Many small business owners have jumped on the Facebook Page bandwagon. Some are even abandoning the idea of having web pages and blogs in favor of a Facebook Page. It seems so much easier than the other options. However, this is a huge mistake. Facebook is not enough in the world of online marketing to make a difference.
Here are four reasons why:
Your Online Presence Needs Many Different Entry Points
To attract your niche audience today you need several places in which they can find you. You need social media like Facebook, along with your website. Your website should be considered the main source for all your social media sharing. Your entire focus with social media should be to drive traffic, increase engagement, and improve the ranking of your website. Having only one point of entry into your business will leave out a lot of people.
Facebook Is Not Set Up to Provide Information in a Cohesive Way
If someone wants more information after seeing a post on Facebook, even if they go to your Facebook Page the information is very hard to find if they are not sure where to look for it. Posts get hidden in the crowd. But, you can lead them to your website which can have information for your audience displayed in a cohesive way that can be used easily by them. They’ll be able to contact you easier, and get more information on a website than they can on even the best made Facebook Page.
You Need to Build an Email List Too
While people may communicate with you via your Facebook Page, you also need to build an email list. You’ve heard it said that “the money is in the list” and it’s not an exaggeration. Building an email list is an important factor in any business’s success or failure. Communicating to your audience only through Facebook isn’t enough; you must also build a targeted email list, capturing their information and sending up-to-date information to subscribers often. Email lists are still the best forms of direct marketing that exists.
You Don’t Own Your Facebook Page
That’s right; you don’t own the Facebook Page and you can’t back it up. You could be shut down for any reason on any given day. In addition, not every person who “likes” your page sees your updates. Facebook decides who sees your updates, as so many of us have learned over the past few weeks. You can pay for sponsored posts so that those who have already “liked” you can see your posts, but why would you do that? Facebook is an important part of online marketing, but it’s not the only part of online marketing. In fact, it’s not even the most important factor.
The most important factor in your online marketing efforts is your website**. You control it, you own it, and you won’t be wiped out just because someone else decides your content isn’t good enough, or appropriate. You can’t be wiped out without any warning like you can with social media like Facebook. Until and unless these facts change, you still need a self-hosted website to where you drive traffic from social media.
**Note: Website that you own the URL, and pay a monthly hosting fee, is often times called a self hosted website. A website set up through sites like wordpress.com, Blogger, Weebly, etc. THOSE are not websites that you own and at any time you can be shut down just like you could be on Facebook. Someone could report your blog on wordpress.com or blogger to their admins for no real reason and bam the next day you go on to post a new blog and YOUR SITE is gone!
Be aware the only safe place to have your website is on a self hosted website…that is THE only way to be sure no one but you can shut down your website.
