Facebook and Instagram were down for six hours on Monday, and we all lost our minds. At least that’s what it felt like if you were on Twitter 🙂

However, that “event”, coupled with all the recent Facebook news (whistleblower; the fact that they’ve been outright lying to people about their user numbers among younger people; and the leaked documents about how Insta is bad for kids-and they knew it), got me thinking: How much longer will Facebook be one of our primary social media platforms?

Based on Monday’s event, and the laundry list of PR debacles Facebook is facing, my advice would be to ask yourself the following questions as soon as possible:

1: Are you relying on Facebook too much in your social media marketing plans?

2: Are you over-indexed in Facebook advertising vs. other platforms? In other words, could you spread the wealth a bit more among Insta, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social ad channels?

3: And finally, what does your social media marketing plan look like if Facebook isn’t an option? Because, increasingly, I’m starting to think that’s a very real scenario!

It’s beyond time to take a real hard look at your Facebook activity and spend–and ask yourself and your teams some tough questions. Let Monday be the final wake-up call.

And, if you are ready to divest yourself from Facebook, there are options. Good, solid, viable options.

Facebook certainly does not have a corner on the market when it comes to reaching coveted demographic groups. For example:

Are you trying to reach young men ages 18-24? They make up 14% of all Facebook users. 

You may have never considered this platform before, but it’s ripe for young men: Reddit. 36% of all Americans 18-29 years old have used Reddit. That’s a pretty big number. And yeah, Reddit’s not exactly Facebook. Not even close. But, ad options are evolving and proliferating on the platform. And it’s clearly a place more young men are spending time.

Are you trying to reach middle-aged Moms 35-44? They make up 10% of all Facebook users?

This is a common demo may brands are after on Facebook. But, did you know that 42% of all TikTok users are ages 30-49. And that 59% of all users on TikTok are women. As we all know, TikTok is on the way up–TikTok’s annual users have grown from 65M in 2017 to one billion in 2021! Not to mention the ad and shopping options that are quickly evolving on Tiktok–it’s turning into an ideal tool to reach middle-aged moms.

Trying to reach young Millennial men ages 25-34? They make up 19% of all Facebook users.

Surprisingly, Instagram might be a good bet here. 17% of all Insta users are guys ages 25-34. And, even thought you’d be investing in the same master (Facebook owns Insta, obviously), Instagram is a much different space than Facebook. It’s more uplifting, more aspirational. This is appealing to many brands, unlike Facebook’s negative breeding ground it has created fueled by misinformation.

Are you trying to reach younger women ages 25-34? They make up 13% of all Facebook users.

Pinterest might be a better option here. 30% of Pinterest’s audience is young women ages 25-34. And, unlike Facebook, which increasingly has become a very negative place, these users are far more happy. 8 in 10 Pinterest users say the platform makes them feel positive.