question how much they should rely on Facebook products.

“Without social media, I wouldn’t have a business,” 19-year-old Rankin said. “It’s how I advertise my rings and how I take my orders for the rings, and how I get my page out there.”

Since launching on Instagram two months ago, her business Crafted by Alex is entirely reliant on the platform, but the outage prompted Rankin to begin a more long-term strategy.

“I plan to have my own website soon so people can order off that,” Rankin said. “I cannot control Instagram.”

The impact of the outage on businesses who use Facebook products has yet to be quantified, but early estimates of the cost to the social media giant put the losses at $100 million.

In response to the impact of the outage on businesses owners, Facebook, which owns Instagram, issued an apology, but it made no clear commitments on how it planned to rectify the losses and mitigate any future mishaps.

"To everyone who was affected by the outages on our platforms today: we’re sorry,” a Facebook company spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in a statement. “We know billions of people and businesses around the world depend on our products and services to stay connected. We appreciate your patience as we come back online."

Daisey Miller


Daisey Miller, the owner of a holistic wellness center based in Sacramento, described the “strange” moment she noticed she was unable to use her business Instagram account.

“I realized how reliant we are as small business owners on connecting with our clients through Instagram,” Miller said.

Over the past three years, the platform contributed tremendously to the growth of her business, which includes yoga, nutritional consulting, and holistic beauty.

“Instagram is basically how I run my entire business, and I would say 95% to 99% of my clients reach out to me for the first time on Instagram,” the 23-year-old said.

She believes the outage potentially cost her hundreds of dollars' worth of appointments and prospective clients. It was also a sobering reminder that her business lacked independence from social media and the content creation mill that had grown her following.

“It made me realize that I do need to do more, and so it's really urged me to finish up with a website, and I think I'm going to start a newsletter where people will give me their emails, even if they're not current clients of mine,” Miller said.

That’s exactly the advice that Jess Sims, cofounder of the Doers, a brand marketing agency, gave to her clients stressing about the outage.

“We always recommend working with your brand-owned channels, so things like your website, your email database,” Sims said. “They're ones that you can always rely on being there, and you have full control over them.”

Social media managers and digital marketers even found themselves the target of memes as they scrambled to respond to the outage.

Sims encouraged clients to pivot to Twitter to join the wider conversation, even for brands who weren’t accustomed to using the microblogging platform for anything other than customer service.

“Last night it was a case of looking for them to see if there's any opportunities for them to respond to things or have a bit of brand banter with someone else about the outage or just anything that could raise their awareness on the other channel,” she said.

Except that’s much harder for a small business. Hamda Issa-Salwe, who runs the Somali tea brand Ayeeyo’s Blends in the UK, told BuzzFeed News she stayed calm and moved the content she had planned from Instagram over to the company’s Twitter page — but she couldn’t reach the same audience.

“Our following is a 1-to-7 ratio from Twitter to Instagram. It's seven times bigger on Instagram,” she said.

Issa-Salwe said the outage has made her look into a contingency plan of ways to diversify the business's outreach.

“I'm thinking, How many emails do we have? How many people have we got subscribed?” said Issa-Salwe. "In case we do want to launch something like a newsletter in the future."

David Manshoory, cofounder and COO of Alleyoop, a beauty and body products company that first launched on Instagram, said that when the outage hit, "I’m like, Thank goodness we’re diversified.”

Instead, the company sent out an “Instagram might be down, but our site isn’t” promo code message via SMS and email to customers.

The company still felt a drop though; Manshoory said sales were down about 10%.

“It proves a point that you can’t control everything, and it’s good to have the business grow on multiple legs instead of one,” he said.

Hamda Issa-Salwe, owner of Ayeeyo’s Blends, a Somali tea brand


And other small businesses are learning that lesson, fast. Although the outage affected the UK in the evening, Issa-Salwe said that’s when most of her sales are made.

“I did see quite a dip in sales," she said, “but interestingly enough, now that it's gone back online today, we did have a bit of a surge in sales earlier in the day."

Her suspicion? People were making up for lost time, spending Tuesday on Instagram to "catch up with everything that they didn't see yesterday.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×