At the crux of any company is a website; however, that’s being put into question these days with the popularity of Facebook. Some small-to-medium (SMB) businesses seem to think it’s alright to forego a website in favor of a Facebook presence.
Nope.
Regardless of how you regard your website – perhaps it’s brochureware or outdated or frozen with erroneous information – your company needs to keep this core tool alive and well. Why?
Websites provide the following benefits for all SMBs:
- Website first impression shows the professionalism of your business. There are data on the web about how long it takes people to determine whether they wish to click inside a site or not, and that’s usually about 15 seconds or less.
- What you say on your website is uninhibited by social media engagement. Your message is not controlled by the outside-in perspective by consumers that often provokes companies to communicate where they may not wish to. You are in total control of your own message delivery on your terms and turf.
- There’s no better place to show a documented and archived history of work product, services, news, and results. There’s also no better place to showcase why visitors should remain engaged with you on the site.
- The primary reason for a healthy website is Internet marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization and whatever the terminology is in your vernacular. A website is home to the final destination for link love. All websites in your direct network, all social media channels must drive links back to a website so search engines push your site organically to higher ranking.
- Website technology is making it easier to refresh a site, restart from scratch, and to continually update content. Currently, content management systems like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are all the rage – even with larger sites with deep pages and clicks. While many hosts offer templates, I’ve found these challenging to use – there are quirks in the software. I’ve tried Go Daddy’s Website Tonight program, and found a bit of aggravation and an elementary-looking site at the end.
Design of site should not be a primary focus; content is king and the latter drives a business’s online success in more ways than you can imagine.
- Get simpler about design.
- Beef up content and messaging.
- Add the social media icons, blogs, and more.
- Move to a content management system to make updating content easy.
- Hire a decent Internet marketing professional who can build on the above and drive traffic.
- Install Google Analytics so you can assess your success and tweak as you go and grow.
- Make your website your comfort zone; share the good, positive news about your company and invite customers and clients to stop in.
- Never regard your website as finished. Once you launch, it’s time to tweak, add new, refresh on a continual basis.
- Keep your house in order. I can vouch for this – a challenging concept for SMBs. My house is 80 percent in order, and it’s a frustration spiking negatively in my brain.
- State your business goals, create your strategy and execute!
If you build it, they will indeed come.
Great post, Jayme! I’ve noticed recently a trend toward businesses using Facebook Pages as their websites. Not a good idea. A Facebook Page is a great support for your primary website, but I’d never entrust my entire internet business presence to them — for a lot of reasons.
We build a lot of WordPress sites for our clients for all the reasons you shared above. I would add that all of your social media profiles can be included on your primary website, so visitors can become fans, friends, and followers on the platforms they spend most of their time on. (Our own website includes a social media widget with updates from three platforms).
Be sure to keep traffic flowing between your website and your various social media platforms by sharing different things on each of them each day, and pointing the way to your friends/fans/followers. For example, I post a Morning Motivator each morning on our Facebook Page, then tell my Twitter followers to go check it out. Sometimes I’ll write a blog post around the quote, and let my Facebook & Twitter fans know about it. When you can keep traffic flowing between your various internet presences, your reach extends.
Just as a woman’s work is never done, neither is a website owner’s. Don’t beat yourself up. Just keep moving. ;o)
I was hoping you’d have something to add here, Michelle. Thanks for doing so! I like your last statement; very fitting!
One thing I think far too few businesses think about is that if you have a facebook page, then you have just that a “facebook” page. Yes it is easy to update, though arguably no easier to update than WordPress or any other blog, but it brings with it the reputation of facebook itself. If facebook is your primary outlet, and there is a scare in the media about security on facebook, then there is a scare in the media about your security.
Businesses that would never consider doing all of their promotion with one magazine or newspaper, will think nothing of putting all of their internet eggs in one basket because it’s so easy. I’ve had people tell me how wonderful it is because they don’t even have to think about it. (ponder that for a moment). Presence and promotion require not just thought, but forethought. Relying on an outlet because of it’s simplicity, and ability to spontaneously update is a convenient shortcut to the wrong destination..
That said, and my own personal distaste for facebook aside, it is a huge audience which cant be ignored. The trick I think, is to use it as a tool but not an appliance. Have facebook update from your website, or your blog, or your twitter. Maintain contact, but as a supplement to a well thought out design, not in place of one.
Hello, SteelToad! Love that you stopped by to share this insight, and you’re spot on, too. I like your “use it as a tool, but not an appliance.” As I was reading your comment, I realized all of us have missed an important statement — who owns your Facebook page? Not you! A business does own its website content, though.
Security is also a critical addition to this discussion, too, and a business can protect itself more on its own website than on Facebook, for example. Thanks!
The cantankerous curmudgeon is paying a visit!
I’ll check the cantankerous at the door while saying that this is a terrific post but at the same time disagreeing with some of what you say. Besides, it wouldn’t make a good story if we didn’t have a little positive and negative in there. And yes, I know, I’m the guy who hammered on you when were experimenting with Posterous. But, if you remember, my issue there, for you (and that’s the key here), was ownership of ‘your data’.
