I have to admit, Facebook has made things easy enough that anyone and everyone is able to manage their personal profile. Once you are hooked on Facebook, it’s hard to leave. Your network of friends’ pressure plus relatives wanting you to keep up with their pictures is like the great wall of China. And if you lose spend time there, then chances are that you want to control and promote your company profile or at least leave it to somebody within reach.
And the reasons why so many SMB owners are wasting spending huge amounts of time on Facebook marketing related to their website efforts are clear:
- You find it super easy to post content. Whether it’s your cat being cute or your company Christmas party, it’s mostly the same easy way to post content and say “I am marketing my company” and then enjoying the feeling of realization that comes with it.
- Small Businesses do not measure results. You get that dopamine feeling when you see all those vanity interaction metrics, such as “10 likes” or whenever you get that charming comment “When is your shop open?” When was the last time you actually got super clear stats?
- You get direct feedback. People are using Facebook for support. That is the main reason why you see Facebook tracking how much time the owner takes to respond to you. Facebook wants you to acknowledge that you have to keep an eye on the Company page.
- You do not have to think. They make sure you are feeling that all the information you need is at your fingertips and you just have to show up and they’ll walk you through a clever on boarding process to complete your profile. And it looks nice, with that cover photo!
But c’mon, you are an ambitious SMB owner entrepreneur master of the business universe!. You deserve the big time and Facebook is your comfort zone. But your efforts to post quality content and reach your followers are becoming more futile because of the way Facebook timelines work. Less than 10% of what you are posting is going to show up in your followers timeline. This is what Facebook wants.
They want you to spend a pretty penny to increase your visibility. Which means that you end up paying money to interact with a follower base that you’ve curated.
A follower is not a buyer, they may find it super easy to collect Pages to follow but the intention to purchase is not generally their motivator while they are browsing their timeline.
Your website is your brand, it is your hub
On the other hand you have your website. It is not that accessible. It is not that dynamic and has no easy way to be updated. And no direct feedback comes except for the occasional email. And you have the feeling that it is hard to maintain it and so much more complex than just logging on from your mobile and updating your content on the fly.
But whatever you do on your website is like an investment. If you create some great content that will serve your prospective customers, that content will get more and more valuable throughout time. Your website gives you the chance to really show your product details. To offer a structured view of your offering and to centralize all the potential connections with the outer world (email subscription, social media profiles and contact forms).
A visit to your website is usually a real visit that harbours intent; not an “I am coming by to see and hit the “like” button ” superficial moment. Which implies that your conversion rate (converting a visitor into real business) is going to be much more valuable.
I know it’s hard, but remember that your one-stop-shop is your website despite whatever app or social platform is being hyped at the moment. It is certainly going to evolve and leaders will benefit. Last year we wrote about how relying on a single Facebook page as a website replacement is not a good idea, and that view remains valid now.
Website marketing is for visionaries!
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