Company Website and Facebook
Is a fascinating topic we want to bring up to this blog as dramatic changes happening right now in the landmark of SME Business sector from which it really caught our attention. Actually as of today, old & new companies are now considering Facebook as their “primary” company website and the nos is still counting as of today. So let’s explore the behavior of this change, the benefits, values can do, the CON’s can do, and our thoughts and recommendation. After reading this article you will have some ideas now.
1. For a new start-up company setting-up a company based website is a monumental challenge and it’s unpredictive cost of behavior it’s a big challenge to forecast especially the non-tech Business People. Having a dedicated Company website require a in deep technical knowledge of Domain DNS Registration, Hosting, Web platform plus Skilled IT Staff they need to hire. The design layout need also to consider and If you factor this and the Business strategies they need to establish, it’s a staggering feat for them especially if they do everything like the finance, operation, sales, business development and so forth.
2. When Facebook folks create there Web Portal systems they have already in their mind about the technical challenges of the newly Business will face, so they came-up a very intuitive & clever product that will easy for a non-tech super busy Entrepreneur People.
3. Another reason to consider is that if the Business owners & staff who are already inclined to their lifestyle about using Facebook, then having a Facebook page for their company it’s just like a breeze to them.
4. Business owners who doesn’t use Facebook and still their company website is based on Facebook page, then most probably someone inside the company has influence and fanatic to the Facebook propose to their company about leveraging the power of social media (Facebook) trend.
5. If the contacts of the Business owners, staff and sales are already in their personal Facebook page, then connecting to prospect clients or advertising their business is just easy. The bigger their network connections is the more the company will benefit in advertising their business with less cost to be consider.
6. Some people are enjoying using Facebook, so if this is part of their roles or jobs then Company will experience lower attrition rate since their staff are enjoying to their jobs.
7. Facebook is aggressively investing in IT Infrastructure, so why not utilize it to your business strategy.
8. Facebook is a good platform for your Brand to be recognize, also very effective for certain Product launch as well like.
9. No worries about their website will be hacked, since Facebook IT Security is very effective.
10. Facebook can help advertise your company to all specific users or companies.
Now the other side of the coin…
1. Not all companies industries depends on Facebook just like Government, Military, Health Science, Law firm, Information Technology and other that is already in the field of expertise for a long long time… So if you company is in the business of Building Military Aircraft and your primary website is in Facebook would you think it will help your business to win more contracts?
2. Facebook is not for all business out there and its charm is effective only on specific market like food products, or any for small commodity products, or Marketing services that is align to products as well.
3. If your Company Business is engaged in B2B, B2C , B2G or Ecommerce then forget using Facebook as your primary site. Another challenges you may face is how can you get contact details of your customers such as email address. Remember if you have huge lists of your loyal customers, you should ask yourself “who owns the relationship with my customer?” Is it me/our company or Facebook?
4. Also be aware of the side effects in your staff productivity as it might compromise you know spending the whole working hours chatting and navigating Facebook.
5. Facebook Page is inclined more in the Personal aspect if you compare it with Professional centric LinkedIn.
6. There’s some old folks saying “If you don’t pay for the product, then you are the product!”
7. You cannot generate email lists from Facebook platform, so building an email lists is crucial because it’s the best way to build relationship with your potential customer and loyal customers. Direct contact with your customers is definitely the best approach.
8. Prepare for the worse case scenario like what if the Facebook shutdown? what will happen to your business and the millions of your customers connections? You should have a backup plan.
Now you know why more companies now are considering Facebook (as alternative website). It’s simply to big to ignore =) , very easy to use, it has huge audience targeting and mostly people love Social Media. Now if you have budget to spend why not try both? Having a dedicated Company Website, Ecommerce site plus a presentable Company Facebook page will work both ways for someone who like Facebook and for those who doesn’t, but one thing for sure having dedicated Website & Ecommerce site it’s a must to consider to have an essential recipe for your business to be success and adding Facebook charm will create social aura or alternative channels from which Traditional Company Website and Ecommerce lack of. Even if you add community section in your Website and Ecommerce still it doesn’t match the charisma of Facebook can do to attract people attention. Just remember to use Facebook platform wisely, for example you can use it as a funnel to your Website and Ecommerce site.