Social Media vs Websites

Is Social Media the New Website?

Remember when people used to check for your website to make sure you're legit? That's what social media is used for these days. It's time to build a piece of 'content' around this.

Ever notice how people don't ask for your website and email anymore? Instead, they ask for your Instagram and WhatsApp number. A few years ago, people would ask for your email or website to gauge your credibility, and that's how domain name inspection emerged as one of the tools for seeing if you are being phished by scammers. But the landscape has dramatically changed.

When I started Hearty Moments Media, a graphic design and events media company, we ran for about two years before we ever thought about getting a website. Although we did purchase a domain and moved from Gmail to "professional emails" from around 6 months, we never bothered with a website for the first 3 years. However, we had Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages before we ever launched our services, and "check out our Instagram for our portfolio" was an important part of our vocabulary. I know that pros out there will be quick to tell me that an Instagram page is not my portfolio, but in my world, it has been.

Many creators have built social media recommendation accounts, suggesting anything from which free software to use in building your business, the best Amazon finds, scenic lodges and guesthouses for your next weekend away, and other hidden gems of our cities or country. These pages used to exist primarily on websites, but now the recommendations keep coming on social media. As a result, social media has become another powerful tool for you to connect with your target audience.

Social media is not just a tool for connecting with your audience, it's also a platform where you can establish yourself as a thought leader in your field. By sharing informative and relatable content, you can build authority and credibility with your followers, which can lead to increased engagement, brand loyalty, and ultimately, sales. In today's world, where social media is one of the primary ways people discover and interact with businesses, building a strong presence on these platforms is essential.

Features like Facebook recommendations, integration of Messenger and WhatsApp to all platforms, including websites, mean we bypass emails into real-time conversations via instant messaging, again driving sales.

However, your website and email listing are still super important. They are the only proprietary data of your clients that you can build. Your list of followers belongs to Meta, and they decide when and how you reach them. Hence, they sell you reach on people who have already indicated they want to hear from you by liking or subscribing to your page. The recent Meta Verified program has received a lot of backlash as they offered us blue check marks and extended reach on Facebook and Instagram in exchange for about R500 per month. This offering exposed the fact that they have been and will continue to suppress your reach to people who want to hear from you.

This means building an email list and a newsletter, selling via your website, is still very important. Granted, it takes significantly more effort to get customers or users enrolled, but it comes with a certain level of security that can't be rivaled by big social media companies.
Social media has become an integral part of our lives and businesses. However, it's important to remember that building your website and email list is still essential to establish credibility and security in your business.

So as you keep building your online presence, don't forget to invest in building your own proprietary data to grow your business. Don't rely solely on your social media followers as your reach is ultimately controlled by big social media companies. Also, put a considerable effort and focus on building your own list of contacts, and you'll have a more secure and reliable way to reach them.