I think the key issue here is “what’s right for a particular business”. To make the blanket statement that a company has to have a website, and that a Facebook business page won’t do, ignores the reality of a number of small and medium businesses. I know a number of SMBs who arrive at work well before sunup and leave well after sundown and still have a million other things to do. Perhaps the question would be better addressed from the point of “every SMB should have a web presence”. Then the question becomes, what will that look like?
Saying that “Website technology is making it easier to refresh a site, restart from scratch, and to continually update content” is ignoring a number of the questions that you and I have discussed over the months. Imagine what that would be like for a SMB without your experience. Facebook wins there hands down.
I also wonder how you can reconcile this statement “Website first impression shows the professionalism of your business.” with this one “Design of site should not be a primary focus.” People see “design” well before they see”content.”
Too, what if the SMB doesn’t have the budget to hire that internet professional? You’re making some big assumptions there. And, Facebook has some very good analytics available.
Lastly, in the matter of the “Field of Dreams”, building it, even as well as you suggest and advise, will not necessarily make them come. I might even go so far as to say that a Facebook business page might do a better job of that. Word of mouth and social engagement are much better served on Facebook than by any company website. And, as location based services and mobile computing continue to grow and dominate the landscape, Facebook Places and a Facebook Business page are going to pack a powerful one-two punch. A punch you’re not likely to see from a company website.
So, I’d say it depends on the business and their time constraints, budget, technical ability and all of the other issues you advise SMBs on. If they have the all that’s necessary to support a website in their “web presence” strategy, that’s great. Do so and do as SteelToad suggested, use Facebook as a supplemental tactic within that strategy. But if they don’t, a Facebook Business Page is a terrific place to establish that web presence.
Cantankerous curmudgeon thanking you for allowing him to provide some counterpoint tension for the story,
I believe that businesses absolutely still need a website for a host of reasons, most of which Jayme has listed here. I’ve noted the growing trend of some SMBs towards using just a Facebook page for a website and I think it’s a high risk move. The first thing is ownership. Your website is yours. You can do whatever you want on it. It is not owned by some third party – like FB. As a business that kind of independence/ownership of what is really your 24hour sales person or shop front is crucial. These days you can build a website yourself very cheaply – I built two myself. You can also use WordPress as a CMS.
A Faceook or any other social media platform is completary but does not replace your website. I have a FB page… and I work quite hard on it. It has done quite a bit as far as branding on FB is concerned. but it is a spoke in my wheel, not the central hub. Anyone on FB is at the mercy of FB… and given the way it changes by the second, that’s not a good thing for any business.You don’t own anything on FB. If they shut down tomorrow, your business – and all the effort you put into building your page – would go with it. A FB page is a good way of establishing a presence on Facebook. Not all your customers are on Facebook. A business page is a good way of adding to your brand presence – but not the be all and end all. From personal experience it isn’t the first place to establish a brand, it”s where you extend it (and it’s one of many places). Don’t have a website As a consumer I don’t take business seriously who says they don’t have a website. And if they tell me they think a FB page suffices I think they either don’t understand the strategic importance of a website or they don’t really understand Facebook.
Like I said you do not have to hire an expensive web professional these days, you can build a site very cheaply and make it the hub of all your social activity.
I send everyone to my website, but I also use my FB page strategically. My customers check my website for updates first
Do websites still matter? You bet! Does a company need one? Totally – if they want to be taken seriously
Nicky, I’d like to use this comment as the third part in the series along with a few others, if you don’t mind? All links to your sites will be added. Thanks for your amazing expertise which I respect very much. When I was starting out in social media, you were one of the first leaders I followed to learn. So glad I bought your how-to webinar library; too bad I only watched one or two!
Thank you for this post, Jayme! And what more, this thread couldn’t be more helpful. While facebook has made it only too easy to log on and make a grand foray into one’s market segment, the casual, consumer-dominated format cannot pass for the presence of a professional, quality-content-driven site. Facebook– while a wonderful mass-marketing liaison — is too shallow and too close for comfort for what other socially-network enabled actual sites can offer.
Many companies are just beginning to see that their sites can be revolutionized into destination points on the web with the use of strategic documentation platforms, such as MindTouch, that boast 10% ROI-increase for the companies whose sites they power. With analytics and cutting-edge curation capabilities, MindTouch is one answer to the question of where else businesses can go if they want a strong online business front that packs a punch bigger than the cheesy if accessable facebook pipeline.
I’d definately suggest taking a peek: http://www.mindtouch.com/products/mindtouch_2010
Cheers, Liz
Hi, Liz! Thanks for this great suggestion. I’d not heard of MindTouch before, and I’m definitely going to check it out. If you care to provide any further insight into this tool or others you use, please do. I’m happy to share these with the larger SMB Collective community growing each day. So appreciate you stopping in!
[...] That said, your website is where YOU have control, a way to tell your story, where people can contact you with your ‘branded’ email. Domains are cheap, WordPress is free, websites still matter. [...]