Whether you agree with Facebook’s privacy and other policies, there has been a great deal of controversy over them. Many businesses, especially entertainment and other local venues, have been using their Facebook page as their website. It is true that there are billions of Facebook users, but usage and time on the site are declining.
A Pew Research study published in June of 2018 shows declining usage of the site after data leaks and user privacy issues. The survey shows that there has been a 42% decline in daily usage of the site. That is a marked decline, and the survey also shows that 26% of users have deleted the Facebook app from their phones. In a NY Postarticle titled “Inside Facebook’s ‘severe’ traffic decline,” the site is said to have lost over 4 billion monthly page views in a slow drip.
You’re not necessarily losing a huge chunk of business due to this trend, but if you’re using Facebook as your website, you may be losing some. Perhaps a few years ago this could have been an expense issue. These days, though, websites are quite inexpensive to design and maintain. This way you control your content, not Facebook. You should be concerned with long-term control of your marketing.
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If you own a small business, there is no doubt that you have many business expenses that exceed $100 each year. That’s around all you would have to spend to host your own WordPress site on a major provider like GoDaddy, Hostgator, or Bluehost. The WordPress software is free. This leaves you with just one task, building an effective business website.
WordPress has become a favorite platform for small business self-hosted websites, with well over 75 million sites online. It is easy to use, with a word processor-like interface. You don’t have to set up how content is displayed on the screen, as it’s done for you. By using categories, or even keywords (tags), you can group your content logically for your site visitors.
Even if you don’t want to do any of your own site work, you can hire WordPress experts at very reasonable prices. Using the freelancing websites, you can hire WordPress people and writers as well. There are even Facebook style themes to make your site look a lot like a Facebook page if you want.
If you think about it, your Facebook presence is mostly about one page: a timeline. You can still link to that page from your website, and even create one on your WordPress site. Use both, with your custom website delivering more detailed content for information and marketing.
There isn’t a radical agenda here, just an added marketing tool that will give you more control. Keep using Facebook, but expand your business marketing with your own website.
