When starting a small business, Facebook and other social media pages may seem to be a great way to reach people online. After all, it's cheap, and Facebook already has quite a bit of traffic. However, when Facebook and other social media platforms are used as a substitute for a business website, you may find it's not all it's cracked up to be. Social media is a part of the business game in the modern age, but total dependence on social media is not a substitute for a quality business website.
A major reason not to use Facebook as a stand-alone business website is that it inherently limits your reach.
Many people are not on social media at all. The popularity of social media sites is fickle. Facebook has been around for a long time, but it doesn't maintain the same popularity it once had. Just as people left Xanga and MySpace for the then-new Facebook.
Younger generations abandoned Facebook for Twitter, then Snapchat, then TikTok.
Every social media platform is eventually abandoned for a shiny new one. Relying on Facebook or any social media platform as a business website will inevitably lead to being cut off from younger generations of potential customers.
Maintaining relevance on social media is not as easy a task as it may seem. Facebook prioritizes posts new posts and posts that see large amounts of engagement (likes and comments). People primarily use social media to keep up with friends and family, not engage with a business. Simply posting a picture of what you worked on this week does not compete with shocking news and major life events of your potential customers' friends. Relying on social media means constantly posting and trying to appease an algorithm that does not prioritize your business.
Facebook pages do not give an air of professionalism.
When potential customers and clients compare options online, a well-crafted website leaves a better impression than a Facebook page. A Facebook page is limited in the ways you can show your brand's identity. Most business Facebook pages look near identical to their competitors. Business websites are crafted to make a first impression that stands out and represents your brand effectively.
Facebook pages lack customization. A professional website enables you to create a layout that is easy for clients to navigate and presents the information you need to communicate more effectively. Do you need a way for clients to place orders online, a map to your physical location, a pricing section, or another section specific to your business? A website can communicate all of this much more effectively than any social media platform ever could.
The ability to customize your website creates an opportunity for strategizing that is lacking in social media. Having a custom website enables you to better track impressions, conversions to clients, and the effectiveness of your online presence overall. You can maximize the effectiveness of your website by making changes based on these results and tweaking your search engine optimization until you reach your desired results.
While Facebook and social media can be great tools in business marketing, it needs to be well utilized. Using a Facebook page as a website is not an effective use of social media and does not meet the needs of a company in the modern age.
