The web and social media platforms are full of online businesses that have been started by creators. Which platform is best - social media or a website?
Most creators start out on TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, YouTube, podcast etc. and build a following as a way to get started. If you want to last though, you’ll need a piece of digital real estate to call your own - one you’ll never be deplatformed from.
SOCIAL MEDIA VS. A WEBSITE
Social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube can be great ways to reach an audience, but they may not be the best platform for every creator. It really depends on what you’re offering and what your goals are.
TikTok is fun and popular but isn’t ready to promote a business yet. Twitter is improving and can be a place to raise awareness and provide information.
But a website, your own personal and custom creation, is yours. It’s where all of your tribes from your social media profiles converge and mix together. It should be the center of your focus.
THE ULTIMATE CREATOR STRATEGY
The best approach is a combination of platforms, such as having a website and also using social media to promote your business. Nobody can delete or deplatform your website. Social media should be used to promote that website business.
Your website should always be the center of your operation. Even if you’ve grown on just one social media platform, you still need at least a simple website to center everything else around. You’re building a media empire.
And this doesn’t mean a Linktree, which is the sign of an amateur. A website of even 1 - 3 pages is a good start, and can even be created for free in a matter of minutes.
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Nobody can delete or deplatform your website. |
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You don’t necessarily have to drive people to your website, you can consider social media platforms as different arms that offer your products or services. There’s nothing wrong with doing a large chunk of your creating on social media while maintaining a website.
THE BEST APPROACH if you are just starting is to build on one or two social media platforms while creating a website.
WEBSITE STRATEGY ADVANTAGES
A website can provide a more comprehensive and permanent online presence for you, and can be a good way to showcase your products or services, provide information about you, and allow customers to contact you or make purchases online.
Plus, you own it — it’s your customize and expand as you see fit. Social media platforms are rigid and you need to follow their rules — but a website can be formed to whatever you want. Your rules, not somebody else’s.
This allows for creativity to expand your ideas. The sky’s the limit. You can do whatever you want. You change up the design to create a look and feel that represents you.
A website can also help to improve your search engine rankings, making it easier for customers to find you online by searching for your name.
WEBSITE DISADVANTAGES
The most obvious reason is that there’s a huge amount of people on social media platforms. You have to go where the people are in order to reach them, and it’s a big challenge to lure people off to your website when they're in a social media frame of mind. People usually want to stay on the platform they’re already on.
Customizing a website can also be a challenge if you don’t have the right technical skills. Website platforms like SquareSpace or Wix can help simplify the process in that situation, but a website platform has its own limitations, such as few options to move beyond their basic templates.
Which leads to a custom website. This can be costly and complex if you don’t know how to code, and learning that is a bigger task than it’s made out to be.
You have user interface challenges (tough to navigate drives people away), user experience challenges (you have a few seconds to capture a user's imagination, if they’re bored if you’re not what they’re looking for they leave), and information architecture can be challenging. Information architecture is how you divide up your thoughts, products and services, mission etc. into categories that users can quickly and easily understand.
A custom website is also expensive and hiring a developer and designer will run you thousands of dollars at a minimum, plus upkeep.
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The biggest challenge with social media platforms is that you don't have control over anything. They completely control your visibilty. |
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SOCIAL MEDIA ADVANTAGES
You have to go where the people are, and we know that A LOT of them are on social media. Being where the action is makes it easier to get noticed by people that end up being followers and subscribers, which can lead to them buying your products and services.
You can follow trends and be part of them on social media. Hashtags and popular subjects of the day fare well and people will want to see your take on these.
You can interact with like-minded people in your creator niches, creating community and establishing relationships and partnerships.
SOCIAL MEDIA DISADVANTAGES
A social media profile can be banned, suppressed or shadow banned or even deleted if the platform says that you violated their terms of service. Imagine working for years to build a social media following only to lose them overnight when the platform decides that you’ve violated their terms of service.
Everybody else is on social media - meaning you have to fight hard to get people to notice your content in a stampede of everyone else. This is a big task. It’s hard to stand out.
Algorithm changes will drive you crazy. Once you figure out a pattern of developing new things that fit with your content and audience, algorithm updates will happen and disrupt your reach, leaving your posts unfindable by people.
Haters gonna hate, and if you’re creating good content, haters will come out of nowhere and try to drag you down to their level. This is something that you’ll have to learn to live with. It gets easier over time to deal with negative comments.
The biggest challenge with social media platforms is that you don't have control over anything. They completely control your visibilty.
CONCLUSION
Social media can be a useful tool because it allows you to easily connect with customers and followers and engage with them in real time.
A website provides a more professional and established online presence, and allows you to have more control over the content and design of your online presence.
So it should be no surprise that you should do both.
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