Have you been told that you don’t need a website to run your business because you can use social media for free?
I’ve heard and seen this advice circulate enough times lately that I can no longer hold my tongue.
Relying solely on social media as the platform for your business is like setting up a lemonade stand in your neighbor’s yard.
Maybe you get along with your neighbor. They’re letting you park your business there for free.
The visibility is great from their corner lot. You’re getting lots of traffic.
People are buzzing about how your special lemonade concoction tastes like sweet liquid sunshine. They’re telling their friends.
You think, Wow, this is great! I’m building relationships with my neighbors and they’re singing my praises. I’m selling lemonade! They love me! They love my lemonade!
And then one day, a storm blows in, spilling your lemonade and tossing your cups, signage and pitchers all over your neighbor’s yard and into the hemisphere.
Your neighbor, who is sort of fed up with the mess and the people marching all over their manicured lawn, sells their home and moves away.
The new homeowner decides that no, they don’t want you in their yard unless they get some of the proceeds.
Or, they decide they don’t approve of how you’re talking about your business so they bar you from the premises. Maybe, they’ll let you come back when it suits them, but you need to follow their rules for engagement.
Meanwhile, all of your customers aren’t sure where you went or how to find you again.
They try to Google you, but you’re nowhere to be found.
Then a new lemonade stand pops up on a different corner, with a shiny new flavor and you’re a distant memory.
Why owning your digital real estate matters.
Social media is rented space.
You have no control over the algorithms, which are frequently changing.
The social media gods get to decide which information they’re going to suppress and which information they’re going to boost—sometimes on a mysterious timetable.
You have no control over outages like what happened earlier this week in the Meta universe. (I got worried that I’d been hacked because I’d hate to lose all of those documented memories. But, I would have been nauseous and in a full-on panic if Facebook or Instagram were the only places where I conduct business.)
Call me a control freak, but this uncertainty, especially when it comes to my livelihood, is no way to live.
Social media is just one tool in your marketing strategy. It helps you build relationships. It’s a great place to engage with your audience, test your messaging and create connections built on trust. It’s a place where you can run ads, promote your business and share testimonials.
Often, it can even be fun!
But it should not be where you house your entire business platform.
Your website is your own piece of personal digital real estate.
It’s where you can kick off your shoes after a long day and put up your feet. You’re in charge of it, not some billionaire gatekeeper.
You can write whatever you’d like on your website.
You can create a more complete picture of who you are and what you have to offer without the filters and rules.
You can integrate SEO to attract your ideal audience.
You can secure your website from hackers.
You can give people a sense of your vibe based on your personalized branding.
You can show your visitors exactly how to do business with you.
You can provide them with a complete menu of your services and/or products.
If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, potential customers and clients can check to see what your hours are and double-check your location, peruse your products, make appointments, read informative articles and so on.
You can build email lists from your website traffic. These are lists you own and can generate income from. One report says that an email list generates $36 for ever $1 spent building it.
Who doesn’t need a website?
Of course, only you can decide if a website is in your best interest. You know your business best and you know what works best for you. That said, here are the two types of business owners who I see managing well without a website:
A business owner who is successfully—and happily— working through word-of-mouth referrals (often with social media as a backup).
A business owner who is uninterested in growing their business. Maybe they’re nearing retirement or planning to transition into a different type of business.
I’m sure there are other unicorns out there, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
I understand that you may be running your business on a shoestring budget, especially if you’re just starting out. I’ve been there.
However, if you make only one investment into your business, let it be a website or a simple landing page with basic information including:
Who you are.
What you offer.
Why you are the right person to solve your target audience’s problem/fulfill their need.
When you’re open (if you have set hours).
Where you’re located (if you’re brick and mortar).
How people can do business with you/contact you.
Then, by all means, go hang out on your favorite social media channel.
Circle round, talk, learn, debate, promote, connect, share… and rest assured that when the next storm blows in and the lights come crashing down, you can calmly retreat with a lemonade in hand to the coziness of home.
