The Risk of Prioritizing Social Media Over Your Website.

You’ve started your business, and your first move is to create your Insta, Facebook, TikTok and other socials. It feels like a big first step (and it is), but perhaps most importantly to a new business — it’s free!

Social media feels like the status quo for successful business these days. While it IS indeed an incredible tool to reach people, there are some huge pitfalls when it comes to only focusing on free platforms and forgetting your website. Even if temporarily.

In today’s article we’ll discuss the biggest problems with putting off your website creation for too long, and how a professionally designed website can boost your business as an investment for the long run. Let’s get started!

1) LACK OF CONTROL

My favorite questions to ask clients who are focusing heavily on social media is:

• If the platform(s) shut down, would your clients know you exist?
• Would clients be able to contact you?
• Could they easily find basic information for your business?

The reality is you don’t own your social pages. Making your online presence completely at the mercy of big tech companies. After the TikTok® shut down there were thousands of creators completely beside themselves, because everything they worked for over several years was gone in a click.

So many things can happen to a social account. The platform can shut down, hacked accounts become inaccessible, glitches lock you out of your account, or even if accidental or unjustified, your account can be shut down by the platform. (And it’s REALLY difficult to contact them to get it back in any scenario!)

Becoming invisible online is a huge risk in today’s business industry. When you own a your domain and website you have total control over your space on the web. It prevents your business from randomly disappearing in the event of a social media shut down.

2) LACK OF PERSONALITY

For many consumers their first impression of your business comes from an online source. You’re expecting a potential customer to learn about your business from a platform that makes every page uniform with every other business page — including your competitors.

A website allows customers to immerse themselves in your brand. Often instead of, or before they’ve ever met you in person. Being able to fully establish your brand identity online allows you to show what you do, how you do it, why you do it, how you want consumers to feel about it, and beyond. Your website is a hub of your core information and BEST content. All of which is accessible and working 24/7 to build trust with your consumer.

Yes, your social pages can and should echo your brand’s visual standards. But stuffing the marketing responsibility listed above into a social page, with just a couple header photos and a ~200 word “about me” section, is an unrealistic and dangerous expectation.

3) LACK OF CREDIBILITY

To put it bluntly, social media is full of fakes. From scammers and bots to flashy influencers pushing questionable products. Having a stand alone social presence, or worse a neglected stand alone social presence, can make consumers wonder if you’re a legitimate business. It may cause confusion about who you are or what you’re offering; And if there’s confusion there’s hesitation. Where there’s hesitation there’s lost business.

On the other side of credibility is your ability to qualify for a search engine result. Search engines, like Google®, take into consideration how often and where your business exists online. Meaning having a couple social pages with limited information about your business may cause it to skip over you when a consumer is searching for a product or service you offer. (OUCH, that hurts!)

Having a professional, well designed website creates a “home base” for your business. Your socials, community news and other agencies all have a credible source to link back to in order to establish legitimacy for consumers and search engines.

Does your business need a professional website that represents your brand and builds trust?
Noel Photography and Design can help.

(Psst! Your first consult is always free!)