Now that everything is going digital these days, it’s important for any kind of business to have a strong online presence. You know, social media, business websites, email lists, and all that.
And you’re probably reading this because you’re concerned about your business’ visibility online.
So you create a Facebook page for your business…
Surely that’s enough, right?
Why would your business need a website or anything else when it already has a Facebook page? After all, Facebook is huge. Surely a Facebook page is enough for an online presence.
Or is it?
Is a Facebook page alone enough to maximize your business’ growth potential online?
The answer, quite frankly, is no.
In order for your business to thrive online, it’s going to take more than a Facebook page. You’re going to need a website too.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the following:
What Facebook can do for your business
What Facebook can’t do for your business
Can you use Facebook as a business website?
What a website can do for your business
Why does your business need a Facebook page AND a website?
Let’s start with Facebook.
What Can Facebook Do For Your Business?
Everyone knows what Facebook is. It’s the biggest social media website in the world, with “roughly 2.8 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2020,” according to Statista.com.
So if your business already has a Facebook page, good job! You’re one step closer to reaching these billions of people worldwide. Here are other things Facebook can do for you:
1. Facebook can help you learn about your audience.
If you’ve ever been to any business workshop or seminar, they’ll tell you how important it is to get to know your audience. You have to know their innermost desires and thoughts.
With Facebook, you can kind of do that too. Because you can see the people that like and follow your page, you can also get insights on:
—– WHO they are
—– WHERE they’re from
—– HOW OLD they are
—– WHAT they like
In turn, these details can help you develop your content to appeal to your audience. Additionally, you’ll also know how to develop or tweak your products and services to attract your customers.
2. Facebook can help you communicate with your audience.
Communicating with your audience has never been easier during the digital age.
On Facebook, you can be contacted through Facebook Messenger. You can even set your automated response or question prompts for your customers.
And because it is a social media platform, it makes it easy for your customers to comment on your content, so take advantage of this feature!
3. Facebook can humanize your business or brand.
Attracting an audience means more than editing photos and captions. It means being relatable and allowing them to identify with you.
After all, nobody wants ads and promotions all the time. Sometimes the best way to appeal to your audience is to show them your process, an inspiring quote, or what you had for breakfast.
When your audience gets the “Oh hey, they’re just like me” feeling, they’re more likely to trust you and your business.
4. Facebook can help you build your community.
It’s also easy to build and grow a community around your brand or business on Facebook. It’s either you cultivate your likes or following on your Facebook page or manage your own Facebook group.
A Facebook group is like a club for your business and you can do just about anything. With a group, you can cultivate and develop strong relationships with your most loyal customers.
5. Facebook can help you reach out to your audience.
There are plenty of ways to reach out to your audience on Facebook. Here are a few ideas:
—– Produce high-quality content for them that you post on your Facebook page (photos, essays, gifs, videos, stories, live videos).
—– Target your ideal customers through Facebook ads.
—– Hold polls and surveys to help you learn about their wants and needs.
It’s clear that Facebook can help you with a lot of things. But…
Can You Use Your Facebook Page As A Business Website?
Facebook is a great platform for businesses because it has so many features that are online business-friendly. If your page is complete (meaning you’re maximizing all of its features), then it can function as a mini business website.
With a Facebook page, you can have some of the functionalities a website has. You can:
Display your business information.
Like your business name, address, contact numbers, and email addresses, working hours, and a little bio. (And when you have a business website, you can add a link to it too)
Easily communicate with your customers.
With Facebook Messenger and comments, you can easily respond to messages, questions, and concerns.
Share media and content.
You can easily upload and share engaging content with your audience and see how they respond.
Set up an online store.
Facebook recently launched the Facebook Shop feature that allows businesses to set up an online store right on Facebook. You can now showcase your products on your Facebook Shop and integrate them with e-commerce platforms like Shopify.
Make Your Business More Mobile-Friendly.
Because you have the Facebook and Messenger apps on your side, your business can be easily accessible even when your customers are away from their computers.
However, even though a Facebook page can help you a lot, a business website will help you even more. You may own your page and can control your content, but you can’t control Facebook.
Remember that Facebook is a third-party platform. You may have some control over your page, but in the end, Facebook still calls the shots.
What Can’t Facebook Do For Your Business?
While having a Facebook page can do wonders for your marketing and online presence, it can’t do everything.
Here are some of the limitations of only having a Facebook page for your business:
You can’t maximize your branding and customization.
Sure, you can add a profile picture, header, and slap your logo on everything you post, but the layout and colors of your page will all depend on Facebook.
And if Facebook updates the look of its website and how certain elements look, your page would have no choice but to follow.
You can’t control everything.
You can control some things, like the content you post, but not everything. If Facebook launches an update that has cartoon monkeys flying around the screen, you won’t be able to do anything about it.
On a more serious note, if the platform also has glitches and malfunctions or decides to shut down, all your content and followers would all go down the drain.
You follow Facebook’s rules.
Remember when we said you can’t control everything on Facebook? That’s because Facebook calls the shots. It’s their platform, so you have to follow their rules.
And this can be a little frustrating. If Facebook somehow marks you as a spam account, your page could get suspended or even taken down.
You share your audience with everybody else.
Billions of people are on Facebook every day and if you can attract your audience to your content and your business, then that’s great. But get this: if you can do it, then it’s easy for the thousands of other businesses to do the same.
Your customers’ feed is not just filled with cute animal pictures, they’re also filled with content from your competitors. Because every business knows that Facebook is teeming with daily users, competition for people’s attention is high.
Not everyone has a Facebook account.
