To Make Social Media Work, Your Website Cannot Suck

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times; social media is a marathon, not a sprint. However, pursuing social media without a good website is like training for the Boston Marathon wearing flip flops. You may be able to run for a little while, but soon enough, everything is going to fall apart. If you want social media to work for you, your website cannot suck.

You read that correctly… your website needs to be solid for social media to work for you. A lot of clients want to use social media to drive traffic to their website, but if their website is sub-par, it’s akin to driving across a drawbridge when it’s raised. You’re not going to get very far.

Recently, I was perusing a website for a company I was looking to retain to do work on my home. I discovered a hot mess. They used only stock images on their site, including photos of services they didn’t even offer. They had a blog button but no blog and their social media buttons that were dead links. The ‘About Us’ page was nearly blank. The only part of their page that worked was their contact information, which I had already decided not to use.

Seventy percent of consumers do research online before deciding to engage with a company. A website devoid of relevant content, a personal touch, or even basic information might as well not even be a part of cyberspace. We can do a lot to help your business, as social media managers, but we can’t work miracles.

As part of our prospect vetting process, we review their current online presence, especially the website. We see two patterns emerge — those who understand that their website needs improved and make the strides to fix it and those who just don’t care. You can probably imagine which prospect we want to engage with.

Before we fully understood our core values, we acquired clients who would promise to make changes to their lackluster sites. Months would go by with no change. Then, they wondered why social media ‘wasn’t working’ for them. We realize, now, that a client must put in the work before we get started.

Bottom line: if you want social media to work for you, your website presence must reflect the results you want to achieve. John Webster, internet marketing consult and #Strella website partner, says: “You are wasting money if you do not have a good site. It’s like bringing your date home, but having her realize you live with your Mom.” If you need help, let us know.

Like I said, we can do a great deal to help you build your business, but we can’t turn a Ring Pop into the Hope Diamond.

This post was originally seen on http://strellasocialmedia.com