We all love social media as a marketing tool and some of us love running our businesses through it. It is undeniable that social media are an incredible tool to birth, grow, and scale our business. It is that powerful, that some business owners use it as their main platform, without having a website or anything else.
I started my business using Instagram only and I was able to grow it pretty quickly without having any other platforms. I would take on clients from Instagram and start working with them.
Today, though, I would like to challenge this mindset and show you a different, much more sustainable way, to grow and scale your business.
Let’s get started by saying that building the entire backbone of your business on social media is simply not the wise thing to do
And please know that although it’s a powerful way to start, is not a sustainable and long-term way to do it. Doesn’t matter how pretty your feed is, how many followers you have: it’s just not sustainable.
I will agree with you that YES: you built your community, you have your profile, and you post your content. But the harsh truth is that you are borrowing a corner of your preferred platform, which is owned by someone else. You don’t have control over this app and your audience is not 100% fully invested in you… because there’s so much noise out there.
Still a bit skeptical about it? Let me ask you one last question:
If tomorrow all social media disappeared, would you still be able to run a business?
Although Instagram or Facebook are not going anywhere, we all know how unreliable the algorithm is, or how our organic reach is always decreased (and of course this depends on your social media strategy as well). We are unfortunately also very aware of Instagram glitches. Those mini-breakdowns of the platform where Instagram just crashes and there’s no way to log in again.
You could absolutely don’t worry about it and just come back to the platform a bit later when everything is fixed… but what if you had to launch your new offer that very day and your audience was all hyped? Or what if that was the last day of an offer, and you couldn’t promote it accordingly? The Instagram folk is likely to be all focused on how the platform shut down instead of focusing on your offer or service.
So, why not using social media as a marketing tool?
Instead of relying solely on Instagram, why don’t you use it to reach a bigger audience? You don’t have to change your approach, but simply tweak a bit your strategy. Kinda like a nice add-on. But where to put all of our efforts on?
Introducing: the old-fashioned websites!
*With funky music and a cartoon-style background*
Websites are the way to go and, in this case, the way to grow. People hang around on social media so much, so your only work now is to bring them to your platform. And when I mean your platform, I mean YOURS. 100% a platform with your name and that you own. Still a corner of the internet, but it’s yours.
Using social media as a marketing tool is amazing because literally everyone is there. Your ideal client is for sure using one of your favorite social media platforms and it’s much easier to engage with them. So the goal is not to give up on Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn, but simply to enhance their potential (yep, even more).
Instead of collecting leads on Instagram, you can collect them from your website. Instead of launching a new program only on Instagram, they can check out all the details on your sales page, and they can book and pay without having to DM back and forth with you (unless they want to).
Websites are the foundation of your business, while social media (as a marketing tool) are how guests come into your space.
Now, I know what you might be thinking.
“Who uses websites nowadays?”
”Websites are dead”
”Nobody is gonna click it anyway”
And my personal favorite:
“My audience is on Instagram!”
But friend, we kinda discussed all of these topics already, didn’t we? Not being willing to have a proper website is just you procrastinating. You are literally hanging out on social media thinking you are doing all the right things, without being able to
- Fully representing yourself online
- Correctly showing your expertise and skill set
- Getting your business on autopilot
I would also love to mention that simply having a website won’t just cut it, for the same reason why simply having an Instagram account won’t make you money. Having a brand strategy for your business as well as a proper website strategy would be an incredible help!
Running your business on a website rather than through social media is kinda like having a backup plan
So now, what is your backup plan? Do you have one?
