If you want to attract potential customers, generate thousands of visits every day and close more sales, web pages are the holy grail for you.
Alternatively, if you want to build a community, converse with your audience and aim for virality, social media may be the most appropriate option.
What is the difference between a website and a social network?
A website is your property, while your account on a social network belongs to the creator of the platform.
A web page is a piece of land that you buy on the Internet.
An account in a social network is a space that you rent and that may cease to be yours from one day to the next.
A web page will help you to be found through search engines (Google). A social network will be very useful to connect with people who share your same interests and then spread your message.
In the digital world, to promote the products or services of your company, you have two great options:
1.- Build a website.
2.- Open an account in a social network.
What should you invest your time and money in?
To tell the truth, the perfect strategy includes both the website and the social media.
However, below we will compare both marketing and advertising tools so that you can make the best possible decision, in case you can only choose one of the two.
In this article, we will compare these two alternatives according to 5 variables:
1) Methodology: How do they work? What is its essence? What are they based on?
Website: Attract visitors.
Social networks: Build community.
2) Ability to measure results: How accurately can you evaluate the performance of each one?
Website: You can find out how the user found you, where they came from, what they did on your site and much more.
Social networks: The platforms give you some statistics for free, and others for a fee.
3) Speed: How fast can you get new customers?
Website: If you target the right words and there is no competition on those particular terms, you will be able to attract qualified prospects in a matter of days through Google.
Social networks: Building a community takes time. Even if you go viral.
4) Return on investment and conversion percentage: What is the ROI with one and the other? How many out of 100 people will pay attention to what you are offering?
Website: You can generate a lot of income with few visits.
Social networks: You can have millions of followers and not generate any sales.
5) Durability: How long can you enjoy the good results of your campaigns?
Website: The content you upload online can always be found.
Social networks: The posts you publish will be lost after a couple of days.
Difference between web page and website
A website is made up of many pages. In other words, a web page is just one of the many sections that a site can have.
However, for practical reasons, in this article we will use both terms synonymously.
How do social networks work? Methodology: Build community
The essence of social media is to group people around a topic of shared interest.
The same user may be attracted to Ronaldo, the United States Democratic Party and Bitcoin.
For each of those topics, that individual will look for the best accounts to follow to: stay informed, make a decision, or simply have fun.
On the other side of the pavement are content producers (business, media, and personal brands).
The task of these is to know your audience, study and intuit what can satisfy that group of people and create posts accordingly.
In practice, we can all play the role of producers or receivers of content. One day we have to create and the next day to consume.
The important thing, if you are a business owner and you want your organization to have a space on these platforms, is that you define your message and your objectives well: what you want to achieve with your participation in the various networks.
Creating a community around one or more topics in particular, as we will see later, takes time. Building the confidence needed to close a sale takes even longer.
What is a web page? Methodology: Attract visitors
A website is like the office or store that companies have on the Internet.
Its role is to attract a specific target, just when that target wants to know something about what the company in question sells.
If you want to increase the sales of your business and for this you decide to create a site, your goal will not be so much to create a community but to get people who are interested in your product or service to land on one of your pages.
The great advantage of sites is that their content is indexed (archived) in Google.
Therefore, when someone is looking for something related to what you do, you can appear in front at the right time.
Attract a specific target just when you want to know is a unique advantage that divided marketing into a before and an after.
Measuring results in social networks
If you have an ordinary account, you can know how many likes your tweet received, how many comments your post has on Instagram or how many times your post has been shared on Facebook.
In a business account, which are also free, you will be able to know some more things, such as how many people your message reached, how old your audience is, among other information.
If you run paid campaigns, you will have even more numbers on hand.
Measure results on web page
With your website you will find out how they found you, where your users come from and what they did within your pages.
How to know visits and web traffic?
With applications such as Search Console, Google Analytics and HubSpot, you will have the opportunity not only to know how many visits you have received, but you will also know with what words they found you, how much time users spend on your website and on which specific pages they have been the most. minutes.
