I have Facebook, do I really need a website?

Facebook is huge, with over 2.74 billion monthly active users. In recent years, Facebook has even popped up on Google’s radar as a competitor for ad dollars to be watched closely. But is it a good idea to forgo a website for your business and focus just on your Facebook page? In short, no. Let me explain.

Facebook is awesome, free (sort of) and addictive. So much so that some studies say the average person spends 33 minutes on Facebook every single day. So it’s no wonder that small business owners are asking if a website is even necessary anymore. But as great as Facebook is, it’s not perfect.

Here are my “Top 3 Beefs with Facebook”

1 It’s Not Free

Don’t be fooled. Facebook is a business, and like all businesses their goal is to make money. To do that, Facebook controls what you see in your feed and gives preference to businesses who pay to boost their posts. As Facebook continues to grow, and more and more companies use it and pay to advertise, the more competition there is for attention. So pretty soon you’ll find that you’ll have to carve out a decent sized budget just to show up on Facebook.

2 It’s Limited

Your Facebook page can only hold so much information about your business. Your location, phone number and a description of what you do or sell and that’s about it. A website, on the other hand, can have as many pages as you need to fully explain what you do, why you are awesome and why people should do business with you. A website can have an online store where people can make purchases, a reservation system where people can book appointments for your services and an almost unlimited host of other functions.

3 Converting Likes Into $$$

500 people like your page, great! But you can’t take “likes” to the bank. Facebook is great for building brand awareness and communicating with your customers, but once they engage with you on Facebook, what do they do next? How do you capture new leads and generate new sales? The answer is to direct them to your mobile friendly website to “Find Out More” or “Order Now”. To get the most out of the time and money you invest in Facebook, you need a website to collect the leads and sales.

An easy way to explain my point is to think of it like this:

If Facebook is the ocean, and your potential customers are fish,  your website is a net.  You can’t catch fish without a net.

The Bottom Line

Facebook is a great marketing tool, but it’s only one tool. To be effective, you need a well designed, mobile friendly website that acts as a central hub for all of your online marketing strategies. The digital marketing landscape stretches far beyond Facebook, and is growing.  Don’t limit yourself to just one strategy.