As human beings we always strive for perfection and doing things the right way, now when matter comes to our own company, we would wish for the best anyday. For a company to be marketed and be known among the consumers, there are quite a few ways, yet up until now websites and social media handles have hit the right tunes. The following essay makes an attempt to assess these tools for better communication and information about the company.
Advantages of having a website for your website:
- Online presence and visibility:
In the digital age, having an online presence is crucial for businesses. A website serves as your virtual storefront, making it easier for potential customers to find you. By optimizing your website for search engines through techniques like search engine optimization (SEO), you can improve your visibility in search results, driving organic traffic to your website and increasing the chances of attracting new customers.
This reminds me of the Make My Trip website that pops up on the top of google pages every time I make searches related to travel. Here is how it works:
MakeMyTrip focused on optimizing its website for search engines. They conducted extensive keyword research and implemented relevant keywords in their website content, meta tags, and URLs. By doing so, they improved their search engine rankings and appeared higher in search results when users searched for travel-related keywords like “flight bookings,” “hotel reservations,” or “holiday packages.”
User Reviews and Ratings: MakeMyTrip encouraged its users to provide reviews and ratings for the services they availed. These reviews and ratings were prominently displayed on their website, allowing potential customers to read about other users’ experiences. Positive reviews and high ratings increased the trustworthiness and credibility of MakeMyTrip, attracting more users to choose their services.
User-Generated Content: MakeMyTrip actively engaged with its users and encouraged them to share their travel stories, tips, and photos through blog posts, social media, and dedicated sections on their website. By showcasing user-generated content, MakeMyTrip created a sense of community and encouraged other travelers to explore the website and avail their services.
Strategic Partnerships: MakeMyTrip formed partnerships with airlines, hotels, and other travel service providers. By featuring these partners’ offerings on their website, MakeMyTrip expanded their inventory and provided users with a wide range of options to choose from. These partnerships also helped in increasing their visibility as users were more likely to come across MakeMyTrip while searching for specific airlines or hotels.
Online Advertising: MakeMyTrip utilized online advertising platforms like Google Ads and social media ads to target potential travelers. They ran targeted ad campaigns that appeared on search engine results pages, social media feeds, and travel-related websites. These ads directed users to MakeMyTrip’s website, where they could browse and book travel services.
- Credibility and Professionalism
A professionally designed website enhances your company’s credibility and professionalism. It acts as a reflection of your brand identity and values. A well-structured website with engaging content, high-quality images, and a user-friendly interface instills trust in visitors, giving them confidence in your products or services. We would all agree on this as consumers of various companies. An ill designed website might come off as malicious and fraudulent.
- Customer Convenience
A website offers convenience for both you and your customers. Instead of relying solely on physical locations or phone calls, customers can visit your website at any time to gather information, place orders, or make inquiries. This 24/7 accessibility caters to the needs of busy customers who prefer to research or shop outside of regular business hours. This is something we have experienced as consumers, let us say an instagram only small business is selling a certain product without having a business website. For the company, it would get cumbersome to address grievances of customers, interact with them etc on instagram comments, direct messages and stories. On the other hand, a website is one for all engagement. All the concerns can be addressed in a more organized way.
- Global Reach:
With a website, you can reach customers beyond your local market or physical location. The internet allows you to connect with a global audience, potentially attracting customers from different regions or even other countries. By leveraging online marketing techniques and optimizing your website for international audiences, you can tap into new markets and expand your customer base.
Websites have the potential for global reach, meaning they can be accessed by people all around the world, regardless of their location. The global reach of a website is determined by various factors, including:
Internet Connectivity: The widespread availability of internet access enables users from different countries and regions to connect to websites globally.
Search Engines: Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo index and display websites in search results, making them accessible to users worldwide.
Localization: Websites can be localized to cater to specific regions or countries by offering translated content, adapting to local cultural preferences, and accepting different currencies or payment methods.
Social Media: Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow websites to reach a global audience through sharing and engagement.
