There’s a lot to discuss when comparing how social media and websites generate leads for a business. When debating website or social media for your business, there are a few key things to consider:
Which of the two options generates the most potential customers? Which can provide a bigger return on investment (ROI)? Or, which helps the company to grow faster? Let’s look at both in detail and the pros and cons of each.
What is Social Media?
Social networks or social media have become a norm in our daily lives. Used to communicate or interact with each other online. Social media has significantly grown in popularity this past decade, not only among individuals but also businesses.
“Social”: From the Latin “socius”, which means “friend”. So being social means being friendly.
“Media”: From the Latin “medius” a communication mediation tool used to disseminate (spread) information.
Going from these basic definitions, we get this: Social Media is an application or platform where people or groups of people (businesses) socialize with their audience.
This is actually the best way to use social media. Many businesses make the mistake of posting lengthy, yet not friendly content on social media without the requirement to be social. Being social takes time, effort, and constant engagement to build an audience and trust. The payoff is big, however, there is no time to rest on your laurels it will always require the time and effort required to make it work.
Advantages of Social Media
- Free – It costs you nothing to set up a social media account on multiple platforms. Most social media networks are free to join and use with simply your email address and other basic info required to signup.
- Ready-made – Layouts are pre-made, no fiddling around to create a page, simply sign up, add a profile picture and start posting.
- Fast – You can be up and running within 5 to 10 min with a very quick signup procedure. You don’t need any specialised skill to setup an account.
- Networking – Social media is great as a communication device and instant messaging directly from your customers. Building a relationship with your customers.
- Sharing – Get your message across quickly, promote your business or publish your product within only a few clicks. Your audience can also help promote your business to there friends and family with the click of a mouse.
Disadvantages of Social Media
- Free – Paradoxically, this is also a hindrance. Your post visibility is limed to only your “friends” for free, In order to build a wider audience, your will need to pay for campaigns and advertisements.
- Ready Made – Paradoxically, again. Your Social Media page is not unique and your brand and company will look like every other page.
- Lost in the crowd – Without the ability to stand out from your competitors it’s easy for your brand to get undervalued or just not noticed at all.
- Time and effort – Social media is not a set once-and-forget solution, in order to grow you constantly need to post new content and engage with your users daily.
- It’s never yours – Using social media means that you never own your own platform and are at the mercy of the platform. If they close your account, remove your posts or go out of business then there goes your audience.
What is a Website?
A website is simply a collection of interconnected “internet pages’ under the same “domain name”, which is accessible to public visitors. Websites can be created and maintained by individuals, a group, and businesses and used for various purposes. Below are some things you’ll need to understand before building a website for your business.
“Domain”: The most simple explanation is to consider your domain as your “address”. An address is assigned to your website to make it easy for visitors to find and navigate your pages. Usually, your domain name is your company or product name and can be purchased by your hosting provider or website developer. (Ie. “yourcompany“.co.za)
“Hosting”: If your domain is the address to your website, you can consider hosting as the “land” where your website will live. Instead of actual land that you own, you will most typically rent server space from a hosting provider where your website will be built. It’s the physical infrastructure, like a hard drive where your text, pictures, and videos will be stored.
“Development”: This refers to the process of “building” your website. If you have the budget, you will most likely end up hiring a website designer to design, build, and occasionally update your website for you.
Advantages of a website
- Custom made – A website is created from scratch so it is a truly unique representation of your business, you can decide to showcase your products and services in any layout or format that shows
- Credibility – Having a beautifully designed website can give you a competitive advantage over competitors that either don’t have a website at all or competitors with an outdated or unattractive design.
- Get Found Online – Nearly 90% of all people now use the internet and search engines such as Google to find new local businesses. If you don’t have a website you are missing out on critical opportunities to be found and to offer your services or product.
Disadvantages of a website
- Upfront Cost – The setup cost of creating your new website is higher than that of social media taking into account domain registration, hosting and website development. Although ongoing costs after development are low.
- Initial Preparation – As your new website is a blank canvas, you will need to provide your website developer with the necessary brief for styling your site as well as all the content including images, text, etc.
- Occasional Updates – Your website software will need to be updated occasionally to keep on top of patches and security releases. You will also want to look at updating your website layout/styling every few years to keep it from getting outdated.
Conclusion
Websites or social media? What’s best for your business? Our answer is you should be using both. A combination of the two will give the best results for businesses in all areas.
Social Media is a great way for you to test out your next business idea. However, if you’re looking to develop a sustainable long-term business, a website will be crucial to getting found, building trust and running effectively.
We believe that it’s smarter to invest in something you own than to build on land that doesn’t belong to you. This is why we highly recommend that you invest in a website now and then use social media to drive traffic to your website and grow your business online the right way.
If you want to take your business online, we have the experience and expertise in creating professional websites and can assist in helping them grow. Contact us at Ballito Web Design for a free consultation and quote, we look forward to working with you to grow your business online.
