Yesterday, the United States was subject to a massive hack by unknown parties that led to a number of website being temporarily shut down - including Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Netflix, and more. The DDoS (directed denial of service) attack affected a company called Dyn in New Hampshire, which routes internet traffic for a number of influential and well-trafficked websites. In the end, Dyn was able to resolve the issue.

As I was sitting at my desk, refreshing the New Britain Bees website (which was taken down in the attack) and my Tweetdeck, I began to ponder a what-if scenario - the scenario in which the the hack kept Twitter down for an extended period of time, or worse, permanently. And thus, I wondered what would happen if social media - specifically Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram - were suddenly taken offline. Let's call it The Social Apocalypse.

 

In this nightmare scenario (and if you work in the industry and are reading this, I apologize for the feeling of panic that you may get reading this), the nature of modern communication, marketing, and conversation would change overnight. For starters, and assuming news sites would still be functional, many social media users who use Twitter and Facebook to access news would swarm to more traditional news outlets to gather more information about the hack and it's longevity.  After the posts from brands on their website that they "were aware of the problem," social media managers, communications personnel, and marketers from would have to create a plan without social media until the sites come back online.

The long term affects of a social media crash would be incredibly interesting, and would fundamentally change how brand managers communicate their message. While the easy answer would be to revert to plans prior to the launch of major social media networks - really, plans before 2003, the fact of the matter is that social media has become far too vital in the realm of marketing and communication to use old methods. With traditional media receiving less and less eyeballs on a daily basis, the fact is that a social media crash would not only be catastrophic to countless brands and organizations (not to mention the platforms themselves), but would likely spur a rapid change in online communication to compensate for their loss. Likely, there would be attempts at platforms that mimic the current ones, as well as new, rapidly innovated platforms and communications methods that can hardly be conceived today. 

I'm curious as to what my colleagues who work primarily in social media would think of this scenario - I guarantee I'm not that only person who had this thought at their desk yesterday. Do you have a plan to combat a hack like this, where social media is offline for an extended, or worse, permanent basis? I know that I don't - both with my current job, and from a skills basis, this would be catastrophic to my career. What would that plan look like? What would marketing and communications professionals turn to if the major sites were no longer available?

Yesterday's issues were resolved, but the fact of the matter is that a similar hack or worse is likely in our future. In reality, the Social Apocalypse is unlikely at best...and yet, we got a glimpse at what it could look like yesterday.

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