In addition, you will be able to determine what was the journey that a potential client took before contacting you.
Did they check your pricing page? Have you read several articles and are you already informed about your services?
These notes will be very useful for your sales team and then you will define which content is generating the most transactions for you.
The above are questions that with social networks you will not be able to answer.
How long do the results take in social networks? Building a community takes time, even if you go viral
Let’s face it – you don’t build a base of thousands of fans overnight.
You can buy followers and have 100k in the followers’ box, but doing that guarantees that:
1.- You will not really have a connection with your audience.
2.- Despite having 100,000 followers, your posts will not even reach 100 likes.
3.- You will not have built trust, the key factor to close any transaction.
You can run large campaigns and create a significant base of prospects in 3-4 months, but remember: transmitting security depends on other types of aspects.
Only time and perseverance will allow you to be a recognized voice in the market.
How long does it take for an SEO strategy (to position your website) to give results? You can attract qualified prospects in a matter of days
Organically ranking on the first page of Google can take, on average, between 2 and 6 months.
And being in the top positions of the search engine brings with it a great advantage: everyone trusts what appears there.
If your website is on the first page it usually means that it has passed quality tests and therefore Google approves that content.
What does all this mean?
That, unlike social networks, on the web you don’t need to build a fan base, but rather attack an existing demand.
That is, you can know how many people are looking for something related to the product and service that you sell.
Consequently, you will be able to develop the content that meets that need, and then close a sale.
If you discover that 100,000 people a month search for “Coat for my pet”, you can write a text with that title and then, through a call to action, offer the person that article of clothing for their dog or cat.
Therefore, you could get a sale in a matter of days.
Generate leads with social networks: you can have millions of followers and not generate any sales
In social networks, the engagement rate is usually very low. Accounts with millions of followers receive 10,000 likes.
Sale through social networks
There are cases of influencers who could not sell even a shirt.
Also, to build a community you need to constantly post content. Post after post. Day after day. Which requires a lot of work (time and money).
In addition to this, keep in mind that followers do not equal sales.
People do not go to social networks to buy, but to kill time, get informed and have fun.
People don’t expect to see ads that sell something.
Best social networks to sell
According to Rand Fishkin, the interaction on Instagram is 1.73% per post.
This means that only 2 out of 100 people interact with the publication that appears in front of them.
On the other hand, according to Shopify, the conversion rate on Instagram is 1.08%.
Which means that only 1 in 100 users buy after clicking on an ad.
Price:
You can advertise on Instagram from $1 a day.
Hootsuite notes that at IG, you can pay by the number of interactions or by the number of impressions.
The same company notes that the average cost per click on an Instagram campaign for 2020 was $0.72.
Rand Fishkin said that Facebook engagement is 0.09% per post. Only 1 in 1,000 people interacts with the publication that appears in front of them.
Price:
WordStream did a study and determined that the average cost per click on Facebook, taking into account all industries, is $1.72. You will have to pay almost two dollars each time someone clicks on your ad.
According to Fishkin himself, the interaction on Twitter is 0.048% per post.
Only 1 in 2,000 people interact with the publication that appears in front of them.
On the other hand, according to Shopify, the conversion rate on Twitter is 0.77%
Less than 1 person in 100 bought the advertised product or service after clicking on an advertisement.
Price:
As the platform’s website indicates:
Twitter Ads campaigns can be tailored to your budget, whether you are a small business or a large brand. There is no mandatory minimum investment for Twitter Ads and you always have absolute control over how much you want to invest in your campaigns.
As in the other social networks, the price will depend on an auction scheme.
Generate leads with website: you can generate a lot of income with less effort
If your company has a portal, you can receive thousands of readers every day, without having to constantly publish articles.
Plus, you’ll attract prospects who are ready to buy.
Google already gives you the confidence factor: if you start first, it means that you are good. Therefore, selling will be easier.
Another advantage is the following:
Unlike social networks, to generate thousands of visits you do not need to be writing all the time.
