What Can a Website Do For Me that Social Media Cant?
It’s a legitimate question and one that I hear all of the time.
It’s also a question that came up on my recent visit to my esthetician’s office.
“Kim, what can a website do for me that “Instagram” or [Insert Social Media Platform] cant do?” she asked…
“I’m getting clients from Instagram, they are happy with my service, people are finding me via social media all of time”.
My question to her was, “Well what if Instagram decides to shut down your account?
What will you do then?
She turned to me and said, “Well I can just use Yelp”. Yelp gives me insights and analytics information that I need to tell me where my clients are coming from and more”.
I’m gonna be honest here:
I was totally stumped. This isn’t really something that I had given much thought.
Not because I don’t understand the true value out of owning your own website. But the fact that I hadn’t put myself in her shoes before.
As web designer, I have always felt like everybody should own their own sh%t. Simple as that. But after having this conversation with her, I felt compelled to write a blog post that addresses this question because it is a legit one.
So let’s dive in…
Websites Vs Social Media: The Top 4 Reasons Why Small Businesses Don’t Have Websites
A little while back I stumbled across an article from SmallBusiness.com that intrigued me.
The article covered information on the state of small business websites and the top 4 reasons that most small businesses don’t have them.
Reasons Why Small Businesses Dont Have Websites: Small Business.com
In this post, one of the statistics mentioned that caught my eye was this one:
“While most small businesses conclude that websites are a requirement, 31% use a social media profile instead”.
This statistic is right in line with what my esthetician was talking about as the main reason that she doesn’t have a website.
Also…according to the post, some of the other reasons that small businesses don’t have websites are due to:
- Lack of technical skills
- Little to no resources to invest in one
- It’s not required in their industry
As for the lack of technical skills, this is something that I do know a lot of people struggle with which is why I offer done-for you web design packages.
In the case of little to no resources, I understand that money can be funny “and change is strange” sometimes (it’s a country saying y’all).
But…here’s the thing:
If you are willing to put in the time to DIY and a little bit of money, you can successfully build your own website or blog. And…it doesn’t have to take you forever to do it.
Wanna know why?
Well…because there is no shortage of information out there on the interwebs that “show you” step by step how to do tech stuff.
There’s YouTube videos’, courses that you can take, or folks that you can outsource this work to.
Suffice to say, there is more than one way to skin a cat (as my mom says). If you REALLY want to do something then you will get er done.
So…. Why Should You Invest In A Website When Social Media Is Working For You?
It’s exciting right?
Social media is working out well for you…
After 3 long years of building up your Instagram account, you’ve got a hundred thousand highly engaged connections. Plus, 80% of your clients are coming from your Instagram and everything is all good in the world.
Then one day, your account is disabled for no apparent reason (like this person’s account):
Quote taken from Quora.com where someone had their IG account disabled
In a single day, all of your hard work is gone down the drain. Now, you’re pissed at the IG Peeps because they have disabled your account.
Booo to that!
Now you start thinking to yourself…
What could I have done to avoid this?
Why is it that the folks over at IG have disabled my account for no apparent reason?
Here’s the truth of the matter:
You don’t own IG so they can do whatever they want when they want to…
Now…
Don’t get me wrong peeps, I believe social media is awesome!
I love using social networks to chat it up with folks, build relationships and even drive traffic and awareness to my brand.
But…
I am 100% an advocate for owning your your own homebase. I know that people that are having major success with social media won’t agree.
Plus, look at it this way…
Adding a website to your marketing mix adds yet another extremely powerful asset that you can use to grow your business with.
Sooo in my marketing eyes, this is a win-win situation for small biz owners.
3 Things a Website Do for You that Social Media Can’t
As an advocate for owning your own stuff aka getting a website, here are the top 5 things in my opinion that a website can do for you that social media can’t:
#1: You own your own racehorse.
James Schramko is a fella that I have been following for quite a while. A little while ago I ran across a video that he put together here via YouTube where he talks about the importance of “owning your OWN racehorse”.
What does this mean?
Well James basically talks about the risk that you take with putting all of your BEST content on someone else’s platform.
And you know what, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
It’s what that one person sadly experienced when he spent 5 years building up his Instagram following, then in one day his account went bye bye for no apparent reason.
This is the risk that you take with putting all of your stock into social media platforms ….instead of using them as mediums to drive traffic back to your OWN website (that you have 100% control over).
#2: You can monetize and sell whatever you want on your own website.
This one is a biggie! I don’t want people having control over what I sell and how much I choose to sell my products and services for.
Did you hear the latest news and changes to the YouTube partner monetization program?
I logged into my Twitter account one day and saw that the YouTube monetization program was trending. People were pissed off!
There were all kinds of comments from folks straight up pissed. Here’s a comment from someone on Twitter that was a bit “salty” from the changes:
YouTube Monetization Quote from Twitter Border
In case you haven’t heard, YouTube now requires you to have at least “1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months” before you can monetize your channel.
I felt a little bad for the folks that were trying to monetize their channels, but at the end of the day —-> “You don’t OWN YouTube”.
YouTube owns YouTube and just let’s us play on it…
#3: You will build a marketing tool that brings you HUGE benefits over time
Have you heard of Dave Ramsey’s “snowball effect”? If you haven’t it’s basically where something starts of super small at first, then builds up into something huge over time.
I use this metaphor because it’s exactly what your website will do.
How?
As you continue to feed it with content (blog posts, podcasts, audio files, and etc), over time it will turn into a mega-resource and repository of information that will serve your business well for years to come.
Plus….
The content that you publish to your own website will become an evergreen resource that people can come use to “find your business” through Google or social media 24/7 around the clock.
How to Start Your Own Website (Plus Connect it to Social Media)
If you are tired of leaving your business to chance and want to start your own website, there’s two things that you can do:
- If you are a DIYer – check out the WordPress Wiz training via the Blazing Branding Academy
- If you want it done for you – click here to view the Rapid Website Design Packages
What Are Your Thoughts?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this? Do you think it’s necessary to have a website or are you good with just using social media to grow your business?
Please leave a comment below….
Thanks for reading!
