Why do so many work at home and creative businesses neglect to create a web presence outside of Facebook? If that’s you, then you are missing valuable opportunities to grow your following and your business and you may also fall over if Facebook pulls the rug out from under you. Here are 10 reasons why you should have both a website (that includes a blog or Etsy shop) and a Facebook Page.
Firstly let’s look at reasons why you should get a Facebook Page at all:
1. If you run a business and don’t already have a Facebook Page, note this: Facebook profiles are not for business. Facebook doesn’t allow you to use your profile for business purposes. You can’t “sell” ad space on your profile and neither can you sell your stuff. I still see businesses using profiles for business purposes but have heard lately that Facebook is cracking down on this practice. I realise that some people are unaware that they are posting on a profile instead of a business page. If you are confused, feel free to ask the question on our . Your peers are more than happy to help.
2. I can’t tag you if you post from your personal profile but I can tag your fanpage (so long as Facebook isn’t being glitchy). Make sure you post from your Facebook Page if you’re posting about your business.
3. You can’t get analytics (insights) on your personal profile but you can on a Fanpage. These stats help you determine your best posting days and times and the topics that interest your followers the most.
4. Posting about your business all the time on a personal profile can be annoying to your friends. People “like” your fanpage because they want to know more about your business.
Now let’s consider why you should have a website in addition to your Facebook page:
5. You don’t own your Facebook Page. Facebook Does. A Recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted that with the Facebook IPO comes a need for Facebook to make more money, loads of it. It would make sense for them to start charging rent for the business page space they give us. Just sayin’.
6. Facebook Business Pages are designed to enable content sharing and relationship building with your leads and customers. As stated above, you don’t own your page and it can be taken away without notice, meaning all that hard work you’ve put into your page can disappear overnight. Facebook Pages are ideal for building community for customer service and for building relationships with new prospects and clients. However, websites offer you a lot more control over a user’s experience of your brand.
7. Visual social media channels are getting more attention. Pinning is fun! However, you can’t pin from Facebook (yet). So if you want to get pinned, you need a website, even if it’s just a blog you update once a week with your latest creation or activity or an Etsy shop. Visuals are key to your success on visual social platforms. Invest in a half decent camera and use natural light and beautiful backdrops for your product photography. Your share-ability will increase 10-fold if you do!
8. Websites are indexed by Google. If you are smart and use your keywords throughout your website and blog articles, you will rank higher on Google. It may take a few months to see results but you will see results. The more new content on your website, the better.
9. People go on Facebook for an overview of a business and to connect with you but if they want indepth info, they want a website. A website is your domain. You own it and you buy the virtual realestate. Use it to shine the light on your business. Even an Etsy or Madeit store is better than nothing. A blog which is updated once a week is a great tool for your business and gives you content to feed through to your fans on Facebook.
10. If you’re on more than one social network, you can integrate these with your website. And if you post images of your latest creations on your website you can add social buttons to the image to make it easy for other people to share them throughout their social networks (and not just on Facebook).
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