Social Media Emergency Averted
Knikkolette | Feb 13, 2012 | Comments 14
Have you ever done something, and after you did it wish you could immediately undo it? That happened to me last week. I read a blog post with great tips, nothing new. Many times I immediately follow those tips because the authors are people I’ve come to know and trust their content. What I didn’t do in this instance (and yes, it was entirely my fault) was read the fine print on a plugin I installed on my site. When I installed this plugin, it “broke” my site by locking me out. ACK!
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering by now, WHY am I being so long-winded and telling you all of this and HOW does this make for a Social Media Emergency? I like to think of myself as always being prepared for any emergency. I have my laptop backed up automatically real-time to a cloud service called BackBlaze. This is good, so if anything bad happens to my blog, (like this recent incident) I can restore from the backup.
This would have been a real emergency if I did NOT have a backup and something catastrophic happened to my site. It’s a social media emergency because in my instance, my blog is part of my social media marketing. I have new fans to my Facebook fan page because of my blog. If I would have had to rebuild my blog from scratch, a year’s worth of content, links, and comments from readers and fans would be lost forever.
What should you do to avert a similar social media emergency? There are several things, one is a site called BlogAid that can help you prepare. MaAnna, the owner of BlogAid offers site inspections showing you specific ways you can improve it. You’ll receive a thorough 20 point check including site security, plugins, setup, and SEO. MaAnna is currently running a special with extended hours February 19 through 26.
Of course there are the standard security plugins (which is what I currently have installed on my site) but after reading the services on the BlogAid site, those can be easily circumvented. All of a sudden, all of my preventive measures aren’t making me feel all warm and fuzzy.
I’ve decided I’m going to have her look at my site just for piece of mind. Even though I back up my blog and have anti-spam filters, and a security plugin, the peace of mind, just knowing that I’ve done everything I can do to thwart hackers, (and my own stupidity), well, you just can’t put a price on that! So, if you want that same peace of mind, check out BlogAid at this link http://www.blogaid.net/site-
Tell us about your averted crises or perhaps you have a problem you need solved? Be sure to comment below.
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Yikes! I’m so glad you were able to restore and all is not lost. Glad you wrote about this so I can keep this in mind and know that there’s BlogAid to the rescue!
Glad you’re back!
Jocelyn
Jocelyn Wilhelm recently posted..BufferApp Review
Thanks Jocelyn! I heard somewhere 73% of all businesses that lose their data go out of business within 2 years. I don’t know if that would apply to an online blog or if that’s more geared toward their business servers and data on their laptops, but still good reminders none-the-less.
I love MaAnna and BlogAid. So glad you are having her look at yours. I am in the process of redesigning my site, but I will have her help me with maintenance once it’s done! She rocks and knows her stuff. Glad you are good to go.
Dorien recently posted..Click “Like” For Schools Using Social Media
Thanks Dorien! I’m a big fan of MaAnna myself! I just recently learned of her and her site and am looking forward to see what she says about mine.
Ouch! Thank goodness you had a good plan! This is a great reminder to us all. No backup can destroy our online visibility . . .
Martha Giffen recently posted..Can Taking Massive Action Really Change Your Life??
Indeed Martha, I’m sure there are many blogs and websites out there that are not backed up at all and would be crippled if something similar happened to them.
So glad that you got everything back up and running in no time at all.
People tend to forget that plugins are all independently written by programmers that do not work together so they are not able to build in full compatibility with each other. At one time or another this problem is bound to arise.
It is really easy to set up a test version of your blog on your PC so that when you want to test new plugins you have somewhere to do it in a non-live environment.
Kittie Walker recently posted..Those Pesky Design Questionnaire Questions – What Do they Achieve
That’s a great idea to set up a test version of my blog on my laptop… I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. I had one for my website when I used Dreamweaver… silly me!
Knikkolette,
You are savvy with avoiding mishaps and spotting nifty tools.
Glad it ended up well. Kudos for consulting with BlogAid. I’ve found MaAnna to be smart and resourceful.
~Keri
Keri recently posted..Facebook 102: How To Use Facebook Pages As Your Brand Name
Thank YOU Keri for introducing me to MaAnna and BlogAid. I was very fortunate this mishap ended well.
What a wake up call! Thanks for the reality check as well as the resources. I am checking with my WordPress guru to find out if I need to do more to protect against data loss.
It’s very true that the longer you have been blogging, the more painful it would be to lose your content!
Jayna Locke recently posted..Weird But Effective Content Marketing: Best Facebook Pages
Yes Jayna, I would definitely check with your people to ensure your data is being backed up and could be easily restored.
Thanks for posting.
Thanks for your help (again)–I had never heard of BlogAid or MaAnna before. Thanks to you, I’m slowly (very slowly) learning a few things!
Sandra McLeod Humphrey recently posted..Hot Issues, Cool Choices Book Trailer
I wish I could take the credit for pointing you in the direction of BlogAid and MaAnna, but that credit goes to Keri and Dorien.