A couple of weeks ago the social media gods provided us with a stark reminder to not put all our eggs in one basket. Social Media Examiner, by all accounts the biggest, best and most widely known social media education and news site suddenly and unexpectedly lost access to its Facebook Page. Not only did all the Admins lose access to the Page, but it was seemingly gone from Facebook altogether, as if someone had deleted it.

Was this the work of hackers trying to get the attention of over 350,000 social media consultants on that Page? It doesn’t appear so. Usually when a Page goes missing suddenly like this, it’s because the Page has been reported for breaking one of Facebook’s community engagement rules, or hackers have gained access and taken over the Page. Neither was the case for Social Media Examiner, if we are to believe Facebook’s response.

After 24 hours of the Page being lost, Michael Stelzner started calling on Fans and social media superstars to help him get through to Facebook to get this fixed. Imagine his position, with the personal phone numbers of the likes of Mari Smith, Andrea Vahl and Guy Kawasaki in his phone!? Mari Smith tried to help, but all they could tell Stelzner was that his Page was there, but some kind of glitch was keeping it private.

WOW. Some kind of glitch was preventing the Admins from accessing their Page.

After 36 hours Stelzner finally updated his status to say the Page was back. It took one of the biggest social media brands out there, with the help of some of the biggest social media superstars 36 hours to get a resolution. How long would it take you?

The point isn’t to scare you away from Facebook. The point is to not rely solely on Facebook for your customer engagement! Would you be able to function if your Facebook Page suddenly went missing for 48 hours? A week? Indefinitely? Some Pages are never recovered (although that is rare).

Please take this risk seriously. Make your website your home base and easily found by Google. House your information on your website that you own and control. Use Facebook (and all social media) as the hook to invite guests to your home.