Why Social Media Is Quickly Replacing Company Websites

Social media is a force replacing corporate websites. Businesses are now shifting resources from their standalone websites to their brand presence on social media, experts say.

“Over the past two years, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the time and money our clients spend building their social media presence versus their websites,” said Michael Clark, co-founder and director. by Beeby Clark+Meyler. (BCM).

Founded by Tom Beeby, Michael Clark and Stuart Meyler, BCM is an integrated performance marketing agency that has made a name for itself in travel and tourism, consumer packaged goods (CPG), education , B2B and financial services. The boutique agency also has a unique ability when it comes to helping large companies get the most out of their social commerce strategies.

Clark says four main factors are driving the shift from websites to social media platforms:

The way people discover and consume content has changed. Social media platforms have become more sophisticated in their offerings. Promoting a website has become much more complex and expensive. The brand’s engagement is unparalleled on social media.

“Ten years ago, most people learned about new brands and products through word of mouth or traditional advertising like TV, radio, print, search engines and even banner ads directing consumers to websites,” Clark said. “Today, people are more likely to discover new brands through social media.”

Indeed, social media platforms have become much better at personalizing content algorithmically for each user. This means that people are much more likely to see a range of brands that they don’t already know.

If you’re working on brand awareness or want to reach new buyers, social media is the place to be in the modern internet age. A well-developed social media presence can be worth its weight in gold, and the quality of audience engagement can make all the difference to a business.

To explore just how vital social media can be for modern brands, let’s break down the four factors Clark described in a bit more detail:

1. The way people discover and consume content has changed

In the Internet’s recent past, people have discovered new brands through search engines and banner ads, which redirect to branded websites. Today, people are increasingly likely to locate new businesses on social media without clicking on ads, but by scrolling through their feeds. The amount of data collected through social media leads to incredible methods for marketing companies to target people they think would be interested in a product.

“Using behavioral data about audiences that social media companies have access to, it can be very effective for a brand to target users in specific demographics or attribute-specific groups or display content to them. already loyal audience to build a brand’s reputation or improve sales,” Clark said. “The range of content delivery tools available to advertisers continues to grow. Designed to keep users scrolling or returning to the app frequently, these platforms have an edge over branded websites that aren’t necessarily in the stream of daily media consumption.

The same types of nudge or sticky usage can often take years to perfect on a traditional website, and it may require a total rebuild to bring some of the changes that social media platforms allow with just a few clicks. Social media has instantly made it easy for a global brand or a small business to connect with the audience they want to interact with.

2. Social media platforms have become more sophisticated in their offerings

The ad serving content and features of each social media platform have evolved and changed a lot over the years. In the early days of social media with Myspace and Facebook, users mostly posted updates about their day or what they were up to.

Twitter started out as a platform where people posted short updates on what they were up to. These platforms have now become much more than that.

“The addition of live video, Stories and even e-commerce functionality on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat means brands can now sell products directly to consumers without ever having to visit the brand’s website. “Clark said. “Marketers now have the ability to deliver rich enough purchase, subscription, or in-place purchase experiences directly to specific audiences by demographic, interest, or even location. shopping that social media platforms now offer is in many ways a superior experience to most branded websites.

Beyond promoting and selling, brands are also connecting with users on social media to include them in the product development process, get feedback, and show appreciation. From a B2B perspective, social media platforms like LinkedIn have sophisticated functionality to promote and sell business products directly through a company profile, offering CRM-like functionality to improve the quality of prospect engagement. and more effectively move leads through the search and purchase cycle.

3. Promoting a website has become much more complex and expensive

As website development has become cheaper given the rise of template-based platforms such as Shopify and Squarespace, website promotion has become more expensive. Paid search is very competitive with increasing costs. Organic search is also highly competitive, and organic search results are increasingly being crowded out by paid listings as search engines look for ways to maximize monetization. Build it and they will come no longer the game.

With so much competition, it can be difficult for an average business to stand out from the crowd. Constantly investing in trending website content and capturing the attention of users (and search engines) can be expensive. It’s often easier to put more funding into a social media platform where the brand can recoup the costs of creating content with a much larger audience. Bring content to the consumer where they are, rather than trying to interrupt their social media flow and redirect attention to a website.

4. Brand engagement is unmatched on social media

The level of customer engagement you can achieve on social media is currently unmatched by any other platform or method.

“You can test offers and positioning directly with multiple audiences and get near real-time feedback,” Clark added. “This level of engagement is something that can take months to achieve on a website due to sub-2% click-through and conversion rates with many ad formats driving consumers to websites.”

Social media has allowed brands to connect with their audience in ways that have never been possible before, and it’s one of the main reasons why social media is quickly becoming the preferred method for businesses to reach out. their target audience. Many of today’s leading social platforms have a high audience mix for most consumer segments that advertisers seek to influence. The old method of interrupting and redirecting digital engagement has become very inefficient and costly.

As you can see, there are many good reasons why social media is rapidly replacing business websites. If you’re looking to connect with your target audience more effectively, distributing your content, buying and shopping experience on social media is a strategy worth pursuing. And according to Clark, companies can take a few simple steps to shift more of their marketing budgets to social media. Here’s what he recommends:

Look at your target audience and see where they spend the most time on social media. Evaluate your website’s current conversion rates and test social media lead generation or shopping ads to see how social media performs against your website. Consider a professional audit of your social media platforms to see how they can be improved. Develop an organized content strategy to keep your social profiles active. This includes regular updates, frequency of posts, re-posting of user-generated content, etc. Don’t try to do everything at once! Start with one or two social media platforms that make the most sense for your business and go from there.

By following these steps, you may be able to shift some of your website budget to your social media platforms without sacrificing your brand identity. Making your social media platforms a priority will lead to better engagement with your target audience and higher conversion into leads and sales.

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