With over 4 billion internet users today, and around 80% of that using Facebook and other social media platforms, it's simply a fatal mistake for a business, big or small, to ignore the importance of social media engagement and how it impacts overall web presence.
With that in mind, it's understandable that confusion and heated debates ensue when the topic of a website launch versus social media arises. What are you to focus on? What is more important?
The simple answer to these questions is both.
To provide a clearer picture of why this is, here are 3 points to consider where a website and social media differ and why ultimately they are made to be used together.
You are in complete control of your website. While a website comes with all its technicalities like domain names, hosting, design and development, maintenance and SEO; being in complete control of what it can do and how it can increase conversion is reason enough to pay the price for a new website or website redesign.
Conversely, social media platforms will limit you in what you can do. You can share photos and videos, information, links and everything else you can think of. This is intended, since social media is meant for sharing: It's not meant for direct selling. Choosing social media over a website could end up hurting your business' online presence. Social media is a means of reaching out to your target audience and driving them to your website to encourage them to take action.
Social media is also an ocean of ads (chosen by your social media service provider, of course), competitors, social information and other distractions. It will simply be too hard to be heard in all the noise, especially when it comes to small businesses.
With your website, however, only you exist. There are no sponsored ads by your social media service provider, no sea of competitors to steal potential customers, and no other distractions to deter your prospective consumers. Your visitors will look and listen to you and you alone! It's your base of operations and when done right, it will guide your prospects from beginning to end, no matter what your business is selling.
While online social media has been around for a long time, its platforms change relatively often. Some of the earlier social platforms were AOL, MySpace and Friendster. In their time, they swept over the internet, taking everyone along their bandwagon. After a few years, though, not so much. Now we have the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but they'll only last until the next big thing comes around. Sounds scary? You bet! Social media platforms come and go and no business should be a nomad when it comes to their online presence.
Your website will be online for as long as you want it to. You can update it, give it a new face and teach it new features, but it will always be the same destination. This is an important factor when building your online presence.
As mentioned above, almost everyone is on social media and no matter how big your business is, the same cannot easily be said for your website. While it is your base of operations and can cater to your users' needs, social media beats your website on almost every count when it comes to driving traffic and creating engagement. Why? Because social media is all about sharing. It's free and easy to use and it makes making new connections a breeze.
Without social media, the primary source of your traffic will probably be your search engine rankings and word of mouth. Social media is a hotbed of traffic and you should not miss the opportunity! Dive into social media, but use it to take your target audience to your website.
There are billions of users on Facebook alone. Being able to tap into this is a huge boon. Plus, your audience can share your content and help you get even more traffic!
While this is going on, it's also crucial that users can share your content, not only from your own social media accounts, but also from your website. Link your social accounts on your home page, provide a share button for each post or product, and make sure they add or follow you after engaging on your website.
To sum up all the points above, your website is the heart of your business and social media is the veins. Social media will help you engage more with your target audience and drive traffic to your website, where you can sell them your product on your own terms and without any distractions.
Social media and your website work brilliantly on their own but can take your online marketing to greater heights when used together correctly .
If you are seeking professionals to build your website or redesign your website, please contact us here: http://www.kulturekonnect.com/contacts/
For a glimpse of our website portfolio learn more here: Kulture Konnect Portfolio
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