We often have clients asking us if a website is truly necessary in a world where social networks are so popular.

Designing and building a brilliant website can seem like a daunting and often costly task, especially when many social media platforms appear to offer just as much value at a fraction of the price.

Here, we explain why both should go hand-in-hand when establishing a successful online presence, as well as the core benefits of a website and social media.

The benefits of social media.

Social media is an excellent way to quickly get the word out there about your business.

You don’t need to be techy.

Setting up social media platforms for your business requires little-to-no experience. The handy forms on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram take you through the fairly straightforward process of outlining what your business does and adding relevant imagery. You could even do it from your smartphone, it’s that simple.

What is more, social media pages are optimised for search engines, frequently appearing on the first page of Google when people search for your business.

Engage with your audience.

Social networks also provide you with an audience that is relatively easy to reach out to. 

Think about how many people use Facebook on a daily basis compared with how many make the effort to visit one or two business websites. With social media, you already have an audience waiting to be engaged with.

Meanwhile, social platforms enable you to actively engage with potential and current customers, as well as publish updates to give people a real insight into your business. This is something that can’t quite be replicated via a traditionally static website.

Integrated tools.

Many of the bigger social platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest come with numerous marketing capabilities. On Facebook alone, you can now raise money, sell products and build an email list.

In addition to this, most networks gather analytics that tracks the visitors that come to your pages, giving you an overview of what content your target audience enjoys and what they are doing when they land on your profile.

The benefits of a business website.

Whilst social media is a fantastic tool, a website should always be the backbone of your digital presence.

Full control.

The first reason to have a quality website rather than solely rely on social media is to have full control of how your business is represented.

Would you rather run your business from someone else’s store or lease/buy your own space to operate from?

It’s a similar thought process when it comes to being successful online.

No surprises.

Having your own site means that you don’t have to fully rely on social media platforms when promoting your products or services. This is crucial because many social networks regularly change the way that they work and display content. The latest example of this is Facebook’s new algorithm and how it is decreasing the reach of business pages. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do aside from complain or embrace the new rules.

Who knows what is going to happen in the future? Perhaps Twitter will become a paid-for service or Instagram will continue to make it harder for smaller accounts to grow and expand.

If you have your own site, you get to call the shots on what can and can’t be seen and how it works.

Great first impressions.

Your website should be the very hub of your brand; a place where you can direct potential clients to. It needs to give a good first impression that you can completely manage, rather than relying on your latest post to social media. It’s definitely best to invest money into something that you own, instead of into a platform that you have no real autonomy over.

In an ideal world, both your business website and social media should work together in tandem. Social networks are a wonderful marketing tool when aiming to drive traffic to your website and they are a great way to reach out to new audiences with ease. However, the power of a great website cannot be underestimated, it can and will provide you with a solid foundation for your online presence.

If you need an extra hand on setting up social media or building a quality website, don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of the Mattix Design team.