Building Your Business – Facebook or Website?
In the digital age, business developers have plenty of options to grow their company. Picking the right platform for the right target market can make a world of difference to your sales. With hundreds of decisions to make in starting up your business, we’re here to help lighten your load.
Check out the pros and cons of building your business on Facebook vs. building it on a website.
Facebook – The Pros
With over 2.01 billion monthly active Facebook users, half of which are mobile users, chances are that your target market is already on the platform(Source: Facebook). Facebook’s ad revenue is second only to Google, which is a strong sense that it is a preferred marketing platform and tool for a high number of business. And it’s growing! Facebook reports that five new profiles are made every second and that the number of users is more than those on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Instagram combined (Source CNBC). On Facebook, the world is your oyster – and it pays off.
Facebook February 2012 data reported that 51% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product after liking them on Facebook, with 80% more open to try new products after viewing recommendations by friends on social media. Being the hyper social environment that it is, the relationships within your target audience will work to fuel your brand.
Facebook – The Cons
Any huge platform comes with its fair share of bots and empty profiles. CNN reports 83 million fake profiles on Facebook which include ones that users create for testing and research. This accounts for approximately 4% of the overall user numbers – so be careful how you choose to position your brand, strategise your marketing approach and give serious thought as to whether your success should be determined based on numbers alone.
While you build your business on Facebook, keep in mind that your competitors are there too. With the high advertising outreach, you can be sure that the market is competitive and open. Differentiating yourself from others might be tricky but necessary. Bear in mind, if you opt not to use it, your competitors will be eating up your share of the market.
Website – The Pros
The Internet has been wonderful for small businesses – offering them exposure and connectivity to clients at a lower cost than traditional media. With hundreds of millions of users online, building a website is essentially running a 24/7 advertisement (with pictures in full colour!). A website that is built from scratch can be cleverly positioned as more than just a space for commercial transaction, and it can also be a platform to pitch yourselves to consumers consistently, around the clock. On your site, as opposed to Facebook, the consumer’s attention is undivided and free from the voices of your competitors which will clutter the
page.
There are plenty of easy ways that you can build and edit your site, with free and paid site editors available in the web development market. Online web designers like WordPress, MoonFruit, and Weebly provide developers with a platform for their creations. To top it off, some of these platforms are rather intuitive to use, build upon and maintain.
Website – The Cons
Despite there being plenty of easy-to-use platforms which focus on themes, it is necessary to have someone in your team that can understand programming language. In the event that introducing new features to your site does not go as plan, someone who can interpret and edit the code can provide fixes which will save your business valuable time. Being offline, when your entire business is dependent on your site, can be damaging if you lose potential customers during that period or lose the trust of your
existing ones.
The tried-and-tested ways and good practices of building a site require experience, a good understanding of design hierarchy and visual design. At Krome, we specialise in website design services as well as user interface websites. If you or your client are interested in creating a site, it’s time to tell us about your project or have a chat about what we can do. You can contact us here.
At Krome, we specialise in website design services as well as user interface websites. If you or your client are interested in creating a site, it’s time to tell us about your project or have a chat about what we can do. You can contact us here.