4 min read
Many businesses start out selling on social media, and that's fine: it is fast, it is free and people are already there. The problem appears when social media becomes the company's only digital presence.
What only your own site gives you
- Full control of your brand: nobody changes the rules overnight.
- Search rankings: what makes people who don't know you yet find you.
- Mailboxes on your own domain, like sales@yourcompany.com, which carry a different credibility.
- A record of what happens: who enquired, what they looked at, what they bought.
- A unique address that can't be confused with another or vanish if your account is closed.
What social media does better
Reach, distribution and conversation. They are unbeatable for being discovered and for keeping in touch with people who already follow you. What they are not is a place to build: everything you make there is borrowed.
How they work together
The combination that works is simple: social media brings people in, your own site turns them into customers and keeps the record. A post leads to the site, the site closes the sale or takes the enquiry, and the data stays in your database, not a platform's.
Your own domain gives the business credibility, improves visibility in search engines and lets you have corporate email with your brand. It is the foundation everything else rests on.