If you have Facebook do you need a company website?

Posted on the 24th November 2011

Let’s face it – building a good company website is a major hassle. Keeping it updated, responding on a daily basis, making sure that it doesn’t crash…endless. And then you aren’t even sure if anyone at all will visit!

However – Facebook has the capability to pull in an audience. It’s simple to access and the format makes daily communication really simple and easy. I don’t have stats to back it up, but I’m willing to sake my private jet (if I had one) that the number of people who would “like” a company on Facebook is much higher than the number of people who would sign up independently at that same company’s website.

The website vs Facebook page matter is a mounting worry for many companies. Does it make any sort of common sense to pay money for an ad that (hopefully) will drive traffic to your website when Facebook already has a hugely active audience? Seriously – what can a website provide that Facebook can’t? Okay – I’ll tell you what, a sense of ownership and a feeling of professionalism.

Facebook is an excellent place to meet and greet with the fans and maybe even potential customers, but it’s still Facebook. Owning your own website is like having an office versus working out of the local pub. Even though anyone can build a website, people still see it as a sign of something substantial. A company with its own website ism –perceived as more substantial…more ‘corporate’. It’s the public face of your company and that’s really important.

I suppose, in conclusion, we should ask ourselves…would we ever build a house on someone else’s land…No. Therefore we should never build our business platform on someone else’s bytes.

Relying on a free service that offers no tech support, no ownership rights, no say in changes, no options to grow, and no guarantees does seem a little ridiculous to me. Consider the amount of times Facebook makes changes that upsets people.

When all is said and done, I reckon that we will know when we have no more need of our own site…that will be when Coca-Cola get rid of their website and rely totally on Facebook.