Why Social Is Not a Substitute for a Website

How a website builds on social media

The posts you make to social media provide exposure to the people you want to reach. When someone clicks from your social content to your website, they can take action—from learning more about what a standout your business is, to signing up to hear from you—to engage and create a lasting relationship.

Here are 6 ways to build on your social media efforts and get more out of your marketing with a website.

1. Improve credibility

Businesses with their own websites automatically look more professional and credible. Consider your own experience. If you’ve never heard of a business before, seeing that they have a dedicated website immediately makes them seem more reliable because they’ve invested in creating a presence for themselves beyond a simple Twitter account or Facebook page.

2. Tell your story

While social media lets you publish information in short bursts, a website provides a more expansive forum to communicate why your business is the best choice in a crowded marketplace. This differentiation drives engagement and conversion. In a carefully crafted environment, your website can detail your unique offerings, full pricing and service options, your powerhouse team behind the scenes, and reviews from happy customers.

3. Rise up the ranks on search engines

Social media improves search rankings, since it encourages sharing. Search engines, in turn, rank websites favorably that have links on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. A website dedicated to your organization also gives search engines a place to send people. The right keywords, descriptions, and links on your website can take an interested social media viewer and turn them into an engaged audience member.

4. Gain new subscribers

Social media can tell a compelling story of why people should pay attention to your brand and click through to your website. A pop-up form on your website that encourages someone to sign up for more information or a promotion can turn this person into a subscriber. Pop-ups are easy to add to your website and, over time, create a valuable list of people interested in hearing from you. Your website visitors are also a potential audience for many types of campaigns to different audience segments, including email newsletters featuring educational content and promotional campaigns about new offerings.

5. Learn more about your audience

While social media engagement certainly provides great insight into audience habits and preferences, website analytics expand data collection in important ways. Through tools like Google Analytics, you can track which pages visitors go to and create targeted marketing based on their behaviors on your website. This audience knowledge also informs the services and features you provide based on website visitors’ priorities.

6. Demonstrate your expertise

Social media offers channels to share your expertise and garner attention. When someone clicks through to your website from your social accounts, more in-depth expert content like blog posts and videos drive home your authority to round out your position as a thought leader. Expert content on your website communicates that you understand audience priorities, engages people for the long haul, and drives conversions.

Small effort with a big payoff

Building a website doesn’t require knowledge of coding or enormous financial investment. When you create a free website with Mailchimp, it's easy to capture the potential from your social content and bring your brand to life.

As you build your website, think about the various ways your audience engages with you, from the first questions they ask to the last step you take after they convert. Use this to determine the features and content that matter most for your website. Before you know it, you’ll have a hub for your marketing that supports the outreach you do now and helps you continue advancing toward your marketing goals.