Social Media vs Having Your Own Business Website: Is There Really a Battle?

It is no doubt that social media have become an integral part of our daily lives. An average person spends around 2 hours on social media sites. Facebook has already 2 billion monthly active users. Instagram has 500 million daily active users. Twitter has 300 million. With this figure, it is inevitable to think that a Facebook page or an Instagram or Twitter account is already enough for doing business.

Can social media platforms replace websites in taking care of your business? This is indeed a hot growing topic. To answer this, we need to list the pros and cons of social media vis-à-vis websites in managing your business.

Pros of Social Media Over Websites

Think of it as a virtual marketplace to expand your brand.

First, social media platforms are user-friendly because the interface is user-intuitive. Even the most technologically fearsome people on the planet has at least one social media account. Second, social media nowadays have replaced the role of residential landlines, snail mails, and even face-to-face encounters. Because of these, social media are more personal and have more emotive appeal than usual websites since they are used to maintain contact with personal relationships. Third, social media sites are always at the top of website lists which have high web traffic. And fourth, because they have high traffic, social media sites are an efficient tool to advertise your business. Think of it as a virtual marketplace to expand your brand.

Pros of Having Your Own Websites

You have full control and ownership of your own website.

Though social media offers a lot of reasons for managing your business’s online web presence, they still have shortcomings that websites have solutions to.

First, unlike social media websites, you have full control and ownership of your own website. You are not under the power of ever-changing social media site policies. You are not limited to dress and design your website according to your branding. You can choose your own lay-out, color palette, fonts, and a lot more. Second, having a website gives your business an unquestionable sense of legitimacy and credibility. Third, your clients can experience a more intelligent search engine optimization function (SEO). Unlike in social media, you can program your website to address searches in a targeted and more directed manner. And fourth, the data that your website has are fully yours. You have total access and are not blind to all the information like web previews, client engagements, and web traffic.

Two is Better Than One

But is the real question what to choose? Maybe the question is, why choose one if you can maximize the power of the two platforms to extend your brand’s audience reach?

You can think of your website as your headquarters in the digital world. Treat social media sites as places where you can hang-out more to invite long-time clients and potential ones to visit your headquarters.

If you really think about it, you can use the strengths of social media to complement the limitations of having your own website. And in turn, you can rely on having your own website to boost your business’s credibility in social media sites. For one, you can use Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to reach your potential and niche market to lead them to your website. You can think of your website as your headquarters in the digital world. Treat social media sites as places where you can hang-out more to invite long-time clients and potential ones to visit your headquarters.

Also, dream big. If you can use the two channels effectively in maintaining an outstanding web presence, other sites may pay you to place their ads on your website. Apart from your own products, it is another avenue to generate profit.

So, why do we need to pit social media sites against having our own website if both can serve us better? In the world wide web as in the real world, two is always better than one. Have the best of both.

If you need a hand in building your business’s online presence through web development and social media, you can reach us through (02) 8734-4236 / (63) 929-782-1647 and info@kairos.ph.