I have many social media platforms, do I still need a website?
This is a question I get asked always. In a recent conversion I had on Facebook, it came up again.
Below is a list of 15 reasons why you still need a website despite the numerous social media accounts you have.
- Competitiveness: People, especially potential business partners, turn to trust companies with websites, compared to companies with just Facebook Page, or Twenty Social Media (SM) accounts. Two typical examples are stated below
- I built a site for a client and the reason was simple: He wanted to strike a business deal with a potential client and the first request from the client was, “send me your website link. I will access your company and get back to you”. To meet this request, I was forced to build a standard website in less than 2 hours.
- I build a website for another client that is into procurement. He had a request to submit a proposal but his request was requested because the institution will only communicate via business email (something like kaunda@OnlinePresident.org), not the generic ones like Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook. Once you have a website, you can have such custom emails for all your staff.
- The tolerance level the hosting companies offer is way higher, compared to any existing Social Media (SM) platform. I have never had any of my post/articles deleted on any of my websites, or my client's website. But FB has deleted a lot of my articles or posts on their platform.
- You have no control over their T&C. They can decide to change it any day and it can affect your years of effort in promoting your brand on SM platforms. They do these changes always.
- When it comes to analyzing your users/viewers, your website gives more analytical reports than any SM platform can provide.
- There are so many ways to monetize Views on your website, compare to these SM Platforms.
- Your content is more structured on your website than on SM. Which makes it easily accessible to later viewers?
- On your website, there are no limits to what you can type. I've reached the comment limit (8000 characters) of FB many times. The new Twitter character limit of 280 characters is still a joke. Yesterday, I was working on a client's YouTube videos. Some of the video descriptions are more than 6000 characters. YouTube limit is 5000. So for some of them, I had to delete some of the paragraphs. Very painful.
- You can write a well-structured post on your website, compared to these SM Platforms. With these SM Platforms, you can’t make headings, you can’t insert images where you like, you can't underline text, you can’t change the font color, etc. Quora, Reddit, and Medium provide good editors but they equally have crazy rules, especially Quora. For over a year now, I can’t make a post there. I have been banned. Why? I don't know.
- Your website also takes care of other people who are not on SM platforms. According to statista.com, the number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of the 4th quarter of 2021 was about 3 billion people. As of January 2022, about 5 billion people have Internet connectivity. That means a post on Facebook has already missed about 2 billion potential readers.
- It is relatively easy to migrate your entire content on your website to another platform or hosting provider. If you don't like Facebook and decide to abandon it, you can download your entire data, but what do you do with it? You can’t go to Tiktok and say hey Manager Tic; here I come with my belongings.
- The support when something goes wrong on your website is miles away when compared to the support we get on these SM Platforms. Do we even get support from these SM Platforms? The award-winning writer, Waterz Yidana, for instance, lost his recent posts about e-Levy and A Plus. They just disappeared with traces and no message from Facebook. If it was on his website, he can chat with his hosting company right away and they will tell him what went wrong. I remember chatting with my hosting company for three solid hours, trying to fix an issue. After fixing it, they still asked me: "Is there something more we can do for you?". Many people have lost their accounts simply because they forgot their password or for a reason, they have no idea of.
- Making a post on the SM platform is one thing; people seeing that post is another thing altogether. The tricks you need to apply to your articles or images or videos so that people will see them when they search for them online is called Search Engine Optimization. There is little you can do to increase how well people will see your content on SM Platforms. On your website, a lot you can do.
- Lasting value: Your displayed Ads disappear immediately after your budget finishes. On your website, you can place your Ad at your favorite location and your visitors will forever see it if you so wish.
- You can build your website in such a way that it can help you do almost everything about your business. I have Store, invoicing, payment, and much other functionality integrated with my website. SM Platforms don’t have such.
- The reality is: The Facebook account or any social media account you open is not yours. Your website is yours. I think that alone is a big difference.
Conclusion
SM Platforms are great and must-have platforms. But not a replacement for our websites, at least not in the next 5 to 10 years.
Personally, I have always seen SM Platforms as good places to get people and direct them to visit my office (my website), I don't see the SM Platforms as the office itself.
Online President
- Website: OnlinePresident.org
- Whatsapp/voice: 0234809010
- Email: kaunda@outlook.com
- FB: fb.com/OnlinePresident