Are you giving consideration to using Facebook Business Pages for your business website or over whether to drop your web site in favor of optimizing your Facebook business page and maximizing a social marketing strategy (ie: Facebook)?
I observe many businesses doing just that, managing/moving their web presence to Facebook. There are reasons for and against this strategy. On the positive side it is very quick and, for the time being, pretty low-cost. (Although I think it is reasonable to expect that Facebook could begin to charge significantly for Facebook Business pages now that they are a public company and are seeking increased monetization channels to satisfy shareholders.)
On the negative side Facebook business pages take some unique skills to enhance, can be expensive to add some features and unlike a website you are not in full control of your content, how it is available and the possibility of competitors; ads on “your” pages. Not to overlook the almost constant changes implemented by Facebook and other social networks.
Fortunately there is a recent free report that gets deeper into how consumers are willing use Facebook Business pages, social networks and company websites to make purchase decisions. The report might make it a bit easier to see the continuing marketing value of your web site in this period of social media excitement.
As the OpenForum noted about the report – “Consumers still visit companies’ websites more often than their Facebook pages, says a report released Thursday from social marketing firm Get Satisfaction and analyst Incyte Group. Nearly 90 percent of the some 2,000 people surveyed said the company’s website—not a social network—is their preferred place to research products and hunt for information they’ll use to make buying decisions. They said they go straight to a company’s website (as opposed to looking first on a social network).”
Of course there is no reason to consider that the choices are mutually exclusive. The best option is to use both a business website and social media. Ideally I think your website should be able to manage much of your social media presence across networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest and others. Responsive websites based in WordPress as a content management system (like we create) can do just that across all devices and virtually every social network. And for a very reasonable price. That way your business is meeting todays full marketplace of consumers on their terms, while you control your site and even more importantly your content.
