by Jeremy Haney
A website is certainly a good thing to have, but it isn't completely necessary for every type of business. Some businesses might also be better served by putting it off for a while, since having a professional website made (and maintained) can be a significant expense.
Social media and business listing sites, when put together, replicate many of the core functions of a website. These include:
Making your contact and product information available
Putting you into local and targeted search results
Allowing you to communicate online with your customers
Letting customers place orders and make payments online
Giving you actionable demographic-based marketing information and access to targeted advertising
Listing sites should be your first target, since they're simpler and require much less ongoing upkeep than social media accounts.
Google Business Profile listings are free, and they're your entry point to being listed with Google's other services, like search results and in Google Maps.
The main thing you'll be doing with it is listing your contact information and physical location. This will help to get you into local search results for businesses of your type (ex: "donut shops in Sheboygan"), and also gives customers an outlet for reviews and questions. A lot of reviews with an overall positive balance also helps your placement in search results.
You can also use the "Posts" feature to create small status updates with a single image attached. This is the place to put any promotional content.
Bing Places For Business is Microsoft's answer to Google Business Profile. The process of listing (and the focus on contact information) is pretty much the same, but you'll be targeting Bing search results with this outlet. Though Bing isn't nearly as big as Google, Microsoft has a good share of the search market solely due to shipping Bing, Cortana and now Copilot as the default search options with Windows and their Edge web browser.
3) Yelp
Yelp is useful for all types of businesses, but particularly so for restaurants. The site was originally set up with a focus on food, and a lot of the category information is still specific to food service. You can also set up direct orders and reservations through Yelp Transaction Platform, keep online menus updated, take reservations and run all sorts of promotional offers.
Yelp is hardly exclusive to restaurants, however. All types of businesses list on it, and one of the big universal benefits is the ability to add as many high-quality pictures as you like to your listing without having to pay to host them.
Foursquare has announced plans to shut down its main app as of this writing, but will be keeping Swarm going. Speculation is that it will simply merge the features and content of the old app with Swarm (which still has tens of millions of users).
So what's the difference? Swarm focuses in even more on the "peer circle" social aspect of Foursquare, where activity on the app is centered on what is happening in people's personal networks. Due to the nature of their platform, Foursquare's users are the most social and share-happy on the internet.
The platform is also something like a mailing list; once someone checks in at your location, you gain the ability to send them informational and promotional updates. Another nice feature is the ability to create local favorite lists in other business categories, which helps to foster a sense of community and get some cross-promotion going.
There is one big social media site that every business should be on: Facebook. While it has taken some hits in terms of popularity and a perception that it's for "older people" in recent years, it nevertheless still has the highest count of active users of any social media platform and cuts across all types of demographics. It also offers many features that are helpful specifically to brick-and-mortar businesses targeting local customers.
You should be more selective with accounts on other social media sites, as every account you create represents an investment of either time (if you handle it yourself) or money (if you pay a social media manager to do it). You can't just slap them up and forget them like you can with most business listings. Social media accounts don't do much for you if they aren't updated regularly -- ideally at least three times a week.
LinkedIn is a good choice for many businesses, and it doesn't require as much in the way of regular updating as other social media platforms do. Keep in mind that the site is focused on B2B networking. Unless you're in a professional services or talent recruitment field, there will probably be little opportunity for marketing or customer acquisition there. It can be great for finding contractors, freelancers and new hires, however.
Instagram and Pinterest are two heavyweights worth considering, but only if you're a particular business type with a particular demographic focus. Both sites are heavily focused on images and videos, so if you're not posting those regularly, they probably aren't a good choice. Instagram's users also skew very young and hip/trendy, while Pinterest skews very heavily toward women under the age of 40.
YouTube and TikTok have heavy users counts, behind only Facebook at this point. But they are also centered entirely on video. So if you're not comfortable or experienced with making video, or you just can't think of any ideas for videos that support your business while providing value to the viewer, don't try to force these platforms even though they are popular.
After you get your business listings and social media presence squared away and get comfortable with a regular update plan, it's time to consider the next steps forward for your online presence.
For most, that will be a website of some sort. There are some free services out there that might be viable for a site with very basic needs (like Wix and Google Sites), but most businesses will probably need the services of a web designer along with paid professional hosting.
You might also consider having a mobile app made. This is something you will have to pay a coder for, but it does offer some advantages over a website such as better speed and user experience, easier data collection and the ability to send instant push notifications.