The age-old question is whether or not you need a website for a successful business. What if you have a strong social media presence already? Is a website still necessary? The short answer is YES. Social media is a great marketing tool for your business but a website sets your business up to succeed exponentially. In this post I want to explain exactly why you need a website even if you’re killing is on social media.

Own your online space with a website

As soon as you purchase a domain and hosting service, you own the platform. Yes, there is an investment that goes into building a website. And I’ve discussed why your website is the best investment you should make for your business here. So you already know I am a strong proponent for maintaining and building your own online space. 

When you own a website, you are not at the mercy of other sites or online platforms. This gives you a solid ground to start building your business. Did I mention you get to set the rules? This flexibility for building your website makes the branding process so much fun! Can you tell I design online spaces for a living?

Now, if you think of your website as your MAIN business hub then you can easily position your social media pages as your ‘marketing tools’. I never said social media wasn’t important! Because it really is. I just want to emphasize that having a website is vital to securely building, navigating and growing your business in addition to having a social media presence.

Website analytics are great for business

Website analytics can give you more insight into your business than social media analytics ever could. In particular, these analytics give you insight into your current marketing tactics and informs you on what exactly is working and what’s not. If you need some basic Google Analytics tips, check out this post – because these analytics are going to be your new business best friend. Now, once you know how to analyze what your website is telling you, you are better able to continue implementing what’s working or alter what isn’t. Win-win, right?

Never rely solely on social media

Think of websites as the foundation of your business. Social media platforms are only needed to leverage or help you build your business. They should never be fully relied upon. Let me tell you why.

Social media platforms crash

If your entire business is on Facebook, Instagram or any other social site, what happens when they shut down? Oh wait, they did. In case you don’t remember, there was a massive social media outage on July 3 of this year. Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram videos and images weren’t loading for over an hour.

In hindsight, it doesn’t sound that bad. Well, it was pretty scary for the businesses who relied solely on those platforms to reach their audience. They lost their ability to communicate with their customers. What if the glitch hadn’t been fixed? They would have lost their entire business because their entire business model was on a ‘borrowed’ social platform. Maybe big businesses could rebound from this, but this situation can be scarily devastating for small to medium sized businesses. I don’t want this to happen to you.

Social media algorithms

As I mentioned, when social platforms go down, it’s bad news for business. A similar thing can happen when the newest algorithm updates. Sometimes the algorithms work in your favor, sometimes they really don’t. Basically, you have no control over these platforms. If your business relies on social platforms, you have to play by their rules. And sometimes, the rules are ugly.

Social media encourages more spending

Facebook and Instagram have already transitioned their engagement model to encourage ad purchases for more exposure and promoting subscriptions for access to more capabilities. This means the more money you put into the platform, the more results you may see for your business.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. But, again, it takes the control out of your hands. Once you stop your ad spending or alter your subscription momentum in any way, everything you’ve built on these platforms could potentially collapse. That doesn’t seem very secure, does it?

Social media is competitive

Additionally, the competition on these platforms is fierce! Facebook has over 80 million small and medium business users, while Instagram has 25 million. That’s a lot of businesses to compete with! This mass of competing businesses on these social spaces means that your message needs to be on point. It’s a lot of effort to put in and if you miss your message, even by in inch, you lose out on vital business. That margin just doesn’t convince me.

Why choose a website over social media

Let’s change this entire scenario up. If you have a website set up, you are still able to maintain full access to your customers (and potential customers) email. You are able to keep up communication, post content, and get on with business as usual even if social media platforms went down for an hour or even forever. If an algorithm changes, your website is still there. If the competition grows, that’s ok too, because your website sets you apart and clearly states your message to your ideal audience. Have I convinced you to invest in a website for your online business space, yet?

Conclusion

The point of this post was to emphasize the negatives of relying solely on social media for your business. Even if you have over 100k followers on social media, that audience is sitting on borrowed land or rented space. If you think about the real-world – you don’t build on rented land, do you? It’s not a guarantee rented land will still be there for you in the future.

Instead, buy the ‘land’ and build your business empire on that instead. Websites are much more reliable, effective and great for maintaining constant communication with your audience. It’s really a no-brainer.

If you are ready to build your website, you can contact me here or check out how we can work together here! I would love to help you build a beautiful online business space.

I look forward to hearing from you!