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Social media is great. You can use it to promote your business, increase your brand reach, and increase customer interaction with your company. However, most of us get so wrapped up in using social media we often make the mistake of prioritizing it over our website. In fact, if you end up going down that path it can be detrimental to your business.
Have you ever thought about how much time you actually spend on social media? A few minutes a day? A few hours? I know that everyone has their own process and methods, but if you are spending more time on social media than you are on your website, you may end up regretting it.
What’s The Worst That Could Happen?
You might be thinking, “It’s just a social account”? Sure, this might be true, but there are many of us that put so much time and effort into the various social media channels, we fail to think about what might happen should these channels no longer exist. Or much worse, what would happen if your account were to be deleted?
For example, any social network can modify their terms of service and decide that you violated them and simply delete your account. Perhaps a competitor gets a large number of users to report your profile for spam or other “violations”. Next thing you know your account is flagged, resulting in suspension/termination. You’re left with nothing. All of your work is gone.
Trust me, there are plenty of shady companies and people out there who will do whatever it takes to eliminate their competition, including crippling your social presence.
Remember When MySpace was King?
Speaking of competition, remember when nothing was as big as MySpace and it would never go away? Then along comes Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ which pushed MySpace out of the public eye in just a few short years. With each social network, we truly do not know what their shelf life will be.
Think about all the time spent building up your MySpace profiles only to have them be pretty much worthless at this point. At least with a website, you have ownership and can continuously build upon the work you have put into it to establish your brand.
Focus on What You Own
I am not saying you should ignore social media, rather that you focus more time on utilizing channels/websites that you have ownership of. By doing so, you ensure yourself of building on something that no one can take away from you. By spending less time on social media you can spend more time generating content, enhancing user experience, or conversion rate optimization; you will not have to worry about losing any of the work you have done.
Social Media Should NOT be Your Primary Web Presence
In fact, it should be used to support your website, not replace it. With so many different social media channels available, it makes sense to seek out which ones can support your website. For example, you might use Youtube to host your product videos while embedding them on your website. Or use Twitter to promote your latest blog posts, while using Facebook to share how your business is active in the local community, and you could use create a B2B LinkedIn strategy to generate leads.
All of these activities should ultimately lead users back to your website at some point where you further engage and connect with them and to ultimately convert them. However, I think we should all be aware of just how much time we devote to these channels and to promise ourselves we will devote just as much, if not more time to our own websites.