Hello, I am Kelvin from Mono Ninja, a freelance web designer.
If you are a business owner or a member of a marketing team, you might be wondering which platform is better for your business growth, website, or social media.
2020 was a crazy year, and I am sure you have noticed more and more people are starting their online businesses on social media, such as clothing stores, bakery, and much more.
With more and more social media businesses on the rise, you might be wondering, is a professional business website a thing of the past? Are websites still important for businesses now?
The short answer is no. A business website is as important, if not more important than social media platforms. A website is crucial for a business's online presence, without a doubt.
Now, let's analyze the pros and cons of website and social media in detail to find out more.
Social media cost nothing to set up, anyone that has a mobile device and an internet connection could set up their own social media for their business. It is also one of the reasons why so many new businesses are flocking to social media.
A website however does cost money to set up, but it is not as expensive as you think. Nowadays, there are many affordable options for a website domain name and hosting services. You can have your very own website online for less than $100 USD per year, which is cheaper than your monthly Netflix subscription.
Although social media is free whereas a website costs money, the amount that you invested in your website shouldn't be your main concern as it is relatively low and the return on investment of a website is high.
Social media is easy to set up and it is designed to be user friendly, even from the back end. You can easily create a post for your business with a click of a button.
If you want to promote your business via social media, there is also the option of paid advertising. However, there is a slight learning curve if you want to go that route. Make sure you know what you are doing to prevent burning a hole in your pocket.
Website domain and hosting can be set up easily these days. With just a few button clicks and credit card details, you now have your very own website...sort of.
After you register for a domain and sign up for hosting plans, you still need to design and add features to your website because your website is only a blank page for now.
You will need to design and add features to your website from the ground up. Yes, there are templates that you can download, however, the design is often generic and have limited features and customization.
In conclusion, social media is much more simple and easy to learn compared to a website, which brings me to my next point.
As mentioned just now, social media can be set up fast and easily, this also means that the customization of social media platforms is limited.
With social media, you can only customize simple things such as profile pictures, cover pictures, post descriptions, and nothing more.
The interface is fixed, thus making it hard for you to stand out from the crowd unless you have viral content or a big advertising budget.
With a website, you get to customize everything from the fonts used, the theme color of the website, animations, features of the website, and much more. You can customize a website to however you want to suit your business branding. Which makes it more professional and legitimate.
A website offers much more personalization options compared to social media platforms. With a website, you can tailor its look and feel to match your branding to give your business a more professional look.
With social media, you can market your business by creating engaging content. Most business owners tend to use paid advertising to get their business known locally or globally.
If you have a huge budget and want to get people on your social media page instantly, this method works perfectly fine but the result is usually short-term.
Additionally, social media platforms such as Facebook changed their algorithm in recent years to prioritize posts from friends and family. This means that content from business pages will be pushed aside. Thus encouraging business page owners to pay in order to reach their audience and followers.
Generally, unless you have a huge following or a viral post, it is a "pay to play" platform.
With a website, you are playing the marketing game patiently and looking for long-term results. Blog posts are very crucial for a website if the business owner intends to scale the business.
Blog post such as the one you are reading now provides value and helps the website to rank higher with more visits. It is completely free and achievable via a good SEO strategy.
By providing free valuable content, it helps a business to establish authority in the online space and helps to create value and trust with potential clients.
If you want more people to your website quickly, you can also opt for Google Ad Words, which is a paid advertising service from Google. It helps you to get visitors fast by targeting certain keywords related to your business.
In conclusion, social media is good when you want to get engagement and brand recognization fast (not cheap though) whereas a website helps you to market your business in the long run.
When you create social media accounts for your business, you do not own the platform, only the account. This means that you will have to comply with its terms and conditions.
You will have limited freedom when it comes to what you post and share. You have to tread each post carefully, one mistake and your social media account might be reported and taken down.
Since you have no control over the platform, your profile might be mentioned and shared by malicious users in a negative light. This may affect your business negatively and the only option you have is to report it to the support team of the social media platform. Most of the time before they even see your request, the damage has been done.
When you have a website, you own the website entirely. You can post and share whatever you want on your website. You can also control what people say on your website. If a user deliberately leaves a negative comment, you can easily delete it. In short, you can present your business however you want with a website.
If you are running your business on social media only, you should consider getting a website as well. Just imagine what will happen to your business when your social media page gets shut down one day.
In conclusion, every business should have both a website and social media. I mean, why choose when you can pick both am I right?
Social media and website work hand in hand together and neither one should not be neglected.
Social media helps you to get new audiences quickly and your website acts as a branding tool and landing page to convert visitors into paying customers.
Feel free to let me know what you think in the comment section below. Peace✌🏻
