Facebook pages vs. having your own website

Sri Lanka is now seeing many new companies emerge on Facebook, be it in fashion, electronics or food. It is also worth noting that some of these companies do not have their own website.

Instead they are opting for a Facebook Page which now seems to be the cost effective option for all these providers.

Is it alright to have only a Facebook page and not a website for your business? There are benefits of using either of the approaches. Lets look at the pros and cons of both.

Pros and cons of having your own website

Imagine your business has a website. You will be entitled to some benefits such as:

• Control of content, structure, design and maintenance
• You can have your own name for the domain, or at least a variation
• Ability to create email addresses with domain names (eg: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) rather than general email domains (eg: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
• A good window to convey your branding – a website allows logos, colours, themes to be portrayed well
• Gives the opportunity to do market research free/at very low cost through web analytics
• Accessible by almost anyone anywhere in the world, at any time
• Ability to add any amount of section detailing any number of functionalities you wish
• You can introduce content in line with your brand
• Ability to link and monitor through free web analytics tools

The cons of having your own website;

• You need the ability to be technically sound to set it up
• You need to register the domain name, and host it with a hosting provider which can take up time and money
• Creation and maintenance can be costly, specially if done with an agency
• Updating requires technical skills even if the website is created on a CMS (Content Management System)
• Needs to have the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in place to reap full benefits

Pros and cons of having a Facebook Page

Companies who have a Facebook Pages receive many benefits;

• Less cost in building brand presence online
• Allows quick updates  on your products/services/news, in real time
• A much better medium than a website for two-way communication
• Creation and updating is much more affordable than for a website
• Access to customers through referrals and advertising platform on Facebook
• Ability to display interactive components through Facebook offers, and other add-ons

However, having a Facebook page may present you with certain limitations as well

• Your brand name might already been taken
• Higher threat to privacy, risk of spam and malware is higher in a FB page than a web page
• Having to constantly update your page, so that your posts won’t go unnoticed or showered by other posts
• The need for a Facebook account to create a company page
• Interactions with a Facebook page can only be done by other Facebook users

What ever you chose to do it is always important to keep in mind that Facebook is a Third part provider and even if you have an inhouse developer working on the Page, you will still have some of the following issues;

• Losing control of your page which can be at any time taken over by Facebook if violating any of their terms
• You cannot predict changes to Facebook pages as they update layouts and components
• A Facebook page can invite privacy issues such as hackers, and having public walls may invite undesirable spamming of your page
• Limits the amount of content you can share
• Potential clients may get confused over not having enough information about the company
• Making online payments would need integration with third party apps which you need technical support for

 Created: July 19th, 2013