Guest post by Wayne Burden
When you’re trying to establish your business online, two of the main ways to do this are through creating social media accounts and a website. Many business owners will create both through hiring the expertise of a local web designer or web design agency, linking their social media to their website and vice versa.
However, there’s a segment of users who feel that having a social media page is sufficient for their business. But is this really the case? Here are our thoughts on why you still need a website if your business is on social media to tell you more.
Social Media For Business: An Overview
In the last decade, social media platforms have become a hive of activity for businesses. From dedicated business pages to social media marketing, there are endless ways you can grow your brand and boost your conversions as a result when you use social media.
Whatsmore, the next 5 years will see social media user numbers climb to the dizzying heights of 4 billion people. Whether you use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tik Tok or any other social media platform, that’s a lot of potential users to market your business to.
“If Something Is Free, Then You Are The Product”
But, all is not as it seems. Many tech developers have criticised how social media platforms collect our data and make money from selling it to advertisers. This results in users being shown content that the algorithm detects they are more likely to engage with. The idea is to keep us interacting with the platform for as long as possible even though this is unhealthy.
Ethics aside, when you are trying to grow your business organically on social media, you are fighting a losing battle. Unless of course, you stump up a lot of money through the likes of paid ads. So while it initially appears that social media is free, unless you pay your way to the top, it’s actually not. Plus, money is also being made from content being advertised back at us, which we will never profit from.
Even if you spend thousands on advertising, this still doesn’t give you the rights to design your page or even control it to the same extent as what you could do if it was your own website. This is often demonstrated when a platform brings in new changes that are deeply unpopular. Even if it severely affects your page’s performance, there’s nothing you can do because you don’t own the page let alone the platform. Instead, you have to dislike and lump it.
Owning Your Own Website: An Overview
When you buy a domain and build a website, it becomes your digital real estate to do with as you see fit. There are options to use a pre-made template on the likes of Wix or WordPress. Or you can work with a web designer to create a custom solution based on your needs. For example, an ecommerce website that takes your high street store online.
Granted, creating a website from scratch isn’t as instant as setting up a Facebook page. But, just because something is quicker it doesn’t mean it’s better. Especially given with a website, you’ll have full control over every aspect of its design and functionality.
Plus, a website doesn’t consist of a single page as it does on social media. Instead, you can create as many pages as you need. This is ideal if you have lots of products or services, as you can curate how they appear to your users, and go into detail about what matters.
Your website is your place on the internet to tell your brand story. To connect with your customers on a personal level through your blog. To be able to change every aspect in line with your business needs, without having to ask permission or make do with what a platform tells you is possible.
The Bottom Line
There’s no question that social media is an incredible way to get more customers. That said, it comes at a cost which is a lack of control when it comes to the design, privacy, algorithm and policies that social media platforms govern.
Websites on the other hand are completely tailored to your needs. They can be beautifully designed by a web designer to set your business apart from your competitors. Best of all? There’s no reason why you can’t link to your social media pages through your website, without having to rely on them completely to tell your brand story online.
Ultimately, having a website puts you back in the driving seat of your business. That’s why no matter how many users a social media platform has, it simply can’t compete with the autonomy that a website provides.
