We’re all guilty of spending too much time on social media, scrolling mindlessly through Facebook, Instagram, and, more recently, TikTok. As a small business or startup owner, you can use this trend to your advantage and boost visibility and organic web traffic.
Social media can also help you to popularize your physical location and build your reputation in your local community. These platforms are perfect for sharing your content and engaging with your audience.
If you’re not already on board with the social media hype, perhaps it’s time to buy a ticket and hop on for the ride. But should startups start with social media or a website? In this post, I’ll explore both options and explain which one should come first.
Understanding the Role of a Website
Every small business and startup needs a website. What can a website do for your brand?
What a Website Does
- It acts as your digital storefront or headquarters.
- It showcases your products or services.
- It provides information about your brand, including your history, mission, and values.
- It serves as a platform for customers to contact you and make purchases.
- It gives you full control over your content, design, and functionality.
- Creates search visibility via SEO and converts visitors via creative copywriting on pages and posts.
Here are some tips for creating a successful small business website.
The Key Benefits of a Business Website
1. Credibility and Legitimacy
You can’t have physical stores all over your county, city, state, and country, but you want to sell to a wider audience. A website cultivates your credibility and makes your brand look professional, no matter where you are located.
It signals to your target clientele you’re a legitimate business and can be trusted. Online audiences may not know your physical location, but they know that online businesses with professional websites invest in their credibility and reputation.
Websites also allow you to publish helpful content and solve customer problems. That’s the best credibility you can ever get.
2. SEO for Long-Term Traffic
Search visibility attracts visitors to your site, where your copywriting should convince some to buy your offers. Apart from sales, it also cultivates brand recognition.
With effective SEO strategies, your website can steadily climb search engine results pages (SERPs), drawing in more targeted traffic over time.
SEO involves optimizing your website’s content and structure to outcompete other publishers in SERPs.
Please note that SEO is a long-term game, even though it may present short-term benefits as well. SEO is the gift that keeps on giving long after putting in the initial effort.
3. Lead Capture and Conversion Tools
Business websites are the online platform for creating and deploying different lead capture and conversion tools, such as:
- Pop-up subscription forms.
- Call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
- Landing pages.
- Chatbots.
These tools help businesses capture leads and convert them into customers.
4. Analytics and Ownership
A website allows businesses to have better control and ownership over their online presence. Websites also allow you to install and use numerous analytics tools to track and measure:
- Website traffic.
- User behavior and acquisition.
- Sales conversions.
- Other key performance indicators (KPIs).
Some popular analytics tools include:
- Google Analytics.
- Adobe Analytics.
- Google Search Console.
- Kissmetrics.
Additionally, a website allows you complete control over its design, content, and functionality. You have the freedom to customize your website according to your image and goals.
You can also update or tweak your website at any time without depending on a third-party platform.
The Power of Social Media
There’s no denying the power of social media in connecting people from all over the world.
Social media has completely changed how humanity communicates. It has made it easier for us to stay connected with family and friends who are far away while forging new connections with people and communities that share our interests or beliefs.
With just a few clicks, we can now easily reach out to someone on the other side of the globe. Aside from personal connections, social media also plays a significant role in businesses.
What Social Media Provides
- Fast visibility and audience growth.
- Engagement and real-time feedback.
- Viral potential and social proof.
Key Benefits of Social Media for Business
1. Easier, Quicker Setup
With websites, you have to design the website, buy a domain name and a hosting plan, build the website, populate it, and debug it. Social media platforms do all the heavy lifting for you. Just create an account, fill in the basic information, and start posting content.
You don’t need to have any technical knowledge or hire a web developer for your social media profiles. It’s much easier and quicker for businesses, especially small ones with limited resources, to establish an online presence.
2. Great for Community Building and Storytelling
Social media cultivates an environment for fun, socializing, and entertainment. Social media differs from business websites in that users will scroll through content from different profiles on their timeline.
Most websites differ from social media platforms in that they’re not very interactive. When you access a website, you’re just there to read or take some action. However, all social media platforms encourage users to interact via comments, likes, shares, and even by forming groups.
Social media interactivity allows you to build a community around your brand. Be consistent, post interesting content now and then, and always reply to comments or start chats with your followers to grow a loyal base.
3. Platform Algorithms Can Amplify Content
Social media platforms work so hard to ensure their users enjoy the best experience possible, which includes personalizing timelines and news feeds to their interests. The more engagement an individual post receives, the higher it will appear on other users’ feeds.
This algorithmic amplification can dramatically boost your reach and visibility. You know, going viral! Viral content spirals out of control, reaching far beyond your original audience.
Be careful not to ruin your brand while trying to go viral. Before posting, ensure the content doesn’t conflict with your brand messaging and values. Viral content can quickly go awry without thoughtful production, resulting in negative backlash or misrepresentation.
If your content is bland and low quality, the same algorithms that make others viral will bury yours.
Website vs. Social Media: The Pros & Cons
Website Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Complete control over content and design.
- Ability to monetize with ads or products.
