Over the last few years, we've seen our fellow business owners invest obscene amounts of money into growing their Social Media following. Recently, we've watched in horror as our friends and colleagues have had that following held for ransom behind "boosted posts" and the like.
"The medium is the message"
Marshall McLuhan - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
Your website is your chance to control not only the message, but also the medium that message is delivered through. If your site is prominently displaying links to your social media, you're voluntarily giving up that control to a third party that is actively hostile to your message.
A Sea of Digital Noise
Don't get us wrong, social media was great. Operative word: "was."
Let's imagine Tim. Tim has just navigated to your website and he sees a little Facebook icon in the header. So he clicks it.
But what happens when Tim clicks that link to Facebook? He leaves your site for Facebook and, then what?
Best case scenario: they become a follower and they never organically see your posts... the attention Tim once gave you by visiting your site gets lost in a sea of digital noise.
Think about it: no matter how large your social media following is, it never feels like enough of them are seeing your posts, does it?
That’s because, unless you’re paying the platform to “boost” your posts, they are only seen by a small fraction of your “following.”
That’s why we now recommend against providing links to your social media accounts in the header or the footer of your pages. We believe it actively devalues your site, your messaging, and your business!
In their stead, you can provide links to external services that provide actionable, monetizable content (and don't forget to use the target="_blank" attribute on your <a> tags, too!)
And if you really want to include links to your Social Media, add them to your Contact page.
An Alternative To Social Media
We recommend doubling down on your website and embracing the POSSE approach: "Post (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere."
Instead of posting to Facebook, write a post on your site and then share a link to it on your socials.
This leaves you in control of not just what your company says, but also how it's said... which is (arguably) more important.
Here at Heavy Element, our modern and robust tooling helps accommodate the POSSE approach. We've taken special care to ensure that the sites we build push the web forward with collaborative technologies and ethical social components!
We also offer coaching for growing the regular viewership of your posts. We’ve seen greater retention, audience growth, and more sales when embracing this method.
This is especially important if you're an e-commerce business or you have customers you regularly communicate with. Posting to your site allows for richly formatted posts, links that are displayed how you want them shown, plus the flexibility to add custom markup, gather invaluable analytics, engage in remarketing, and leave room for experimentation!
Instead of putting a budget towards social media, we recommend spending half that amount on building an email newsletter—which is far more effective—and building the audience on your website.
