It would be a mistake to assume that social media is on the way out. Apps like TikTok and even growing platforms like Reddit are stronger than ever. However, as corporations continue to engage with these platforms not only through their own profiles or advertising programs, we’ve discovered that many are returning to refining and designing their own websites as the main hub for their business.
There are many reasons as to why this is. Putting it frankly, social media isn’t quite the exciting and enlivening place it once was. Many children have grown up with these platforms as a standard element of their social lives and online activity. It’s not novel and it’s not exciting for a large portion of people, it’s just part of the fabric of our everyday lives.
But why are so many companies eschewing such platforms, or at least limiting their presence outside basic customer interactions? Let’s consider that, below:
Relatable, Quirky Online Brand Marketing Isn’t Quite As Successful
The novelty of “relatable” social media marketing has worn off for many consumers, no matter how much it was received positively to start. It was hilarious when Wendy’s decided to be “savage” on Twitter, or when RyanAir decided to be over the top and use Gen Z speak online (not to mention other brands like DuoLingo following the trend)
But now, brands that try too hard to curate a quirky, personable online persona can come across as inauthentic and most people are wise to it. It’s not quirky when there’s a marketing team of recent graduates trying to use the latest slang.
As social media has become even more in daily life, that style of marketing no longer feels as novel or engaging or even controversial. The “companies must always be suited and booted and proper” has long since sailed. Consumers are increasingly looking for more straightforward, informative content from the companies they interact with, given how any marketing they engage with is mostly to sell something. Of course that doesn’t mean you have to rob your content of all humour, but being more precise with it instead of relying on memes is important. Put simply, searching for the “viral moment,” which used to be a mainstay of social media, is no longer as important.
Platform Customer Support Implementation Can Silo Your Communications
When customer support inquiries and complaints are handled pretty much solely through social media channels, it can disconnect customer somewhat from a company’s main engagement areas. That’s simply because not all the customers who want to talk to you are on social media, or that particular platform.
The means the back-and-forth of public comments and direct messages feels siloed, making it harder for customers to get resolutions to their issues without signing up. If you want to frustrate a customer, that’s a great way to do it.
For that reason, unifying support resources on a company’s own website allows for easier outreach, be that with a call centre, live chat support, email ticketing measures and more. While startups or new brands might find social media messaging platforms to be a good way to run a business, as you expand, it’s important to be mindful of your options.
Controversial & AI Content Can Reflect Poorly On Brands
Now, this is of course subjective depending on your opinion of what content should be allowed on social media. But it’s hard to deny that the spread of misinformation, extremist views, and other objectionable content on social media can often reflect on brands poorly, especially if a targeted ad is displayed right next to something you would baln at.
Even if a company is not directly responsible for such content, its association with that can be a problem. We’ve seen this in the recent year with X, formerly Twitter. Since Elon Musk purchased the website, a more lax moderation policy has caused many advertisers, public figures and news organizations, most recently The Guardian (UK broadsheet newspaper) to pull out from the platform.
Now, perhaps the reach is worthwhile to your brand and you feel this reaction is somewhat overblown, and that’s entirely your right, But it;s just one more consideration that explains why many platforms are starting to pull further from social media if they can. Content cannot be curated by you, but on your own website, every pixel is determined by your own standards and approach.
Website Design & Integration Gives You Full Control
More on that last point. Owning your own web presence allows companies to fully customize the user experience, integrating features, content, and functionality in ways that are simply not possible on third-party social platforms, which limit your options to mostly what you post and what banners you place on your social media profile. For that reason, most social media profiles look pretty much the same. A well-structured profile for a startup can look exactly as professional as a Fortune 500 company, which may be great for you, but it also means you can fail to really sell the brand character and narrative you’re going for.
Better yet, working with a company that services the best website design can help you stand above your local competitors. If you invest well in the site, it will look pleasant, and welcoming, and have all the functionalities you need. From a well-tagged, indexed and SEO-primed content section to a neat online store to protected account management systems, it all counts. Better yet, you can design these measures to a practical shine. If you need to offer subscriptions that can be easily managed within your customer’s account portal, for instance, you can do that. On social media, all of this is just impossible.
You Can’t SEO Tailor A Social Media Account
It is certainly possible to manage a social media account so it’s more likely to be listed officially when someone searches for you. But in terms of custom content, posts, and organic traffic, it’s pretty hard to do this reliably.
Of course, your company’s own website provides far more options for optimizing organic visibility and discoverability, working in conjunction with website and search engine crawlers to get your content seen more capably.
In other words, you’ll stop focusing on SEO for a specific platform with algorithms tailored by the platform owners themselves, and instead you’ll gear to a more universal option for search engines used by people who even have no social media accounts.
Public Complaints & Outreach Is Entirely Visible
Public comments and outreach is of course a big benefit of social media, but not all the time. For instance, if you have a support profile on X, it will be inundated with public replies of you trying to manage complaints and issues with your service. Every single one is visible. That does help transparency, but it can also give the wrong impression, especially because people tend to exaggerate an issue if they’re annoyed with a service.
Now, some companies might decide that having this kind of public outreach is a helpful approach to take, and shows that no matter what, you make sure to reply to feedback gracefully. In some ways, this can help you balance even the worst complaints against you, as it shows you take them seriously and always worth to a respectful outcome.
But in the same way, directing customer inquiries and support through a company’s own channels allows more confidentiality and control over how those interactions are handled. It also means that the dirty laundry of just running your business (which is bound to come into mistakes now and then) isn’t blasted for everyone to see. It’s no wonder that many brands would prefer to handle these measures internally.
More People Are Dropping Off Social Media
While certain platforms like TikTok are growing, others are shrinking. Facebook used to dominate the marketplace, now it’s considered to be an outrage platform with AI content shoveled anywhere it can be.
Many people are cutting back on social media for different reasons, for instance some worry about privacy, others want to cut down on screen time, and plenty just feel burned out on it all. Younger generations, especially, are spending less time scrolling and are looking for more meaningful or private ways to connect online, given how it’s no longer novel for them as it was for older generations such as Millenials who took to social media like a duck to water.
With this shift, brands are starting to recognize that depending too much on social media for customer engagement is risky. While you might not delete your profiles, assuming that everyone is off particular platforms unless proven otherwise means you’ll generate a more complete marketing package.
Your Audience May Be Better Reached Elsewhere
When everyone is on social media, the messages you bring are no longer that exciting. You can only say the same thing several different ways before the promotion becomes rote. For that reason, many firms are now trying to become a touch more analog in their marketing, from focusing on physical distribution to even partnering with other brands or using tried and tested methods that no longer feel quite as tired.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily bridge the gap between eschewing social media and refining your website, provided you consider this approach a better norm for your brand.
