Your Business Will Always Need a Great Website
Social media content is far from evergreen. Say you sell a do-it-yourself product. The instructional content you create — articles, videos, slide shows, etc. — stays on your website forever. Tweets quickly disappear; same with Facebook updates. A great video on your website is the gift that keeps on giving, both in terms of customer satisfaction and from an SEO point of view. Same with articles and blog posts and photos.
Websites create or extend your brand. Face it — no matter how hard you try to customize it, your Facebook page is still a Facebook page. And no amount of creativity will make your Twitter design look like anything other than a Twitter page. In a way you’re like a guy wearing a Nike t-shirt; you may wear the shirt, but the Nike brand wears you too.
Websites tell stories. In many cases, especially in service businesses, potential customers don’t only want to know what you provide — they want to know about you. Creating a great About Us page establishes credibility while letting potential customers see the faces behind the business. So does social media… but not really, partly due to the medium and partly due to the fact…
Social media is out of (your) control. Set aside the reality that social media creates conversations you only partly control. Social media platforms themselves are outside your control. Facebook could change policies for business users, LinkedIn could revamp its search function, and Twitter could decide losing more money no longer makes sense. The only online marketing platform you really control — and can count on — is your website.
Social media generates interest; websites close. Potential customers only become customers after visiting your website (or physical location.) Social media marketing is really no different than a flyer or ad. Your website has the information, tools, resources, and incentives to convert potential customers into clients. What is more valuable in the sales world: lead generators or closers? A social media marketing campaign will only be as effective as the website that supports it.
