Social Platforms – The Hotel Lobby of Digital Channels. Why you need an optimized website
Social platforms are like hotel lobbies. You can meet folks there, have interesting conversations, and wave to people you know who may be passing through. But that real estate isn’t yours. You’re limited as to what you can accomplish there. You must follow the ‘hotel’s policy’.
So what do you do? Invite your guests to your castle of many rooms. That’s your space. Invite them to come, enter as many rooms as they like, explore the property, get intimate with you, and ask them to come again. Next time they may go to other rooms, or maybe stay longer in the ones they’ve seen before. That way you can figure out what they like on your property, and what interest them as you get to know them personally.
This is the world of digital marketing channels. The hotel lobby is your social media platform and the castle? That’s your website. Never forget that in social media platforms your competition is also there doing similar things to you. But there is something else that you should never forget. If you engage well with your customers and prospects, and grow your following, social media platforms will use all that data to help you target better. Problem is they also make that information available to your competitors so that they can target better. Those platforms make money by using your content and engagement to sell advertising. That’s how they make money. Your only digital competitive advantage is your website. Make sure that it’s well designed, optimized for conversion at each stage of the buyer’s journey, then drive prospects and customers there.
