By Judith Lee

As usual, I fielded a good question at my latest SCORE presentation (shout out to Tredyffrin Public Library):

Q. Do I need both a business website and a Facebook page? They seem to serve the same purpose.

A. Yes, you do need both a branded website and a branded Facebook page. Although they are similar in purpose, they are not the same. And often, one supports the other in your marketing program.

Think of your branded website as the modern-day storefront. It will welcome your customers and prospects, inform them about your brand, and store your inventory. If you are a services company, the inventory will be blogs, videos, articles, white papers – any type of content that displays your expertise. If you sell physical products, there should be photos, videos and descriptions of your products, as well as an e-commerce feature to enable direct purchases.

Websites are essential to businesses. Research shows that 75% of consumers trust information on branded websites, whereas only 14% of consumers trust advertising on any medium.

Your branded Facebook page (Facebook calls it a “fan page”) connects with your customer and prospect in a different way. It humanizes your brand by showing the faces behind the logo, and should be engaging them in some way with information they value, special offers, event announcements and “insider” news.

The Facebook page is agile; you should be posting daily or as often as possible. If you put up a new blog, video or other item on your website, you will announce this on the Facebook page and send the user to your website.

Facebook is essential to the business that sells directly to the consumer because that’s where so many people “hang out” in their free time. Facebook is useful to the business that sells to other businesses just because it is huge, and you will connect with your customer’s team while they are relaxing.

I will note some very recent intelligence that indicates consumer engagement on Facebook is declining. In a 3-month period in 2015, only 37% of Facebook users had posted to Facebook, as compared to 60% in the same period in 2014. But they still are looking at Facebook: On August 24, 2015, Facebook reported that a billion people on the planet had looked at their Facebook page that day.

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Judith Lee is a marketing and communications professional who focuses on social media and email marketing based in Atglen. She is a SCORE Volunteer and the Chair-Elect of the Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce. She can be reached at 610-368-2058 or via email at judithlee@epix.net.
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Top photo credit: Facebook page via photopin (license)