Recently I was confronted with the question of whether a small local business needs a website. They were going to just set up a FaceBook page and maybe a Twitter account.
They wanted to know why they should spend $100’s or $1000’s on a website when they could set up these social media sites for free.
They have a good point, but they are missing something very obvious. Have you heard of MySpace?
Why Having Only Social Media Accounts Is Dangerous For Your Business
MySpace was founded in 2003 and in June 2006 it surpassed Google as the most visited website in the United States.(1,2)
Since then, it has dropped off the proverbial cliff- even with Justin Timberlake buying in back in 2011. He might have been able to bring sexy back, but not MySpace.
By 2008, there were more unique worldwide visitors to Facebook than there were to MySpace. MySpace nowhere near its previous glory.
If your sole internet presence was on MySpace, you would have suffered a dramatic decline in your audience and reach. Who would be there to see what you were doing? Not that many.
Social media platforms come and go
It’s like the kid game “king of the mountain”. We all remember that game right? Someone gets to the top of the hill and everyone takes aim at toppling you.
The same holds true for social media platforms.
It is true that for the past few years Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have been at the top. But Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Vine, and a host of others are vying for attention as well.
Platforms as outposts
One of the most influential empires in Western civilization was the Roman Empire.
Many of the roads, language, and more were heavily influenced by the Roman Empire. One major reason for this is the presence of Roman outposts or relay stations.
These outposts or relay stations sent and received messages to and from Rome. They were the local presence of the Roman government, not Rome itself.
Your social media platforms should work in a like manner.
You should focus on the social part of social platforms. Listen to what the local audience is saying. (Each platform has it on unique demographics.)
Your website should act as Rome. It is the central hub of who you are.
All roads lead to Rome. Make sure all social platforms lead to your website.
All social media platforms should lead back to your website since they could easily become the next MySpace or they change their Terms of Service (TOS) and make it more difficult to interact with your audience.
Your web site as the center hub
As long as you pay your hosting and registrar for your domain, you will own it indefinitely.
Since for practical purposed you own it, you control it.
There are hardly any restrictions as to what you say and do on your own website.
Remember, it is yours. You don’t need to worry about changing TOS’s
One of the best things you can do with it is capture who your visitors/fans are. Having an email capture form is essential to keeping connected to your audience. The lifespan for tweets ranges between a few minutes to a couple of hours. For Facebook posts it is a little better at about 5-6 hours.
In presenting your message in your own voice, you can share your story and the content can be found for months and years to come because of search engines.
The price for creating a website doesn’t need to very high. The cost of not having a website is considerably higher.
Call us today to see how affordable a web site can be.
[…] A while back I addressed the question “Does My Business Need A Web Site?”. […]