Why Social Media isn’t enough

If social media is the primary way you nurture an audience, there are a few things you need to know. Social media platforms, like Facebook, use a time based news feed, so photos that you post will be seen lower in your feed, as you post newer content. To be able to see older posts and content, your followers have to scroll for them or visually search for specific content or photos, and possibly search your albums. As you can imagine, this is frustrating, and they may never find that week-old post they were looking for. Not good. You don’t need to stop using social media altogether, because it’s still important for connecting. It’s just not the best way for promoting your work, skills, abilities or brand.

Owning your own space

When you buy your own piece of internet “real estate”, you now have your own dedicated space to present your work, share your story, and provide a place for interacting and connecting. You’re the one who gets to decide how to use that space. You’re no longer relying on a platform that you can’t control, and your current and new audience members will be able to find your new space if you continue to engage on social media and let them know your new address. Another reason why professionals need to focus on getting their own web presence! Owning your own domain name (“something.com”) is an important part of establishing your web presence. It helps build online credibility and a personal and professional reputation. If people can find you on the Web, they’ll be able to do business with you. Your domain name and a web platform are the first steps towards a stable, credible web presence. A well designed and professional looking platform translates into credibility for you. It provides a sense that you’re serious about what you do and that you’re serious enough to invest time and money into the thing that you’re passionate about. It doesn’t have to be expensive at all. There are many options. I’ll continue to write about them, and for now, here’s a handy downloadable, free guide.

To have your own dedicated web presence, you need three things:

1. your own your domain name (“xyz.com”) 2. a reliable hosting provider 3. content to share. When you have your own web presence, on your own platform, you can decide how to present your work and give yourself priceless opportunities, like being able to reach the larger global community, provide value, help others, and establish a following….all without buying social media ads or paying to “promote” posts. A harsh reality of owning your own web space is that people won’t find it overnight. It can take a long time to establish an optimal search engine ranking. One particular reason for this is that Google ranks websites and domains higher the longer they’ve been around. Your web space and brand will grow over time, and your traffic will increase organically. So, learning some basic SEO, or hiring some help, and creating a stable web presence on your own platform sooner rather than later, are always good ideas.

GREAT REASONS TO OWN YOUR WEB PRESENCE:

Your work

A website is a place of business. It’s where you communicate with people, grow a fan base, and sell or promote products and services. Your own web space, in the form of a dynamic, visually engaging, content-rich website, has the power to create a web presence that: • represents YOU: your personality, work, voice, brand, and values. • gives you the power to connect and influence. • puts you out there as an expert and an authority in your area of expertise. • sets you apart from the hundreds of others who solely use social media. Making yourself available to the world like this can lead to unbelievable personal and professional growth. A noteworthy point to make here is that your web space will be accessible by all kinds of devices; phones, tablets and laptops, just to name a few. You site will truly be available to anyone, anywhere, who has a device that can assess the Web.

Content Marketing

Creatives create because we enjoy it. “Creating” is part of who we are. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone appreciated our creations enough to pay us money for them? It happens all the time, with content marketing. Content marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on creating, publishing and distributing subject matter to a specific audience. When people go online to research products or services that you provide, you need to have your own web presence on your own web space, if you want them to find you and learn about what you do and provide. Having your own web platform also means that you can find out what your audience is looking for, and then publish content that’s relevant for them. When you publish content that your audience wants, and make it available on your site, they will come. You can use social media to spread the word. Content marketing draws visitors to your web space and gives them an opportunity to find out who you are and what you do. It’s a type of “inbound” marketing, and it’s the opposite of “pushing” ads out to people. Inbound marketing is very cost effective: online marketing researcher, Hubspot, found that inbound marketing-leads cost 61% less than outbound leads do.

Using Analytics

Using analytics tools (like Google Analytics) allows you to learn about your visitors and how they interact with your site. Google Analytics is free, and easy to set-up. Some things you’ll learn about your visitors are: • whether they accessed your site by mobile, laptop, or tablet • the pages they visit on your site • where they are geographically located when they come to your site • how long they look at your content • whether they’re a first time or repeat visitor • If they’ve read more than one page on the site • whether they’ve made a purchase (if you provide that ability) All of this information is useful when you’re planning a marketing strategy.

Sales

A web platform can be the place where you sell your work or products, and the great thing is that sales can happen 24/7. You can test and experiment with products and pricing, and by introducing new products or services to see how they’re received.

Your voice

When you own your web space, you’re no longer limited by geographic location. Your place of business is anywhere in the world people can find your web presence. Owning your web presence allows you to share your values, thoughts and ideas with the world. Blogging gives you a forum to create thoughtful and valuable content and a way to share your story and journey. These give you a voice, and the capacity to influence.

Your reach

There are nearly 4 billion Google searches every day. At any time, a potential new customer or fan could discover you! Owning your web platform means that your content is always available, all over the world, and allows people from anywhere and everywhere to find you and discover what you’re about.

Your credibility

Having your own web platform helps to build your credibility and reputation as a professional. People expect to be able to find a dedicated web-space for any well-known Creator: artist, author, designer, photographer, producer, musician etc. If someone looks for you on the web and can’t find you, it could send the wrong message. When your followers can find you online, it tells them you are serious about what you do. Your credibility and reputation grow as your web space gets more visitors. Visitors may get to your site directly from other sites that share your audience and choose to link back to your web space. This is called “back-linking”, and it’s a valuable practice. It’s like getting massive approval or a meaningful positive reference from these other places that have a common connection to your audience. You can grow your credibility by engaging on social media and with relevant “event” websites, bloggers, galleries and any others who share your audience. Share links to your content. Chime in. Provide value. They may love it that you provide value to their audience and want to link back to your website. Questions? Contact me: [email protected] or My Contact Page Other articles you might like: -6 Tips to Make Your Blog Post SEO Friendly -Using images: Tips to improve your SEO rankings -Why you should have a customer thank-you page

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection. I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place. I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts. I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves. ‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online. Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.