Mobile Accessibility: With the increasing use of smartphones, websites that are mobile-friendly can reach users across the globe, as people can access the internet on their mobile devices from anywhere.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): CDNs help improve website performance and accessibility by distributing website content across multiple servers worldwide, reducing latency and improving loading times for users in different geographical locations.
International Domain Names (IDNs): IDNs allow websites to have domain names in non-Latin characters, enabling users to access websites using their native languages.
One notable case study of successful global reach for websites is Airbnb. Airbnb is an online marketplace that connects travelers with hosts who offer accommodations around the world. Here’s an overview of their global reach and success:
Expansion Strategy: Airbnb started in 2008 with a focus on the United States but quickly expanded its operations globally. They identified the potential for a global marketplace, allowing hosts to list their properties and travelers to book accommodations worldwide.
Localization: To cater to diverse markets, Airbnb invested in localization efforts by translating their website and mobile apps into multiple languages. They also implemented localized payment options and adjusted their platform to accommodate different currencies, ensuring a seamless user experience for hosts and travelers from various countries.
User-Generated Content: Airbnb encouraged hosts and travelers to create user-generated content, such as reviews, photos, and recommendations, which helped build trust and credibility across different markets. This content also provided valuable insights to potential users, allowing them to make informed decisions.
Community Building: Airbnb focused on building a strong community by facilitating communication between hosts and travelers, organizing local events, and encouraging hosts to provide personalized recommendations to guests. This community-driven approach helped foster a sense of trust and belonging, which contributed to Airbnb’s global success.
Partnerships and Integration: Airbnb formed strategic partnerships with travel companies, airlines, and online travel agencies to expand their reach further. Integration with popular platforms and services allowed users to easily book accommodations through different channels, enhancing accessibility and visibility.
Continuous Innovation: Airbnb continually innovates by introducing new features and services, such as experiences and Airbnb Plus, to cater to evolving traveler preferences and stay ahead of the competition. This commitment to innovation helped them maintain their position as a global leader in the online travel industry.
- Customer Engagement and Support
Your website offers various features to engage with customers and provide support. You can incorporate contact forms, live chat systems, or chatbots to interact with visitors and address their queries or concerns promptly. Additionally, you can create FAQ pages, knowledge bases, or customer support portals to provide self-service options, empowering customers to find answers independently.
- Data Analysis and Insights
A website enables you to gather valuable data and insights about your audience and their behavior. You can use analytics tools to track website traffic, visitor demographics, popular pages, and conversion rates. These insights help you make informed decisions, refine your marketing strategies, and improve the user experience on your website.
- Cost-Effective Marketing:
Compared to traditional marketing methods like print ads or TV commercials, digital marketing through a website is often more cost-effective. Online advertising, email marketing, and social media campaigns can be targeted precisely to reach your ideal customer demographic, maximizing your marketing budget. Additionally, a website allows you to update and modify content easily, eliminating the expenses associated with printing and distributing physical materials.
- Competitive Advantage:
In today’s competitive landscape, having a well-designed and optimized website gives your company a competitive edge. It allows you to differentiate yourself from competitors, highlight your unique selling points, and effectively communicate your value proposition. By providing a seamless user experience and staying ahead of industry trends, you can position your company as a leader.
While both social media and websites have their own advantages, social media offers several unique benefits for companies over a website. Here are some advantages of social media for a company over a website:
- Wider reach and potential audience
Social media platforms have a massive user base, with billions of active users worldwide. By utilizing social media, companies can tap into this vast audience and reach potential customers who may not have visited their website otherwise. Social media platforms also facilitate content sharing, allowing for greater exposure and potential virality.
Let us consider the following examples to understand the power of social media for brands:
- Chipotle
Chipotle was one of the first brands to take a chance with TikTok, but it’s an investment that’s paid off for the restaurant chain.
Most of its content involves the TikTok trend of challenges. Its first, #ChipotleLidFlip, generated over 240 million views on the platform. Its second, #GuacDance was even more successful with 430 million video starts in six days. (Gilliland)
- Playstation.
With a whopping 18.7m followers, Sony’s PlayStation is the most followed brand on Twitter. According to UnMetric, PlayStation has seen 376% growth in followers in the past five years alone, adding 12 million followers from 2014 to 2019.
