Your Website Isn't Dead

By all accounts (or at least, by our account) the last 8 years have brought social media from the abstract to a fact of life in the world of business and marketing. At the same time, it has become one of a business owner’s greatest challenges. The fragmentation of social outlets (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and the allocation of, often times limited, resources needed to produce for those outlets can be an obstacle in and of itself. So when it comes to your efforts online, should your website now play second fiddle to social media?

Let’s start here: your website is the online face of your brand and your company. Ever heard the expression “All roads lead to Rome?” The same holds true in the digital marketing space. Only, in this case, Rome is made up of 0’s and 1’s and lives on servers accessible to the world via the internet. And no, we don’t remember that part of Gladiator either.

Social media can be exceedingly useful and effective in a variety of ways. However, at the end of the day a business’ online intent is to attract or drive customers through the doors, which online means to your website. To take this one step further, your social media followers aren’t necessarily your customers. These followers more than likely found you via their own social network in the first place. That’s an important distinction, because it means two things: First, your messaging to your social following is independent of your messaging to your customers. Second, and perhaps more importantly, your social followers aren’t your customers to begin with. Rather, they are conversions waiting to happen. After all, the intent of every business is the conversion of potential customers into actual customers, right? Though there are methods of doing this via social on its own, a great deal of the time it means using the social space as a “pull” to your home base, i.e. your website, for customer conversion.

All roads lead to Rome…which just so happens to reside on servers these days.

Social media is about getting out to meet and greet your customers in a different space. Think of it as an online happy hour that’s a round the clock affair. (And honestly, how sweet would that be?) Your goal should be to deliver clear and concise messaging to your followers via your social channels, in order to build your connections. You know, mingle and meet some new people. One of the main issues on the social side, however, is that the types of messages you can deliver via a social platform are dictated by the platform itself. It’s sometimes hard to hold a conversation when happy hour picks up and the bar gets loud. You can’t exactly ask the old barkeep help ‘keep it down.’ Where you can control the conversation and the environment is back at home. That means, at some point, bringing the party back to your place where you control the atmosphere and those acquaintances can become friends.

So what are we saying? First of all, we thought you’d never ask. What we’re saying is this: that it’s not site vs. social. A good marketing strategy doesn’t end with the two separated and in silos. One without the other rarely makes much sense. But at the end of the day your website is the foundation of your business and your brand online. Don’t neglect it or ever start to think it should come in second. Your website isn’t dead, so act accordingly.