When you contract with Image and Aspect, you always get your source files at the end of the project. You own them. Just sayin’.

Here are some pointers to help you learn the difference between renting and owning your site.

Renting

When you use a “hosted platform” package-solution, (Do-It-Yourself) it’s considered to be “Software as a Service” (SaaS) and you are renting your website from them. It’s usually a monthly or annual subscription and it has a lower up-front investment cost. Examples: Wix and Shopify.

Owning

Owning requires a custom solution, and there’s a higher up-front investment for this dedicated development. Owning allows for customization and integration with 3rd party services, provides greater flexibility plus there’s room for expansion. There is also less of a chance that you’ll pay for services that you’re not using. Basically you own your piece of web real estate and you can do what you want with it. Let’s think “keeping it within legal parameters .”

What Renters Can Expect

• Easy for Do-It-Yourselfers.
• Lower cost of entry.
• Various paid subscription levels (free, starter, pro, etc.)
• Add-on modules, plugins or extensions purchased from a dedicated “marketplace”.
• One combined service for hosting, payment processing, and website administration.
• Maintained infrastructure & automatic security updates.
• New features introduced on a regular basis.
• Technical support in articles, tutorials, videos.
• A wide selection of design templates (some are free).

The Downside of Renting

• No equity! When your subscription ends, the time, money and effort you put into building the website are lost.
• Incremental costs add up. With every add-on, a new cost emerges that is often higher than the original subscription fee. There will be a monthly fee for that one item for the rest of the duration of the website.
• Possibly little flexibility on the required services for payment processing, hosting, data warehousing.
• Limited customization for design.
• If you leave the platform, all the investment in design and development is lost. You can’t take it with you when you move to another hosting provider/webserver. You have to start over.

What Owners Can Expect

• Customization tailored to specific business requirements.
• Scalable for future growth.
• Integration with external services.
• Open architecture allows for development, the code is portable and not tied to an organization.
• Freedom of choice for your web hosting, payment processing, and website administration.
• Important as sales volume increases and competitive processing and transaction fees become critical.
• Accommodates creative innovations as opposed to waiting for the hosted platform to release updates or fixes.

The Downside of Owning

• A higher cost of entry.
• Must be actively maintained – if the site is not maintained through a web developer, (or someone who knows how to code or how to develop with WordPress) there will be no innovation, no new features, no security patching. Eventually, a website will become obsolete as code and formats change over time.
• Time constraints – building a custom site requires a collaborative effort and considerable thought and engagement from the site owner.

As with everything, there are costs either way. Financial costs, opportunity costs, perceived value costs. The best way to decide on whether to rent or own your website is to look at your long term business goals.

When you’re business takes off and you’re renting your site, will you want or be able to take the time to stay current on how to use the platform? Will you be able to set aside time to update the content, or be on the phone with technical support or Billing? Do you feel comfortable making scheduled full-backups and storing them off-site where they’ll be secure but still easy to find when you need them? Will you feel comfortable restoring your site from a backup if you make a mistake on the site and don’t know how to fix it? Will you have the time and the inclination to research the latest Google SEO changes or the newest security threats? Will you feel comfortable making these changes? Will you be able to quickly and easily find your log-in information, your API keys, and/or your font or photo licenses if a component of your site stops working? Will you keep up with all expiration dates for your domain name, SSL certificates, sub-domains, etc, so nothing accidentally expires? If something expires would you know what to do or who to contact? Do you feel comfortable troubleshooting and fixing text formatting, images, or email issues? If you can do these things, and more importantly you’d ENJOY doing them, well that’s just swell! 🙂

But do yourself a favor and hire a professional. You’re not a web developer already! (unless you are) LOL!

If you choose the DIY route and you get in over your head, you can always call me. I promise not to say I told you so. 🙂

Other articles you might like:

–Things to consider before building your website

–6 Ways to Use Storytelling in Your Blog Posts

–Balancing Consumer Personalization with GDPR Regulation

Questions?

[email protected]

My Contact Page

About the author

I developed Image and Aspect because I believe that professionals need to have an impactful web presence. One that showcases their unique talents, skills, and abilities as well as their values and style. A presence that focuses on social engagement and connection.

I’m passionate about what I do; I like helping fellow humans, I like having all kinds of social connection with others, and I want to give back, to make the world a better place.

I do much of the designing and coding myself, and I also have a wonderful network of professionals that may contribute as well; photographers, copywriters, branding experts.

I love designing and coding beautiful, elegant and responsive web creations. I ALSO teach and help others who want to learn how to do it themselves.

‘Tips and Snips’ is my blog, and it’s full of information and inspiration to help transform any online persona from “meh” to AMAZING! Sign-up HERE to get blog posts right to your in-box every Friday! I write about Design, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Branding, Vlogging, Color Theory, HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, WordPress, Social Media…anything you’d want to know to get yourself noticed online.

Visit Image and Aspect to learn more about your web presence options

Diane M. Metcalf, M.S.