One of the reasons for this is how active it is on the platform, continuously posting a mix of content to engage fans including new game trailers, gaming footage, and streaming events. PlayStation recently generated positivity on Twitter with its #PlayAtHome initiative, encouraging users to stay at home by downloading its ‘Unchartered: The Nathan Drake Collection” and “Journey” games for free. According to reports, more than 10m people download the free copies. (Gilliland)
- Nike
One notable social media campaign by Nike was their collaboration with professional athletes to launch the “Just Do It” campaign. They created a series of short videos featuring well-known athletes, such as Serena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo, and LeBron James, sharing personal stories of overcoming challenges and pushing their limits. These videos were widely shared on social media, generating significant buzz and increasing Nike’s brand visibility.
2. Active engagement and real-time interaction
Social media enables direct and interactive communication between companies and their audience. Unlike websites that are typically static, social media platforms foster ongoing engagement through comments, likes, shares, and direct messaging. This real-time interaction helps companies build relationships with customers, address inquiries promptly, and provide personalized support.
Nowadays, brands have to fight to be seen online, and competition is fierce for audience attention. As a result, buyers are more selective about the brands they interact with and purchase from, especially the notoriously fickle Gen-Z.
And it’s not just consumers who are passionate about authentic content. 60% of marketers agree that authenticity and quality are equally important elements of successful content. And there’s no other content type that’s more authentic than UGC from your customers.
Don’t be tempted to fake your user-generated posts or campaigns. Audiences will quickly sniff out the false sentiment, which could seriously damage your brand reputation. Instead, always ensure that your UGC comes from one of three cohorts: your customers, brand loyalists, or employees.
People ultimately trust other people, so it’s essential to think of UGC as the modern-day word of mouth.
And with consumers 2.4 times more likely to view user-generated content as authentic compared to content created by brands, the time to invest in an authenticity-driven social marketing strategy is now. (Beveridge)
3. Discoverability and organic exposure
Social media platforms have built-in algorithms that promote content based on users’ interests and behaviors. This means that even without a large following or extensive advertising budget, well-crafted content can still gain organic exposure and reach a wider audience. On the other hand, websites often require targeted traffic through search engine optimization (SEO) efforts or paid advertising to generate substantial organic exposure.
User-generated content is this season’s must-have strategy for social media marketers, and it comes in many styles and formats to help you find the right fit for your brand.
Images
Videos
Social media content (e.g., a Tweet about your brand)
Testimonials
Product reviews
Live streams
Blog posts
YouTube content
- Social proof and credibility
Social media platforms provide opportunities for companies to showcase their credibility and social proof. Users can leave reviews, testimonials, or engage with posts, demonstrating that others have had positive experiences with the company. This social validation can boost the company’s reputation and influence potential customers’ purchasing decisions.
User-generated content is incredibly influential in the final stages of the buyer’s journey, where you’re looking to convert your audience and influence them into making a purchase.
UGC acts as authentic social proof that your product is worthy of buying. For example, your audience sees people just like them wearing or using your product, which influences them to decide to buy.
You can even show your non-human customers using your product,
Example: Nykaa, an Indian beauty and cosmetics brand, effectively utilizes UGC through their social media platforms. They encourage customers to share their makeup looks, beauty routines, and product reviews using branded hashtags. By reposting and featuring this UGC on their official pages, Nykaa not only acknowledges their customers but also reaches a broader audience, resulting in increased brand visibility and potential sales.
Example: Chumbak, an Indian lifestyle brand known for its vibrant and quirky products, thrives on UGC. They encourage customers to share pictures of their purchases, featuring Chumbak products in their daily lives. By showcasing this UGC on their website and social media channels, Chumbak creates a sense of community and emotional attachment among its customers, resulting in increased sales and brand loyalty.
- Rapid dissemination of information
Social media excels at disseminating information quickly and efficiently. Companies can use social media platforms to share updates, product launches, promotions, and company news in real-time. This immediacy is especially useful for time-sensitive offers or announcements, ensuring that the information reaches a wide audience promptly.
