Google experienced a brief outage on Friday evening, and worldwide internet traffic plummeted.

Why this should worry you, and what you should do about it, in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Google Blackout

A brief Google outage made Internet traffic drop by 40%. It also may have cost Google $500K. http://t.co/5O7Uw7ru2e

— Fast Company (@FastCompany) August 19, 2013

Who pulled the plug? Just how dependent is your website on Google? Consider this: When Google experienced a systemwide outage on Friday evening that lasted between one and five minutes, total internet traffic plunged 40 percent. That’s massive. Fast Company reports that all of Google’s services—search, Gmail, YouTube—were down. People who use the search engine to access your site or Gmail users who click your newsletter’s links would have been unable to do so during the outage. Fortunately, all services were back online within just a few minutes, but imagine if Google ever experienced prolonged downtime. You’d lose a slew of readers and potential revenue if your site serves ads or sells merchandise. The blackout reportedly cost Google $500,000 in lost revenue. What’s the lesson here? As Associations Now’s Ernie Smith recently pointed out, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. SEO is critical to your website’s success, but be sure you’re not neglecting other points of entry, such as social media and email newsletters. (ht @FastCompany)

Conference Swag

Are you shopping for promotional items this Monday? If so, read this first! #assnchathttp://t.co/90SEfbu9aK

— MemberClicks (@MemberClicks) August 19, 2013

Give me the good stuff: T-shirts, shopping bags, pens, keychains, and all those other branded items you give away at conferences are good for publicity. They’re also pricey. Sarah Hill at MemberClicks suggests four tips on how to do promotional items on a budget. Be creative, she says: “Think about what people use and need. Again, pens and shopping bags will likely serve a purpose. But is there something that your specific attendance group will use?” My favorite promotional item is a Moleskine notebook emblazoned with the sponsoring company’s logo. It probably wasn’t cheap, but they got their money’s worth—I use that notebook every day. What’s the most creative item you’ve ever picked up at a conference? (ht @MemberClicks)

What links are you sharing today? Let us know in the comments.

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