Facebook vs Website: Do You Need One or Both?

Many do believe that it is more cost effective to start a business with just a Facebook page and eventually that often ends up being forever or may never considering to create a website for your business. Some even said “I don’t see the value on having a website and my Facebook page is doing fine.”

There is absolutely nothing wrong by operating your business behind the walls of Facebook, however with that amount of traffic going to your Facebook page, don’t you think you that how if you can lead them to your website that may bring you a higher chance of direct conversion?

But did you know: Only 45% of marketers think that their Facebook efforts are effective.

This doesn’t mean that you should shut down your Facebook page or stop investing time and effort on it, it’s just time to diversify and reach out more.

A hub for your digital presence vs. marketing tools

Many businesses have misconceptions that a Facebook page or Instagram profile could easily substitute the need of a website, while this may not be 100% incorrect but this reduces your opportunity to achieve a greater reach, impression and conversion with the same amount of money invested to maintain your social media channels.

By diversifying your investments, you can easily get a website at an affordable price each month, while you utilise all your social media network to lead traffic into your website and take advantage of your website SEO features to help enhance your position on the search engine results page (SERP).

Besides, studies have shown that China has the most Internet users of all country. At over an average of 731 million active Internet users, China currently accounts for more than 25% of Internet users worldwide — a notable increase compared to 21.97% of worldwide Internet users from last year.

This 25% is the big slice of people being neglected if you choose to run your business mainly on social media networks. Due to the cybersecurity laws in China, the mainland Chinese users are not allowed to access major social media sites in the market such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, therefore, reducing your chance of a possible conversion yet again.

Having said that, a website would be the ideal solution! Given on how universally accepted a website is, it plays a crucial role to your brand development, elevating your brand to the global platform. Imagine the millions more your business can reach! 

Complete ownership vs. Continuous burden

No doubt, social media is amazing, but you don’t have full control over how you design, how people interact with it and certainly can’t control the rules on social media to suit your business.

To make matters even more challenging, there is an average of 1 algorithm changes every 3 months. These updates on social media are unavoidable, hence, forcing you to adapt to changes that will constantly make you change the way you run your business or even influence how you budget your social media marketing campaigns.

On the other hand, the functionality of a website will provide you with all the flexibility you need to create out of the box contents, with no strings attached or rules to follow. Including being able to create an opportunity to grab and communicate with your direct prospective customers via website subscriptions.

With a website, you can reach to more B2B prospects through SEO services. Analytical tools such as Google Analytics are advanced analytical tools for you to identify and analyse any data you want with all the first-hand information you’ll be getting from your website! Imagine the possibilities for how much raw data your business could get from the same amount of investment you put into social media alone!

Usage of data

When it comes to handling customers or users’ data, Facebook is keeping these data all to themselves. You may see some vague or general data like how many people like your page, which country do they come from and so on. On top of that, you are bound by the Facebook privacy policy of how you access, read and handle the users’ data.

On the other hand, If you are running your own website, you are the master of your users’ data. You control how much data you want to extract from your visitors, what to retain and how you are going to use them. Not only you can see general figures like how many people visit your website, but you can also take names, email, phone numbers and other data as long as you include an opt-in form or a simple contact form. There’ so much more interactions that you can include in your website as compared to only a Facebook Page.

With more valuable and specific information from your visitors and leads, there’s a better chance of converting them into paying customers. Best of all, you get to keep all these data for yourself and if you like. You have full control!

Credibility

Facebook page is free to create, free to use and it’s open for everyone.  A professionally designed website gives confidence to visitors.

People now pay more serious attention to the website that is designed professionally. This means that you’ll get a better conversion with a website instead of a Facebook Page.

So what are you waiting for? Check out our corporate web design service with all the essential features that will help you establish a strong digital presence today!

Read More:

Top 8 Reasons Why You Need a Website (Infographics)

4 Reasons Why Social Media Is An Absolute for Your Business to Grow