Most small businesses believe that having a Facebook Page is the start of establishing a web presence. They get so comfortable with Facebook’s free model, that they forget that they are living on rented land. And then they pay the price for that forgetfulness.
Would you fool yourself into thinking that an apartment you’re renting is owned by you? No, right?
You know that there’s a big difference between renting and owning real estate.
So then, why would you want someone else (Facebook or another company) to own the business you’re building on the Internet? Makes no sense, does it? Thankfully, there’s a solution and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Today’s video talks about what are the perils of running your entire company on Facebook or another social network and how you can counter that with having your own website. I also talk about the relationship between a website and social networks.
Watch the video below to find out how to manage a website and a Facebook Page together!
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Okay, so now it’s YOUR turn. I want you tell me in the comments below if you will set up a website soon?
And if you’d like to tweet out today’s episode, here’s the cool quote I mentioned in the video (I love it!):
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Video Script
Are you living in someone else’s house? If so you need to evacuate!
The internet is full of websites. You can either own your website or you can be the product of another website.
The problem with not owning a piece of real estate on the Internet is this:
“If you’re NOT paying for the product, you ARE the product”.
Disadvantages of Running a Business via ONLY a Facebook Page
So when you establish a Facebook page for your business – which many businesses are wont to do because its free and fairly easy – you are setting up shop in someone else’s home.
The homeowner (Facebook) could take back their “house” at any time and throw you out.
- Facebook could shut your page
- Facebook could get banned in your country
- Facebook could stop showing your posts to most of your members
- Facebook could charge you exorbitantly for running ads
Any and all of those scenarios have already happened. And its not limited to Facebook either. All third party sites and social networks could do the same.
When you’re a professional business, it’s always wise to own a bit of the internet to do your business from. It could be your blog or your website, but the point is that you own it.
Advantages to Having Your Own Website
When you have your own bit of internet real estate, the advantages are many:
– you can control the design and content
– you can choose to run ads, not run ads, determine which ads you want to run
– you can adjust, tweak, shut down, revamp, etc your site anytime you like
– you can sell anything legal
– you can control every aspect of your own site
– you don’t have to have any extra characters in your URL
So, what exactly is the link between your website and third-party social networks sites?
I cal it the hub-spoke wheel model.
The Hub-Spoke Wheel Model of Social Media (How your Website and Social Networks are Connected)
Think of a wheel. The centre of the wheel – the hub – is your website or blog.
Now see all those spokes coming out from hub and going till the tire to make it turn? Those are your social networks.
The wheel is your business. Establish home base at the hub. And then use social media as the spokes to power your brand, spread your message, attract fans, and get the word out about your business.
So that’s how you view your business model as a whole.
And you can use social media to drive traffic back to your site.
So what do you think of the hub-spoke wheel model to determine whether you should setup a blog or a Facebook Page?
If you already have a Facebook Page are you going to get your own website after seeing this video?
Please send me your thoughts in the comments below!
So in the next video we’re gonna talk about how you can get your own blog within 20 minutes! It’s both easy and affordable and I’m going to show you step-by-step how to do it. This is Salma Jafri signing out.