You do not require the constant publication of content. If you write short pieces, you can sit down and see how they work for you.
Remember two things:
- The contents do not get sick or ask for a vacation. They will be your salespeople at all times and will be ready to appear when someone does a search related to your products or your services.
- Unlike social networks, people can enter Google to buy. And not only that, but there are searches that have a high purchase intention so if you appear first in these types of queries, you will be very close to closing sales.
How long does a social media campaign last? The posts you publish will be lost in a couple of days
A good post has a shelf life of 2-3 days, at the most.
If it goes viral, people will share it everywhere and whoever posted it will enjoy their minutes of fame.
The problem is that when that wave passes, that post will be lost in oblivion.
In addition to this, in social networks it is difficult to find old content, because its internal search engines do not have the same efficiency as Google.
How long does a web positioning campaign last? The content you upload online can always be found
A good article lasts forever.
If you successfully cover a topic, Google will put you first for a long time.
So, every time someone looks for something related to that text, there you will appear to offer the answer.
A single piece of content can work for you for months or years.
At Google, posts are not lost in oblivion, but rather gain strength over time.
Comparison chart between social networks and website
| Variable | Social networks | Web page |
| Methodology | Build community | Attract visitors |
| Ability to measure results | Good (especially if you pay) | Excellent (detailed metrics) |
| Speed | Slow (if you don’t use advertising) | Quick (if you aim for the right words) |
| Return on investment | Low | High |
| Perdurability | Days | Years |
Websites vs social networks: Conclusion
A web page will serve you to produce and store relevant information for your clients or prospects. It is a house on the Internet that will constantly attract guests.
Social networks will help you connect with people interested in what you do. As Gary Vaynerchuk says, they are a word-of-mouth spice, but on steroids.
To find out which platform has the most value, let’s compare the following scenario.
If you could choose between these two options, what would you choose?:
a) 100,000 followers on a social network.
b) Appear on the first page of Google when a potential client searches for something related to your business.
Example
Let’s say you started a watch business and, after doing a keyword study, discovered that the term “stylish watches” is searched 200,000 times every month.
What if you managed to rank first in Google for that term?
You would attract those 200,000 people, wouldn’t you?
Now, let’s remember the phrase of Cyrus Shepard:
“Contrary to traditional marketing, where you push/interrupt the user with a message, SEO allows you to deliver exactly the content that the user is looking for, exactly at the same time they are looking for it.”
So, you would be walking in front of people who want a watch like the one you sell, just when they are looking for a watch like the one you sell.
Social networks, despite being an extraordinary tool, do not allow us to do this.
We can have many followers in our social network, but three things happen:
1.- The engagement rate is usually very low. Accounts with millions of followers receive few interactions.
2.- People don’t go online to buy something. Log in to see what your friends or favorite artists are up to.
So, you can have your watch account and publish fine photos, but that will not bring you closer to the sale because your entire fan base, when they enter IG, will not be aware of whether or not to buy the watch.
On the other hand, if one of those people were to consult Google about watches, it would mean that he is waiting to acquire a watch and that is when you could appear in front of him.
Remember: when people go to Google it means they are looking for something. When those same people are on social media, they may just be killing time.
That is the big difference.
3.- Networks can be invaluable tools for inbound marketing (if you share valuable content), but their content is not indexable.
What does this mean?
That you write it today is very difficult to be found by a person who uses Instagram in one or two months.
It is not registered in a database as it happens with search engines, which are like libraries.
In Google the contents will work for you at all times and at all times. They do not get sick, they do not ask for days off, they do not have unforeseen events and they do not change their mood.
Basically, they are public relations experts prepared 24/7 to serve a potential client in the best way possible.
Now, thanks to the content and videos you produce, you no longer have to repeat the same thing over and over again. The content will work for you.
If you dedicate yourself to being an expert in your field and transform that knowledge into content, you will dominate Google, and you will be the main reference within your market.
