Social media has its place in your funnel, but if you’re relying on it to serve as your website, you’re doing your business a disservice.
Why?
I’m glad you asked.
Social media is a revolving door of trends and popularity. At one point in time Facebook and MySpace dominated high school and college-aged demographics (remember choosing your music on MySpace. Those were the days...)
As new apps have emerged on the scene we’ve gotten Twitter, errr sorry, X, photo-driven Instagram, and now, of course, the one we love to hate or love to scroll - Tik Tok. Business owners are dancing, pointing, stitching, or if you’re like me, barely do anything except watching funny dog videos.
Being on social media is a great way to grow your audience and exposure but it’s not the end all be all.
Social hasn’t replaced the need for you to have a business website. I'll give you 5 reasons why. Ready and go.
1 - RENT vs OWN
You don’t own social, so who knows if you’ll get kicked off or they’ll go out of business? You own your domain name and always will (as long as you don’t forget to renew). You control the content, the narrative, and the flow of information. Which takes me to point 2.
2 - INFO OVERLOAD
Your social is a revolving door of content. While you may be able to pin some information on your profile, a website allows you to have much more information exactly where you want it so your viewers can easily find it. The visit your page looking for your phone number or price list. On a website they know exactly how to find it if you’re site is organized well.
3 - SEARCH POWER
Your audience might not even be on social media, but chances are they are googling for answers. Strong SEO helps you show up in search results at the moment your future customer is looking for solutions. By curating thoughtful content relevant for your audience, you increase the likelihood people will find your website. Bonus, you can repurpose the content for your social media pages to increase your posting.
4 - TELL YOUR STORY
Social is for snippets of the story while a website gives you space to tell it all, to go deeper into your story. Lead readers through a journey by strategically laying out your story over organized pages. And go into detail of your services and products more than you could on social media. People on social don’t always want to be sold to - they want to get to know you or laugh at your jokes or see your work. Your website is the place they expect to see pricing or start the sales conversation.
5 - OPTIMIZE ADS
Google wants to lead ad viewers back to where? You guessed it, a website, or at least a landing page. If you lead ad clickers back to facebook they’re going to see the last thing you posted rather than specific, relevant content pertaining to the ad (which was served because they were searching something related.) With a landing page you maintain control over the message! Again, it’s about leading your reader on a journey down your marketing funnel so they get to know you and are more apt to choose your service or product. And, the better the optimization on your website, the better your ads will do. Good SEO and authority content works for both organic and paid traffic.
Moral of the story - even if your social is full of fans, take the time to build out your website (with the help of a marketing strategist and designer, like moi, of course)
You don’t need a labor intensive 20-page website to get clients or make the sale. You can create a one page website that lays out your brand story, services, and contact form that will perform well in SEO, be a good experience for customers, and give people confidence that you’re a solid company they want to do business with.
Whether it’s a quick website makeover or a full-on rebuild, I’d love to help.