What to choose: website or Facebook page?

In their early days, websites justified their reason by having an online presence. However, the arrival of social networks in general and of Facebook in particular, has created confusion in this concept, so much so that any project aimed at an online presence makes the vast majority of promoters doubtful. Facebook page or professional website, which to choose?

Yes for Facebook

• Free: no need for a domain name and even less hosting fees to be paid regularly. Facebook allows you to open an account and create as many pages as you want for yourself, as a public figure, for one of your companies or brands.
• Audience just a click away: Because they’re likely to naturally follow you, Facebook lets you invite your friends to like your page. They are certainly numerous because Facebook has more than 2 billion active users each month worldwide. As a result, it is a huge audience that should regularly receive each of your updates.
• Sharing: Facebook allows your followers to share your pages with their acquaintances. Like word of mouth, this mechanism helps attract more people to you through your current contacts.
• SEO: social networks are particularly well rated by search engines thanks to the significant traffic they generate. The fact that you are present there is a guarantee of visibility during a possible search on Google, Bing or Yahoo.
• Interaction: Through your page, Facebook users who are subscribed to it can not only give their opinion on your business, but also comment on each of your posts. Also, it is possible for them to directly engage in a conversation with you as you would with one of your “inbox” friends.

Yes for a professional website

• Rigid branding layout with Facebook: it is not always easy to recognize you at first glance, so all the publications are alike. The only points of difference being the profile photo, and the cover photo in standard positions and formats. But what to do then with your graphic identity?
• Facebook regularly updates its EdgeRank, the algorithm involved in the organic ranking of page posts in users’ News Feed. And, over time, the reach of these pages decreases in favor of that of the profiles. Posts from friends or family therefore have more visibility than posts from Pages. In addition, this algorithm does not allow all the fans of your page to see your publications because Facebook is concerned about maintaining its user base, by serving it the information it deems of quality. This is the consequence of an overflow observed in the news feed due to the growing number of friends and pages followed.
• Not so free after all: now only a small percentage of your fans will see the content you post on your Page. Unless, of course, you pay to « boost » your posts and/or pages (sponsored posts);
• The user agreement: most proprietary platforms such as Facebook reserve the right to update their terms of use. Even if Facebook claims the perpetual free use of its platform, it imposes its mode of operation on you, which can change completely as we saw above with the drop in the reach of “reach”. You wouldn’t put your eggs in one basket. Who says egg here, says content: YOUR content.
• Facebook is the largest social network in the world, but not everyone is on Facebook. Indeed, Facebook invites each person who opens your page to log in or register on the platform if this is not yet the case. As a result, its scope is limited, unlike a website where each page is essentially accessible to everyone. Thus, there are people who have chosen not to be there and seek their information using other means, including the classic search engine, or other social networks. Should they be ignored?
• Websites can be unifiers of several technologies: indeed, through your website, it is possible to access not only your Facebook page but also any other account that you may have on another social network. In the same vein, it is possible that this site will become a real portal allowing your contacts to access all or part of the other resources that make up your information system: additional websites, third-party applications, messaging, etc.
• Custom domain name: With a website, you have a unique domain name. A judicious choice allows anyone who has chosen it or who has your business card to directly address your content online. In addition, it is a mark of professionalism that influences your image.
• Professional email addresses: through the domain name of your website, it is possible to add one or more professional email addresses for you and your employees. A professional email address favorably influences your credibility and that of your brand.

Yes but …

To understand the attitude of Facebook, one would have to try to imagine a priest who would collaborate with politicians in his church. At the risk of changing the view that his faithful have of him, or even disinteresting them, the prelate has no interest in giving up his hotel to them on a continuous basis in the face of sheep who are psychologically prepared to receive biblical teaching. Unless the political intervention is anchored to the missions of the Church in question. It is the same in the opposite direction because when we see politicians celebrating religious cults mixing various persuasions, it is mainly with the aim of palliating social deficiencies. So to say, you have to know how to put everything in its place with tact.

Facebook users have embraced the purpose of this network and go there in order to keep in touch with their friends. A Facebook page can therefore in no way replace a professional website but can complement it, in order to attract prospects following a well-developed “social” strategy. This is the case of Facebook, it is also the case of other social networks. To each his priorities, to each his specificities.