Yes, even though billions of people already have a Facebook account, not everyone does. Also, some of the accounts might be inactive or backup accounts of people who forgot their passwords (We all have that uncle with multiple Facebook accounts, right?).
If your ideal customer doesn’t have Facebook, they won’t be able to contact or engage with you.
Don’t get us wrong. We think Facebook is a powerful tool for marketing and relationship-building, and it’s completely free. But in order for your business to thrive online, a Facebook page is not enough.
But if Facebook is Free, Then Why Does Your Business Need A Website?
Good question. And here’s the thing:
You can’t maximize your business’ online growth potential without a website.
A website is your business’ very own platform. It’s a chunk of the internet that is entirely yours— a place where you call the shots. On your website, you don’t have to worry about social media feed algorithms and spammers and trolls. What you say goes.
And just like setting up a Facebook page, creating a website for your business is easy now too. You don’t need any programming skills or coding knowledge to do it. It can be as simple as dragging and dropping content.
So What Can A Website Do For Your Business?
1. A business website allows full customization.
Think of your website as a physical shop for your business. You can decorate and customize it according to your brand and preference. You can add and change your:
—– Theme colors: If your brand has specific colors, you can customize your website according to that theme.
—– Fonts: Fonts can you communicate who you are and what you do. A professional law firm might use a font like Times New Roman, whereas a fun nursery program might use a Comic Sans font.
—– Images: You’re not limited to only featuring a profile picture and a header anymore. You can slap on however many images you want on your website and edit the sizes and their positions.
—– Web pages: You’re also free to add, edit, and organize your web pages as you like. While we recommend at least having a Home page, an About Page, and a Contact page, you can also have a blog, a gallery, and different pages for your services.
—– Widgets: Web widgets are web pages or applications that you can feature on your website to accomplish different functions. For example, you can have a Google Maps widget to help people locate your business or an Instagram feed widget where you can display your photos.
2. You can be more thorough with your content.
Your website also allows you to be more thorough with your content.
Chances are that people visit your website because they want to learn more about you and your business. If you can give them the interesting story behind your brand name or how your business was built, feel free to do so.
Make sure your business website provides your customers with the details they need, answering every doubt and hesitation in their minds.
3. A website can help your business establish credibility.
In 2019, research showed 81 percent of consumers conduct online research before making a purchase online, according to Oberlo.
And in 2015, research has shown that 84% believe a business with a website is more credible than one that only has a social media page. That was 6 years ago!
If you want to show your customers that your business is trustworthy and serious about its mission, you need an updated, professional website.
4. All the visitors are yours.
When your customers are on Facebook, you have to fight against your competitors, family and friends, and cute cats to get their attention.
But when they visit your website, all eyes are on you and your business. Make sure they can interact with your website and find everything they need, or else they’ll bounce away.
5. You are more likely to appear on Google.
It’s true that your Facebook page can also appear on Google’s search results, but more so with a website.
If you do your SEO (search engine optimization) correctly, you can rank on Google’s first page when people search for a certain keyword or keyphrase. With a website, your business has more chances of befriending Google and you’re more likely to be found by the right people.
6. You can build a community on your business website.
A Facebook group is great, but if your page or Facebook gets taken down, all your members will have nowhere to go. And even if someone likes and follows your page, your content is still subject to Facebook’s algorithm.
On your website, you can build a community with an email list or a membership page. With an email list, you can add a personal touch to your content and have their undivided attention.
7. Your website is your digital business card.
A Facebook page needs to be constantly updated to be deemed as an active account by the algorithm. If not, you’re going to have a hard time reaching your audience.
And while a website should always have updated content (especially contact information), you’re not at the mercy of a social media algorithm.
Your website is your 24/7 salesperson and it will always be there to showcase your services, products, and your story.
To clarify: we don’t mean you should completely abandon your Facebook page and focus on your website. Nor do we mean that you should ignore your website and focus on Facebook.
In order for your business to succeed in this digital age, your website and Facebook page should work together.
Here’s how having both a website and a Facebook page can help your business:
You can use your Facebook page to promote your business website.
When you finally launch your new website, you can use your Facebook page to link people to it. You can also use your Facebook and other social media posts to link to different pages on your website.
It can work vice versa too. You can have a Facebook widget on your website so people can like your Facebook page directly from your website. You can also link your other social media sites on your Contact and About pages.
You’ll have more credibility.
If you have a successful Facebook page and a professional website, your customers are more likely to trust your business.
When you take time to build your online presence, it shows that you’re serious about your business and you care about your mission.
Your business can reach more people and be more accessible.
You want to be able to reach your customers whether they are surfing on the web or scrolling through their timelines. Similarly, if your customers need your help, having a website and Facebook page makes it easier for them to reach out to you.
You have more chances of growth and success.
Having more than one platform to showcase your business means that you have the potential to reach more people and build a bigger community around your brand.
You can target more customers.
You always want to be at the front of your customers’ minds. Having a business website and a Facebook page helps you to target your audience, learn about them, and offer your services.
In conclusion, your business needs more than just a Facebook page to succeed online. In order to maximize your business’ online growth potential, your website and Facebook page should work together.
There are many things that a Facebook page can help you with, but a business website gives you more freedom and more benefits. When you’re able to make them work together, you can help your business reach more people, build more meaningful relationships, and succeed online.
We’d love to hear from you too! How has Facebook helped your business or community grow? Do you think a Facebook page is enough to grow your business online? Let us know in the comments!
Struggling to create Facebook content for your business? We make social media marketing as easy as pressing an Approval button!
If you don’t have a professional website for your business yet, don’t worry. If you don’t want the hassle of putting together a website for your business, you can have us do it for you. We have a straightforward and stress-free process that will help you set the foundation for your business’ online presence.