One of the questions we hear most is “Do I really need a web site if I have a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram page?”
The answer quite simply is yes. Your social media and web site serve two very different purposes.
Social Media is a never ending stream of new content. It’s a great way to show off your work, advertise specials and promotions, show what your company has been up to, and most importantly to keep yourself relevant and in the minds of your client base. When someone is following you on social media, it means that they’ve opted in to see new content from you mixed in with their photos and posts from friends. It’s a pretty big honour when you realize that someone cares about your business enough that they want to see more about you and what you do mixed in with their personal lives.
The advantages of social media are pretty obvious then. People see you and your content in their day to day lives. They don’t have to go out of their way for you to be present. People spend on average over 4 hours a day on social media! It would be downright irresponsible as a business owner to ignore the opportunity to be a part of that.
Social media also has it’s drawbacks. You won’t show up in someone’s feed if you don’t update and depending on the platform, they may give less focus to you because you’re a business. Even when you do show up in someone’s feed, it’s just one post among many as people scroll through their feed. It’s important to make the most of it with short impactful messages and photos to entice people to visit your page or web site.
When someone does visit your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page, they’re greeted with a timeline of photos and posts about your company. Information about your actual company is scarce. Facebook does offer sections to list your services and about but these are very limited in the amount of characters you can use. This is where your web site sets itself apart.
Your web site is your opportunity to showcase static content in detail. You have the digital real estate on your web site to really explain what it is that your company does, full details on products and services, and make it very easy for customers or clients to get in touch with you. Most importantly is that you have the freedom to lay it out beautifully in your own style without being limited to how the social media platform displays content. Someone may go to your Facebook or Twitter page to see what it is you do, but it’s your web site where you can really sell your company.
Your web site also allows you to show the most up to date information in a place where people can easily find it. On more than one occasion we’ve seen businesses get burned or customers complain because they found an old promotion on their Facebook page. With your web site, it’s much easier to edit a page with up to date information than it is to go through your entire post history to find items that are no longer accurate.
It’s important to realize that both can live harmoniously. Your social media is a great way to guide traffic to your web site. and your web site can also showcase your social media.
We understand that it’s often easier for people to update their social media than it is your web site. That’s where social media integration comes into place. A lot of our clients choose to show their relevant social media right on their web site. Instagram makes a great replacement for a gallery on your web site and ensures that visitors are seeing your latest work, rather than whatever happens to be in the gallery from when you last took the time to update your page. A Facebook or Twitter feed on your web site is a great way to show off your latest news without having to write a full blog article.
It can work the other way around as well. Your web site can directly interface with your social media allowing you to automatically post when you have a new blog article or when you’ve updated a page. You can also use your web site as the source for ‘more information’ in your social media posts by linking to the relevant page on your site.
Now it’s pretty obvious from how often we at TMC update our Facebook page that Social Media management isn’t a service that we offer, nor is it something we ever plan to. We understand the importance of sticking to what we’re best at, and for us that’s Web Design and Content Creation. The reason for this is simple. It takes a lot of time and effort to maintain your social media presence. If you don’t update regularly, you’ll essentially fall of the map. We regularly work with the team over at Are You Social when we’re providing content creation for blogs and web sites to share the latest content. One post amongst the many needed to stay top of mind on social media.