Example: Nike has a strong presence on various social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. They leverage these platforms to engage with their audience and share updates about their products, campaigns, and initiatives. Here’s how Nike excels in disseminating information through social media:
Timely product launches: When Nike releases new shoe models or athletic apparel, they leverage social media to create anticipation and generate buzz. They often post teaser images or videos on Instagram and Twitter, providing sneak peeks and countdowns to the official launch date. This creates excitement among their followers and helps generate immediate interest and anticipation.
Influencer partnerships: Nike frequently collaborates with influencers and athletes who have a strong presence on social media. By leveraging their partnerships, Nike can reach a wider audience and gain credibility and trust among their followers. They often feature these influencers wearing their products or participating in Nike-sponsored events, effectively disseminating information to their target demographic.
Engaging content: Nike consistently produces high-quality and engaging content for social media. They share visually appealing images and videos that showcase their products in action, often featuring athletes or everyday individuals engaged in physical activities. This content resonates with their target audience and encourages social sharing, which helps disseminate information about Nike’s products and brand values.
Real-time updates: Social media allows Nike to share real-time updates about their brand, events, and sponsorships. For example, during major sporting events like the Olympics or World Cup, Nike provides live updates, highlights, and behind-the-scenes content on their social media platforms. This enables them to stay relevant and connected with their audience, disseminating information efficiently as events unfold
- Cost-effectiveness and ease of use
Creating and maintaining a social media presence is generally more cost-effective and less resource-intensive than developing and managing a website. Social media platforms often provide free registration, and basic features are accessible to companies at no additional cost. Moreover, social media platforms offer user-friendly interfaces, allowing companies to establish a presence without extensive technical knowledge or web development expertise.The average cost of hiring an influencer can run into millions of dollars. The average cost of asking your customers to share posts of them enjoying your product? Next to nothing.
UGC is a cost-effective way to scale your business and introduce a new marketing strategy to the mix. There’s also no need to invest dollars in hiring a flashy creative agency to produce brand assets or content for your campaigns.
Simply connect with the most important people in your business: your audience. Most will be excited to be featured on your channel.
For smaller brands or those just starting out, UGC is cheaper and easier to manage than investing in larger-scale brand awareness campaigns. For example,
GoPro
Video equipment company GoPro uses UGC to sustain its YouTube channel, with its top three videos all originally filmed by customers. As of December 2021, those three videos have racked up over 400 million views combined.
Not bad for content that cost GoPro nothing to produce.
In fact, UGC for the company got so big, they now run their own awards show and promote daily photo challenges to inspire their consumers to get creative.
- Access to analytics and insights
Social media platforms offer robust analytics tools that provide valuable insights into audience behavior, engagement, and content performance. Companies can leverage these analytics to measure the effectiveness of their social media strategies, identify trends, and optimize their content and campaigns accordingly. While websites also offer analytics, social media analytics are often more intuitive and readily available.
It’s important to note that while social media offers these advantages, a website remains crucial for companies to have a centralized hub for information, e-commerce capabilities, and full control over their brand. A well-rounded digital presence typically includes both a website and a strong social media presence to leverage the unique advantages of each platform.
Before that, it is imperative to consider the following contexts for arriving at better decisions:
To determine which option is better for your company, it’s essential to consider various factors. First and foremost, identify your company’s goals and target audience. If you aim to establish a professional online presence with full control over your brand’s messaging and user experience, a website is an ideal choice. On the other hand, if your target audience is highly active on social media and you wish to foster engagement, reach a broader audience, and leverage targeted advertising, then social media platforms might be more suitable.
In many cases, a comprehensive digital marketing strategy would involve a combination of both a website and social media presence. These platforms can complement each other, with your website serving as a central hub for information and transactions while social media acts as a powerful tool for community building, brand promotion, and customer engagement.
Ultimately, the decision between a website and social media presence depends on your specific business objectives, target audience preferences, available resources, and the level of control and functionality you desire. By carefully considering these factors, you can make an informed choice that aligns with your company’s overall marketing strategy and maximizes your online presence.