Website or social media presence, which is best for business? Part 2
In the first part of this article, I highlighted the basics to understand the distinction between website and social media. Let’s break down the pros and cons of having a website and social media presence.
Social media is a platform that helps you instantly aggregate many fans, friends, followers and influencers from a pool of potential customer base to support your marketing effort and strategy.
Social Media Benefits
- Social media is easy to set up and free to use.
- Social media is great source for driving traffic to your business website.
- Social media is great for customer interaction and engagement through open communication that builds relationships.
- Social media enhances and support brand visibility.
- Social media is low commitment; you can’t stop using it if you feel it’s no longer meeting your needs or switch to any other platforms.
Social Media Challenges
- Social media designs are basic and generic layouts and offers little customization for the look and feel except for changing a few things like the header banner, profile picture and in some cases background. These restrict your freedom and limit the goal of creating unique customers experience.
- Social media is a public space without private areas; you cannot control the flow, availability or sharing of information. This means you have to dedicate time to monitor consumer feedback, complaints and questions.
- You don’t own the data: social media restrict your access to important user information necessary to sustain marketing efforts whereas a website allows you to collect this information and reuse for future marketing with ease.
- The platforms have rules and regulations from the service provider and confine your activities as a business to these terms.
Moreover, as they say: cheap is bad, free is unpredictable. This is true for social media, the service provider can decide to shut down your page or profile for a breach of terms and conditions. Remember that social media platforms are website services provided by third parties and these providers are the one who determines what happens next without your input. They can decide to shut down or no longer offer their services to you; if it’s the only online presence your business has, what will be the fate of that business? That will be a costly business downtime or Armageddon!
Remember Linda Ikeji’s blog in 2014, in a minute she was no longer in business without notice. This includes the risk of possible lawsuits with far-reaching financial implications from advertisers. The Linda Ikeji’s experience is a clear example why you shouldn’t run your business solely dependent on a free platform service — such as you do with your present social media presence without a website.
Website on the other hand help you strategically leverage the platform to control content, assets, contests, and manage relationships better to support business goals and KPI’s to realize return on investment.
Website gives a complete control over your business presence online with the flexibility to decide the look and feel. Having a website is crucial to establishing your credibility as a business and it’s a better option, this is why it’s incomparable with social media. Depending on your goals, you get to determine how simple or sophisticated the website will be — good enough.
Website Benefits
- Website is a cost effective alternative to traditional marketing channels and provides different options for businesses and entrepreneurs. You can start with simple and free website to premium and expensive custom-built solutions. Your budget and business needs will guide your directions and no matter how you decide to start, there will be room to upscale and improve what you have in the future.
- Website helps business establish strong credibility -an important element for market access and customer acceptance. Naturally, customers trust a business with website than a business without a website.
- You control the design, a website gives you full access to customize and personalize customer experience and deliver unique brand engagement that will keep customers relishing to come back to you.
- Targeting and personalization: websites are better marketing platforms than social media because they keep your customer engaged without the corresponding noise and distractions you will get on social media. It provides tailored business information and marketing features like videos, portfolio, product gallery, testimonials, blogs and promotions and focuses your customers’ attention solely on your business/brand.
- Website may cost a fortune at startup but it makeup for the expenditure in the returns on investment and value addition. A well planned and functional website can provide self-service information and assistance to your customer saving you massive cost on your operating expenses.
- A website keeps your business open round the clock all through the year and accessible from any part of the world. You can keep taking orders, receive payment online and deliver value to your customers. This isn’t possible with social media.
- You own the data: a website allows you to collect personal information of visitors and customers and reuse for future marketing with ease.
- A well-designed business website is an asset rather than a cost to your business. It can become a revenue spinner or a capital asset in future — Konga and Jumia website are classical examples among many others site you know.
Website Challenges
- It’s no doubt that having and maintaining a successful website requires additional budget, time and effort to sustain performance and improve result.
- It’s true that a sophisticated website requires massive cost, takes time to design and additional resources to set up.
- Building a website is the first step, getting customers to discover and visit your website – driving traffic to the site requires effort, strategy and tactics to achieve. Social media can play a key role here.
Finally, while social media may get you started on the fast-lane; it’s an important business decision to keep sight of the real foundation to build your business on — website. So, would you rather build your business in someone else’s office and be at their mercy because it’s free or would prefer to own or lease your own business space and control what happens? The choice is yours!
You can take advantage of WebSmithNG affordable website plans and flexible monthly payment service to launch your business website, blogs and online store on shoestring budget without breaking the bank!