There are so many businesses that only trade through their Facebook or Instagram profiles, have large and loyal followers and earn a really decent living. I've been asked by several of them if it is worth them investing in a website when they are smashing their social media. A couple of years ago, my answer without fail was no you don't need a website, if what you are doing is working for you don't fix what isn't broken!
But (and didn't you just know that but was coming), I've also been contacted by several people recently who have literally overnight lost their businesses either due to a change in algorithm which means that their followers no longer see their posts or are not notified when they post or worse still several now have asked for advice because their FB or IG presence has been completely wiped out. These businesses never know why, there's often no warning, there's no way to appeal it properly and speak to a human (all appeals are dealt with via bots and so there's often no way of getting a proper answer). I've been asked to see if I can get to the root of it but I rarely can, sometimes it is because they've used a banned hashtag which is so easy to do - did you know for example all these hashtags are banned in 2022 (and this is just a small selection to make a point) - #besties #boho #humpday #hardworkpaysoff #hotweather #date #dating and even the humble #eggplant falls foul of the algorithms these days. You can see a full list here.
So my question back again is if you were to overnight get banned (and honestly it happens to people all the time I'm not scaremongering) how will you communicate with your audience and do you know who your top "fans" are?
If it would be game over if your business were to disappear off social overnight then you may not need a website per se but you should at the very least have an email list that your followers can subscribe to.
There are some "free" options (for a small number of subscribers usually) that allow you to build out a form and host it with them whereby you can collect email addresses. I use Flodesk which is $19 a month if you use this affiliate link for unlimited subscribers. They have forms, you can offer a freebie and email sequence through them etc. That is one of the cheapest ways of keeping in touch with your followers away from social media.
You may find it just as cost effective to have a website as a back-up, the solution is different for everyone.
If you'd like me to talk you through setting up your email list and how to both get subscribers and keep them engaged, how about we hop on a 121 "business bestie" call for 90 minutes and I give you all the tools and information you need to help you put your safety blanket in place? I call this my business bestie service because we grab a coffee and we work out together the best solution for you!
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