Doesn’t Social Media Replace Having a Website for My Business?
Around 15 years ago, Facebook opened its doors to the public (becoming more than just a collegiate social network). Since then, it’s started to become the place for businesses to really thrive online. Now there are many social networks that are part of our daily lives (as people in the workforce and as people in general). Social media’s role in business almost makes websites useless, or does it?
Around 10 years ago, it used to be easy for businesses to get visibility on Facebook, but now it’s harder than ever. This doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be part of your Digital Marketing strategy, it just means that you shouldn’t rely on it as your main source of leads. Facebook advertising is becoming bigger and bigger, as that’s part of Facebook’s strategy, to get its income from advertising. Since that’s part of its strategy, it also tries to dissuade its users from going off its platform.
This means that Facebook wants you either to boost your posts (by paying them money so your Facebook post gets seen by more people) or pay for advertising. If you give them money, they’re happy, otherwise, your posts don’t get seen by everyone who likes your Facebook page (as that used to be the model). Of course, part of that is that Facebook is used a lot more than it was 15 years ago (I still remember when you could see everyone’s post in the order it was posted, and there still is that option on the Newsfeed, it just isn’t the default anymore).
While this article mainly focuses on Facebook, the same is true with other social networks, as advertising becomes an important model for them now. Your website should be where all your focus is, driving traffic from various Marketing strategies to your website (or to a landing page). The biggest reason for this is that your website is your own, and social media platforms can come and go. You don’t want to spend time only building a big following on one or several platforms without having other Marketing strategies as well (as they say, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”). Invest money and time into your website, and that can be where you send all your traffic to. Social media’s great for business, don’t get me wrong, but you want to be sure that your website is your main focus for traffic.