- Establish a unique brand identity and voice.
- Direct access to audience data and analytics.
- More rewarding in the long term.
Cons:
- Costly to create and maintain.
- Requires technical knowledge for design and maintenance.
- Limited reach without proper SEO tactics.
- More challenging upfront (design, development, populating, and initial SEO)
Social Media Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Can reach a large, diverse audience quickly.
- No technical knowledge required to start.
- Easy to use and share content across platforms.
- Don’t need to invest in domain names and hosting packages.
For more context, read: ‘The Importance of Social Media for Small Businesses‘.
Cons:
- Limited control over the design and layout of content.
- You can be easily overshadowed by other viral content.
- Posts don’t have a long-term impact like web pages and blogs.
- Managing multiple social media accounts is time-consuming.
Key Questions to Help You Decide Where to Start
1. What’s Your Business Model?
Remember, it’s about starting, not following through. Following through is important, but our quagmire is deciding which of these two should take your initial investment.
Your business model should guide your decision. If you’re an e-commerce business, it would make more sense to focus on your website and blog first. Websites allow for more in-depth product descriptions, customer reviews, and a streamlined checkout process.
However, if you’re a service-based business, social media may be a better option as it allows for direct communication with potential clients. Social media can help you achieve short-term wins, which in turn attract long-term wins.
For example, social media can help service-oriented businesses to score their first customers, which gives them social proof to attract even more customers.
If you’re an influencer, it makes perfect sense to start with growing your social media following and brand. It will be easier to direct your loyal followers to your website for more information and access to your offers.
2. Where Is Your Target Audience Spending Time?
The only reason I didn’t start with this question is that I figure your business model will determine your target audience. Pinpointing your target audience is a great start, and the next step is finding out where they spend most of their time online.
Some may spend more time on some social media platforms than others. Some are averse to social media and rely on search engines to find what they need.
You need this information to refine your marketing strategy, focusing only on platforms with the most return on investment.
Aside from social media, it’s also important to consider other online channels where your target audience may be spending time. It could include forums, niche websites, or blogs, and even online communities or groups related to your products or services.
3. Do You Need Immediate Traction or Long-Term Scalability?
Focus on short-term tactics, such as paid advertising or influencer partnerships, if you need quick results and a sales boost. It’s the fastest way to generate the buzz you need to direct traffic to your online or physical store.
However, if your goal is to build a strong brand presence and establish long-term relationships with customers, then you need organic growth. Strategies for organic growth include:
- Creating valuable content. Here’s a guide on content blog strategy for small businesses.
- Improving SEO.
- Building a consistent social media presence.
4. What’s Your Budget
Finally, your budget matters a lot. Perhaps you can’t afford the website route yet and need to make a few sales to raise the funds for it.
You could also have a generous budget, in which case you may decide to start with both. Why would you not leverage the best of both options if it were possible?
For e-commerce brands with limited budgets, focus on building your website for excellent performance and speed. Then, use free social media resources to generate the revenue to give your online shop the start it needs.
Website vs. Social Media? Why not Both?
Ideally, you want both a well-designed website and a strong presence on social media. Each channel has its unique advantages, and utilizing both can greatly benefit your brand.
It’s misguided to have a versus mentality, though scarcity of initial capital always brings up the debate. Find a balance by reflecting on what we’ve already discussed in this post.
I believe you can start with both without breaking the bank. You don’t need a huge upfront budget to start and grow a social media presence, so I prefer to invest first in a well-designed and performing website.
While your designers and developers work on the website, you can be setting up social media profiles for free. Remember, social media activities do affect SEO.
Create Website + Social Media Funnels
Masterful marketers know how to weave these two platforms and create effective sales funnels. Here are a few steps to get started with creating a website and social media funnels:
- Publish a user-friendly website that showcases your brand identity and offers.
- Place your website links on your social profiles, and then prominently display links to your social profiles on your website.
- Establish a presence on select social platforms, tap their audience, and send them to your site using organic posts or paid ads.
- Use your site to offer valuable content such as blog articles, videos, or webinars to draw an audience and convert some.
- Include clear call-to-actions (CTAs) on your website and social media profiles. These may include prompts to sign up for a newsletter, download a free resource, or subscribe to your services.
- Engage with your audience with polite responses to social media comments and messages. It helps build relationships with communities.
- Collaborate with influencers or other businesses in your industry for a wider reach and to gain credibility.
Choosing What Works for You
At the end of the day, both a website and social media presence play important roles in growing a small business. Your decision really depends on your goals, budget, and where your audience spends their time. A website gives you long-term credibility and control, while social media provides quick visibility and community engagement. The best results often come from using both strategically, weaving them together into a funnel that attracts, engages, and converts.
If building and managing all of this feels overwhelming, you don’t have to tackle it alone. I help small business owners set up websites, connect them with social media, and create a strategy that works for their unique goals. Whether you’d rather focus on serving your customers or just don’t want to spend hours figuring it all out, I can help you put the right pieces in place.
