“Oh, I don’t have a website. I just do social media.”
When I’m sharing what I do with another business owner, I hear this really frequently. And it’s usually said a little bit dismissively, like I’m offering something that no one really wants. 😬
I always try to respond in a way that is helpful and doesn’t sound like I’m just trying to sell something, but the fact of the matter is that you shouldn’t rely on social media as your main “home” online; you need a website. And I’m not just saying that because Valerian makes websites! I really believe that relying on social media can create some serious problems for business owners.
Why people are tempted to skip the website
It’s not that I don’t understand why some folks want to stick with social media. For a lot of small businesses and entrepreneurs, social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook end up working out really well for them. Here are the main reasons why people think that social media is good enough.
Social media is “free”
Most social media platforms don’t require any kind of fee to sign up. As a business, you may have to complete extra steps to get set up with a business account and there are almost always options for paid promotion and ads, but joining the platform is often free. When the marketing budget isn’t huge, this can be a big plus.
What are social media platforms selling? If you dig down a little into how these platforms work and where their money comes from, you find out that you are the product. 🙃 Accounts are free because the platforms want as many users as possible because it’s the user data that they sell to advertisers.
So although it might be free to sign up, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with a cost, and there are some downsides to platforms that view you as the product. But we’ll get into that in a minute.
Followers, likes, and DMs
A lot of folks who rely on social media for their web presence are encouraged by the engagement they get on those platforms. 🤩 A business might be able to make some good content, jump on trends, or even go viral and drum up a decent-sized following.
But just because someone thought your meme was funny or liked the spin you put on that dance trend doesn’t mean they’re ever going to convert to being customers.
Websites are old school
There are a lot of folks who think that websites are a thing of the past. Sure, maybe you needed a website in the 00s, but it’s 2024! Everyone is on TikTok now! It doesn’t help that a lot of small businesses still have websites that they had built in, like, 2001, and so they look outdated.
There just isn’t room in the budget
This is the most common thing we hear from folks who don’t have a website, and I get it. It’s tough to be just starting out and see the price tag for most website projects. Even if you’re taking the DIY approach, there are still hosting costs and other considerations.
When there isn’t a budget for a well-designed, custom website, a lot of folks decide to just put it off for the time being and plan to circle back when they have a bit more money lying around. (Spoiler alert: there typically isn’t ever a point where there is extra money lying around. 💸)
You need a website 🫵
I really truly believe that businesses shouldn’t rely on social media, and it’s not just because I make websites for a living. This might feel like an obvious sales ploy on my part, but I promise you: I hate trying to sell things if I don’t think the person really needs it (I’d probably be a better salesperson if I could get over that 😅).
You don’t own your social media accounts
It might seem like you, as the person with the logins, own those accounts, but the truth is that you don’t; the platform owns your account. And they can do whatever they want with it.
Now, most platforms don’t just go around arbitrarily shutting down accounts because it wouldn’t be good for the platform (you’re the product, remember?) and people would start leaving if everyone was suddenly getting booted off for no reason. But you don’t have to go very far to hear a horror story about someone losing their account out of nowhere and being given no recourse for appealing the decision or getting control back.
There are also people who just want to get an account in trouble and will report it for things like hate speech or nudity, even if they aren’t sharing anything like that at all. These people can be unhappy customers or just someone who wants to ruin someone else’s day. Typically there are ways to fight back against this kind of behavior, but in a world where so much moderation is being passed off to automated systems and AI, there isn’t a guarantee that you’ll be able to get a real person to look at what’s going on. Platforms will often cut their losses, so if they’d rather dump you for something you may not have done than pour hours and effort into looking at it fairly.
That’s not even to mention the scammers that sometimes hack an account and then try to sell it back to you. 😱 There are enough threats out there to make someone think twice about putting all their eggs into a social media basket.
Goodbye, followers 👋
If something happens to your account, your followers go with it. If you’re lucky, you get some kind of warning that your account is going away and you can appeal to your followers to head over to a new account, but more often than not, when an account gets deactivated or locked, there isn’t a lot of warning. (Again, it may not be deserved! You don’t necessarily have to have done something wrong to lose your account.)
This is one of the reasons why we always recommend that folks who are using social media with great success find a way to capture information about their followers outside of the platform they’re using. Email lists are a great way to do this (and websites are a great way to build your email list 👀).
🪦 Here lies Xanga and MySpace
Did you have a MySpace back in the day? How about Xanga? Do you remember when Facebook was only for college students and we were all “poking” each other? Do you still quote your favorite Vines?
Anyone who’s been online for more than a couple of years knows that social media platforms come and go. We thought that nothing would ever replace Facebook and then suddenly we were all spending a lot more time on Instagram… until TikTok came along. It’s only a matter of time before those platforms go the way of MySpace.
Sometimes old school can be comforting
Sure, it’s important to keep up with trends, and the cutting edge can feel exciting, but isn’t it nice to feel some security every once in a while? That sense of security is why we often relate websites to an online “home” for your business.
Unlike social media accounts, websites are owned by you, and you have total control over what happens on them. (Sure, there are security threats these days, but if you do your due diligence to protect your site and create it securely, it’s not super likely that you’ll be a target.) You can control what information appears on your site and how people interact with it. And if something goes wrong, you’ll be able to address it. 😌
Room for growth 🌱
The budget issue remains an obstacle, but a small website is better than none at all! Even if you can only afford a short, one-page website right now, that gives you a stable home online, and there is always room to grow!
A one-page website can help people find you via organic searches, and if you get a lot of traction on social media, it’s a great place to direct people so they can engage with you further. You can also collect visitor information on your website and leverage that for email lists, newsletters, and special marketing offers. Someday, if you expand to the point of offering online classes or other content, it’s easy to add space on your website to host it so you’re not creating yet another account on some other platform where you’re trying to get followers to migrate.
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Obviously, we believe that websites are important, but it’s not just because that’s what pays the bills. Websites can do a lot for your business, and we think that folks who rely on social media alone are often flirting with disaster. I can promise that you’d rather have a website before disaster strikes your social account and you’re starting over from the beginning. 😳
If you’re interested in a website, check out our options, or feel free to let me know what’s holding you back from having a website in the comments!
